- Summary
- Eighty years ago the largest genocide ever occurred in Nazi Europe. This began with the mass extermination of patients with neurologic and psychiatric disorders that Hitler's regime considered "useless eaters". The neuropsychiatric profession was systematically "cleansed" beginning in 1933, but racism and eugenics had infiltrated the specialty long before that. With the installation of Nazi-principled neuroscientists, mass forced sterilization was enacted, which transitioned to patient murder by the start of World War II. But the murder of roughly 275,000 patients was not enough. The patients' brains were stored and used in scientific publications both during and long after the war. Also, patients themselves were used for unethical experiments. Relatively few neuroscientists resisted the Nazis, with some success in the occupied countries. Most neuroscientists involved in unethical actions continued their careers unscathed after the war. Few answered for their actions, and few repented. The legacy of such a depraved era in the history of neuroscience and medical ethics is that codes now exist to protect patients and research subjects. But this protection is possibly subject to political extremes and individual neuroscientists can only protect patients and colleagues if they understand the dangers of a utilitarian, unethical, and uncompassionate mindset. 'Brain Science under the Swastika' is the only comprehensive and scholarly published work regarding the ethical and professional abuses of neuroscientists during the Nazi era. The author has crafted a scathing tour de force exploring the extremes of ethical abuse, but also ways that this can be resisted and hopefully prevented by future generations of neuroscientists and physicians.
- Format
- Book
- Author/Creator
- Zeidman, Lawrence A., author.
- Published
- Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020
- Locale
- Germany
Europe
- Edition
- First edition
- Contents
-
1. Introduction: "The secret to reconciliation is remembering?' Historiography, challenges, and relevance of neuroscience in the Nazi era to modern neuroscientists
2. The origins of Nazi persecution and victimization of neuroscientists in Germany, Austria, and Poland
3. "Three generations of imbeciles are enough": Neuroscientists help advance scientific racism and adopt the theories of eugenics and racial hygiene
4. Setting the stage for mass murder and human experimentation: The Nazification of German neurology
5. Gleichschaltung and "de-Jewification" in German university neurology departments
6. Neuroscience becomes "Aryanized" at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes in Germany
7. Austrian and Czech neuroscience becomes "coordinated" under National Socialism
8. Forced sterilization under the Nazis: Preventing people with neuropsychiatric disorders from polluting the German gene pool
9. Hitler wages war on Europe, and on neuropsychiatric patients: Neuroscientists introduce "euthanasia;' the ultimate negative eugenic measure
10. "Beautiful mental defectives" and "lovely idiots": Neuroscientists collaborate with mass murder and collect thousands of brains
11. Just "rabbits": Unethical neuroscientific experimentation on euthanasia victims
12. "Protesting against an avalanche": Resistance by neuroscientists inside and outside Germany-the ordinariness of goodness over the banality of evil
13. "Washing the black sheep white again": Was German neuroscience rehabilitated after the collapse of the Third Reich?
14. Epilogue: Neuroscience in the Nazi era meets the modern age-ongoing legacies and controversies.
- Notes
-
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
1. Introduction: "The secret to reconciliation is remembering?' Historiography, challenges, and relevance of neuroscience in the Nazi era to modern neuroscientists -- 2. The origins of Nazi persecution and victimization of neuroscientists in Germany, Austria, and Poland -- 3. "Three generations of imbeciles are enough": Neuroscientists help advance scientific racism and adopt the theories of eugenics and racial hygiene -- 4. Setting the stage for mass murder and human experimentation: The Nazification of German neurology -- 5. Gleichschaltung and "de-Jewification" in German university neurology departments -- 6. Neuroscience becomes "Aryanized" at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes in Germany -- 7. Austrian and Czech neuroscience becomes "coordinated" under National Socialism -- 8. Forced sterilization under the Nazis: Preventing people with neuropsychiatric disorders from polluting the German gene pool -- 9. Hitler wages war on Europe, and on neuropsychiatric patients: Neuroscientists introduce "euthanasia;' the ultimate negative eugenic measure -- 10. "Beautiful mental defectives" and "lovely idiots": Neuroscientists collaborate with mass murder and collect thousands of brains -- 11. Just "rabbits": Unethical neuroscientific experimentation on euthanasia victims -- 12. "Protesting against an avalanche": Resistance by neuroscientists inside and outside Germany-the ordinariness of goodness over the banality of evil -- 13. "Washing the black sheep white again": Was German neuroscience rehabilitated after the collapse of the Third Reich? -- 14. Epilogue: Neuroscience in the Nazi era meets the modern age-ongoing legacies and controversies.
