Annotated Bibliography
Axel Fahl-Dreger, Ingo Harms, Wege des Gedenkens. Die Opfer der NS-Euthanasie aus dem Landkreis Vechta, Visbek 2024
https://www.t4-denkmal.de and its accompanying book Tiergartenstrasse 4. Memorial and Information Point for the Victims of National Socialist “Euthanasia” Killings by Gerrit Hohendorf, Christof Beyer, Jens Thiel, Maike Rotzoll, 2016.
Burleigh, Michael. Death and Deliverance: 'Euthanasia' in Germany, c.1900 to 1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
This book examines the systematic euthanasia programs implemented in Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1945, contextualizing them within broader cultural, medical, and ideological shifts from the early 20th century to the end of World War II. The book explores the intellectual roots of eugenics, the medical profession's complicity, and the bureaucratic machinery that enabled the mass murder of the disabled and other marginalized groups. Burleigh critically analyzes how these policies reflected the Nazis' obsession with racial purity and their dehumanizing approach to life deemed "unworthy." The work is a profound investigation of the intersection of medicine, ethics, and totalitarianism.
Burleigh, Michael and Wolfgang Wippermann. The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of how Nazi Germany was structured as a racial dictatorship. It examines how racial ideology permeated every aspect of life, shaping policies on governance, law, education, religion, and social norms. It delves into the mechanisms and consequences of the Nazis' attempts to create a homogeneous "Aryan" society through exclusion, persecution, and genocide. It deals with the systematic persecution not only of the Jews, but also with the fate of lesser-known groups such as Sinti and Roma, the mentally handicapped, the "asocial," and homosexuals. By linking ideology with state practices, the authors reveal the chilling extent to which the Nazi regime's racial obsessions dictated its policies and actions, ultimately leading to the Holocaust and other atrocities.
Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. University of North Carolina Press, , 1995.
This book traces the development of Nazi policies that culminated in the Holocaust . It explores in chilling detail how the Nazi program of secretly exterminating the handicapped and disabled evolved into the systematic destruction of Jews and the Roma and Sinti. Tracing the rise of racist and eugenic ideologies in Germany, the author describes how the so-called euthanasia of the handicapped provided a practical model for mass murder, thereby initiating the Holocaust. Based on extensive research in American, German, and Austrian archives as well as Allied and German court records, the book also analyzes the involvement of the German bureaucracy and judiciary, the participation of physicians and scientists, the motives of the killers, and the nature of popular opposition. The author also sheds light on the special plight of handicapped Jews, who were the first singled out for murder.
Kühl, Stefan.The Nazi connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
This book explores the transnational influences between American eugenics and Nazi racial policies. The author delves into how American scientific racism and eugenics programs served as models for Nazi Germany's racial ideologies and practices. He examines the intellectual exchange, financial support, and collaboration between American and German eugenicists, highlighting the disturbing ways these ideas informed the Nazis’ pursuit of racial purity, including sterilization laws and genocide. The book provides a critical analysis of the ethical failures in science and the dangerous consequences of intertwining pseudoscience with politics
Lifton, Robert J. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killings and the Psychology of Genocide. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
This book examines the role of physicians in the Nazi regime, focusing on their involvement in medical killings and genocide. The author explores how doctors, bound by their profession’s ethical principles, became agents of mass murder through programs like euthanasia and the Holocaust. The book delves into the psychological mechanisms that enabled these physicians to reconcile their actions with their sense of identity, including ideological indoctrination, compartmentalization, and moral disengagement. Combining historical analysis with psychological insights, The author provides a profound exploration of how ordinary professionals became perpetrators of extraordinary atrocities.