FEB 2 i973

Adams C-56

Harvard College

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
January 31, 1973

Dr. Joshua Lederberg

Department of Genetics

Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, California 94305

Dear Dr. Lederberg,

Your note of January 11th was greatly appreciated. Few
people seem to share this “crazy" interest of mine, and it
never ceases to amaze me that more time is not devoted to the
study of science and medicine in the Third Reich.

Actually, I have done very little work on genetics and geneti-
cists in Nazi Germany, largely because genetics seems to have
had very little to do with eugenics as practiced by the Nazis.
Obviously, the debates over eugenic ideas which went on in
Europe and in the U.S. in the 1920° s were based on the premise
that diseases can be inherited in some instances and that
these inheritable diseases were spreading through the popula-
tion. But as far as I can tell, no one claimed to understand
the genetic mechanisms by which those diseases were inherited.

Years before the Nazis came to power, clinical and statistical
surveys by physicians and certain state institutions suggested
that the German population was degenerating due to the spread
of common inheritable diseases. No one understood the problem,
but many felt that it had to be dealtnwith anyway. And so,
for example, when the government of Weimar Germany collected
information in the late '20*s in order to form an official
opinion on the question of compulaory eugenic sterilization,
no geneticists were consulted. The science of genetics really
had little to offer eugenicists in the way of support or
opposition. All that the geneticist could say was, “We don't
know" at a time when clinical studies made alarming claims
about the rate at which the human race was degenerating. It
appears that the “scholarly” basis for Nazi eugenics came out
of the clinic and not the laboratory (if that distinction is

a valid one).

I do not know whether there were any German geneticists who
counted themselves among the supporters of the euganics pro-
gram, nor do I have any information about geneticists who fled
Germany between 1933 and 1945. However, the following references
might be of some help in understanding the eugenics program
itsélf and the relationship of genetics to that program:

Deutsches Schriftum im Krieg (Leipzig, 1943). A biblio-
graphy with a lengthy section of scientific works
published by Germans during the war.
Dr. Joshua Lederberg -2- January 31, 1973

Weingartner, James J., "The SS Race and Settlement Main
Office: Towards an Orden of Blood and Soil,"
Historian, November, 1971.

Thompson, Larry V., "“Lebensborn and the Eugenics Policy
of the Reichsflhrer-SS,”" Central European History,
March, 1971.

Universitatstuge 1966: Nationalsozialismus und die
deutsche Universitat, Vertéffentlichung der Freien
Universitat Berlin (Berlin, de Gruyter, 1966), a
chapter entitled "Die Best&tigung der NS-Ideologie
in der Medizin unter besonderer Berticksichtigung
der Euthanasie", pp. 63-75.

Krieck, Ernst, “Medicine and the Philosophy of National
Socialism," Journal of Higher Education (May, 1936).

Frank, Walter, Deutsche Wissenschaft und Judenfrage
(Hamburg, 1941).

Gutt, one Die Rassenpflege im dritten Reich (Hamburg,
1940).

Honolka, Bert, Die Kreuzelschreiber: Arzte ohne Gewissen:
Euthanasie im dritten Reich (Hamburg, 1961).

Weinreich, Max, Hitler's Professors: The Part of Scholar-
ship in Germany's Crimes Against the Jewish People
(New York, Y1IVO, 1946).
(This would be particularly good, though somewhat
biased.)

I am not sure that each of these references deals specifically
with genetics, but they ought to contain some relevant material.
You might also be interested in a study done by a committee of
the American Neurological Association in 1934 on the advisability
of eugenic sterilization in the U.S. The history of American
eugenics is, by itself, fascinating; and I have found that
American eugenic ideas had a great deal of influence on popular
thought in Germany just before the Nazis came to power. That
study is:

The Committee of the American Neurological Association
for the Investigation of Eugenical Sterilization,
Eugenical Sterilization: A Reorientation of the
Problem (New York: Macmillan, 1936).

 

The Committee's opinion on the state of knowledge in genetics
at that time was most informative, as I did not realize how
very little was known then about hereditary diseases compared
to what we know today.
Dr. Joshua Lederberg ~3- January 31, 1973

You may know from Mitscherlich's book that the "Final Solution"
did indeed have competitors. The extermination of the Jews
was not settled upon by Nazi leaders until after several other
ideas had been discarded. Among those ideas were deportation
and sterilization. Many concentration camp experiments were
aimed at finding a fast and efficient method with which to
sterilize very large numbers of men and women. At one time,
the Nazis hoped to maintain the Jews (and other "degenerate"
races) as a work force for the Reich. To do so, they would
need to prevent the propogation of these races, and this is
where sterilization became an important prospect. The accounts
of those experiments may be found in Mitscherlich's book and
probably in Dr. Hilberg's work as well. Gerhardt Reitlinger's
book, The Final Solution (New York, 1961), may also prove
interesting, as I believe he discusses the way in which ex-
termination was finally chosen over altennative proposals as
the answer to the "Jewish question,"

I wish that I could be of more help in the area of genetics,
but I hope these references will prove useful. I am quite
interested in the specific questions which you raised in your
letter to Dr. Hilberg, and I would greatly appreciate any
information which you find and might be able to pass on.

Within the next six weeks, I will be completing a thesis on
medicine in Weimar and Nazi Germany. One chapter will deal
specifically with the way in which eugenic thought in the U.S.
influenced German ideas about eugenic sterilization. One of

my arguments is that German misperceptions of what was happening
in America in the ‘20's paved much of the way for the acceptance
of the Nazi eugenics program of the '30's. I would be glad

to send you that material when it is finished, if it could be

of any use to you.

It is possible that & will be at Stanford within the next two
months to look at the medical school, and if so, I will certainly

call. SKould you have the time, I would really enjoy talking
about this.

If I can be of any further help, please do not hesitate to ask,
As I work on my thesis, more interesting resources keep popping
Up.

Again, many thanks for your letter.

Yours sincerely,

Bob

Bob Waldinger