History on the Dark Side

No doctor has ever been more associated with death and bad medicine than Joseph Mengele.  In part 1, Jacob and I talk about how Dr. Mengele existed in the pre-Nazi world and some of the choices or historical accidents that led him into the perfect spot to experiment and murder with impunity.

Cadee and Jared talk about the experiments leading to and within the walls of Auschwitz.

Once killing became the new normal, Nazi doctors were free to do any experiment, regardless of merit or cruelty, as they sought to save soldiers lives, make murder more efficient, and further the eugenic research that claimed aryan superiority.  

Pt. 2 of our discussion of about the Aktion t4 and other Nazi "mercy" killings that proceeded the greater geneocide

Jared and Duke discuss "Aktion T-4" the transition from sterilizing disabled Germans to the killing of "life unworthy of life".  How medical personal make that tremendous shift as well as the techniques and public suspicion and outcry that ended the campaign until the war allowed for such killings outside of German soil.  

Jared and Bobbijo talk about the earliest eugenics based sterilization programs of the Nazi's and explore their unfortunate inspiration from American sterilization law and practices.  Even as the Nazis moved from sterilization to murder, there was a dedicated emphasis on finding fast and economical ways to sterilize people all the way through the liberation of the camps.  The Nazis were dedicated to a 1000 year solution to their perceived problem of non-aryan children.

Jared and Cadee complete their conversation about the pseudo-science of Eugenics and consider how it made sense in many German medical minds of the time.

Season 2: Nazi Medicine.  Jared and Cadee talk about the conditions and factors that made the Nazi movement more likely to be accepted in the time and place they were in.  Intro to Season #2.