Deadly Medicine

Creating the Master Race

13 Mar 2009
19 Jul 2009

The National Socialist regime made the race issue the key theme of its health and demographic policy in 1933. By 1945, 400,000 people had undergone forced sterilization and in Germany and Austria alone, over 210,000 of the handicapped and mentally ill had been murdered. Numerous psychiatric patients died as a result of medical trials. The aim of these interventions and deaths was to create a healthy "Aryan" race in Germany, free of "human ballast." The origins of these policies were social Darwinistic ideas which had found their place in the key sciences of eugenics and race hygiene before the First World War.

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Dr. Otmar von Verschuer in his twins research laboratory. - © Archive on the History of the Max Planck Society, Berlin

Financial concerns at the beginning of the war accelerated the decision for the "Euthanasia Program." Radical measures under this program included the centrally controlled murder of the mentally ill and mentally handicapped between January 1940 and August 1941, carried out under the "T4" notation in six death camps in the former Reich territory. This procedure became the model for the murder of millions of European Jews that began shortly thereafter.

The Exhibition "Deadly Medicine" was first shown at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.. This overview exhibition has been extended for the Berlin exhibition to include regional examples from Berlin and Brandenburg. The life story of a "euthanasia" victim is presented in detail for the first time in an exhibition through documents, letters, and photos.

Please take a look at the special website on the exhibition "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race" or visit the website of the Jewish Museum.

When: 13 March to 19 July 2009
Where: Old Building, 1st level at the Jewish Museum Berlin
Admission: 4 euros, reduced rate 2 euros