Cover of The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

by Robert Jay Lifton · 1986

+ Want to read

Nazi doctors did more than conduct bizarre experiments on concentration-camp inmates; they supervised the entire process of medical mass murder, from selecting those who were to be exterminated to disposing of corpses. Lifton (The Broken Connection; The Life of the Self shows that this medically supervised killing was done in the name of "healing," as part of a racist program to cleanse the Aryan body politic.

Read more

After the German eugenics campaign of the 1920s for forced sterilization of the "unfit," it was but one step to "euthanasia," which in the Nazi context meant systematic murder of Jews. Building on interviews with former Nazi physicians and their prisoners, Lifton presents a disturbing portrait of careerists who killed to overcome feelings of powerlessness.

He includes a chapter on Josef Mengele and one on Eduard Wirths, the "kind, decent" doctor (as some inmates described him) who set up the Auschwitz death machinery. Lifton also psychoanalyzes the German people, scarred by the devastation of World War I and mystically seeking regeneration. This profound study ranks with the most insightful books on the Holocaust.

Subject
historyhistoryMore like thisLess of thispsychologypsychologyMore like thisLess of thissciencescienceMore like thisLess of thistrue crimetrue crimeMore like thisLess of thishealthhealthMore like thisLess of this
Genre
historical fictionhistorical fictionMore like thisLess of thisHolocaustHolocaustMore like thisLess of thisWorld War IIWorld War IIMore like thisLess of thiswar and militarywar and militaryMore like thisLess of thiscrimecrimeMore like thisLess of this
Themes
medicalmedicalMore like thisLess of thishistoryhistoryMore like thisLess of thisJewishJewishMore like thisLess of thissocial justicesocial justiceMore like thisLess of thismental healthmental healthMore like thisLess of this
Setting
HolocaustHolocaustMore like thisLess of thisWorld War IIWorld War IIMore like thisLess of this20th century20th centuryMore like thisLess of thisGermanyGermanyMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
long · 561 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare pricesHardcover

Liked The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience Gitta Sereny · 1974 Shares Holocaust, hist, history
  2. Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans Vivien Spitz · 2005 Shares Holocaust, nonfiction, history
  3. Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust Richard Rhodes · 2002 Shares Holocaust, hist, history
  4. The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders · 1988 Shares Holocaust, hist, history
See more recommendations →

“People who read The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them Eugen Kogon · 1946
  2. The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942 Christopher R. Browning · 2003
  3. Auschwitz Deborah Dwork, Robert Jan Van Pelt · 1996
  4. Mengele: The Complete Story Gerald Posner, John Ware · 1980

“If you want more of the same (history about medical), start with these.”

  1. KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps Nikolaus Wachsmann · 2015
  2. Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Extermination, 1939-1945 Saul Friedlander · 1998
  3. Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939 Saul Friedlander · 1997
  4. What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany Eric A. Johnson, Karl-Heinz Reuband · 2005

“If it was the Holocaust that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy Martin Gilbert · 1978
  2. Auschwitz Laurence Rees · 2005
  3. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust Daniel Jonah Goldhagen · 1996
  4. The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust Martin Gilbert · 2002

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Origins of Nazi Genocide Henry Friedlander · 1995
  2. Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web Lynn H. Nicholas · 2005
  3. War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race Edwin Black · 2003
  4. Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account Miklos Nyiszli · 1946

Report a problem