This book is a combination of carefully researched historical analysis, biographical vignettes, and personal memoir written by medical anthropologist Gretchen Schafft. It documents work done by German anthropologists employed by foundations, academic institutions and the German government from the 1930s until the end of World War II. These anthropologists apparently embraced Nazi ideology so thoroughly that they left behind their scientific methods and ethics to become co-opted into the processes undertaken by the Nazi party, the SS and other government officials to eliminate political opponents, people of color, homosexuals, Roma, Polish, and Jews from German and German-occupied territory. Their ability to deceive themselves into believing that their work in categorizing people destined for death camps was scientifically valuable is astonishing. The fact that they were never punished for their complicity in the Final Solution is extremely sad.
Dr. Schafft has done an extremely thorough job of reviewing holocaust literature and newly available archival materials from both the Smithsonian Institution and sources in Europe to bring the reader extensive understanding of this co-option. She places the activities of the Third Reich's anthropologists in the context of other well known events from the rise of Nazism and the war. This convincing saga has, as Schafft says "no smoking gun" pointing to the crimes (including euthanasia, trafficking in body parts, and unethical torture filled medical experimentation) that these anthropologists very probably were complicit in.
I bought this book because I am interested in the moral lessons of the holocaust. As an applied anthropologist myself, this disturbing and detailed story awakened in me a desire to deeply evaluate my own work as an applied anthropologist. The book is well written, although some of the translated German memos have a stuffy bureaucratic sound--attesting to their authenticity, no doubt. I recommend this book to general readers as well as professional specialists in history, anthropology, and the history of science. It will change how you think about the German public's awareness of the evils perpetrated by Hitler's regime.
by Charlotte Miller, Ph.D.
