The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

Lifton's writings are concise, exhaustive and very technical. I would not recommend this book to the "new" reader or researcher in Holocaust history. Lifton's material is not of the type of reading that is a "fast read" due to the technicality and psychological interpretations. However, as Lifton is Jewish, there were several points as portrayed mainly in the footnotes where the author is giving his own particular interpretations of psychological theories as to the mental state of the physicians. I found these footnotes to be more subjective in nature than objective. That aside, I highly recommend this book to any person that is a student of not only Auschwitz and the literal horrors of this particular death camp, but to the person that is fascinated by the psychological makeup of these Nazi personnel, i.e., what caused them to employ these acts against their fellow human beings. Very horrific, unbelievable in nature. I had to read several paragraphs over and over in order to fully grasp what was being said, and then I was only able to shake my head in disbelief. Lifton does a masterful job in his research and conveying what he learned on paper. Exhaustively written, scientific in nature, psychological yet has a "fiction" feel. Lifton's work is masterful!

Where have I been for the last 25 years, not having known about this book? I had done no little reading about the Nazi era, including Ian Kershaw's HITLER, just before I read THE NAZI DOCTORS. References to dates were links to what was happening in my own life as a child at the same times. Personal tragedy had struck my family; our lives were forever changed while World War II changed populations in the same period. Our family was of German extraction. Imagine the immiscibility of revering what was German and the horrors of the Third Reich!

For anyone not having read THE NAZI DOCTORS I recommend putting aside the dishes and raking the yard, and hasting to the library or Amazon to procure a copy.

The slide from healing to killing is well explored here. While some (like me!) find the material rough sledding, this is a critically important book to read if you want to understand what is driving the concern over current policy proposals. Probably none of the issues presented about the medicalization of social issues will ever truly resolve themselves, as medicine itself, while a "hard" science, will always have a social dimension for as long as a doctor treats a patient. Yet all that worries us today was present at the holocaust: racial and religious bigotry and fear, a desire to ration resources (like healthcare), a belief in "science" as a solution for what ails the world. "Life unworthy of life:" who is to say? Hats off to Lifton for this ambitious and illuminating work.

A must read. A startling account of true stories. I couldn't put this book down from the time I started it.

I have studied terrorism, history and violence for years. I have never seen a book as concise and yet completely informative as "THE NAZI DOCTORS". Many people will miss the central theme of this book which is far more reaching than the holocaust. People, educated and uneducated; governments, democracies and dictators, are all capable of committing evil against other people and its citizens. Anyone who is willing to turn a blind eye to the powers that be, the educated elite, and law makers and not hold them accountable should read this book. Anyone who wants to understand how state terrorism (terror from above) operates should read this book. Anyone who thinks turning healthcare over to the gov't should read this book. Victor Frankl, survivor of WWII concentration camps said it best, (paraphrased) "there are two races of people: decent and indecent." The author captures this thought when he quotes one victim of Nazi Doctors. "...what was demonic was that they (Nazis) were not demonic."