Customer Reviews

Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus

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3 star:		(1)
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MURDEROUS MEDICINE advances contemporary scholarship on Nazi doctors (Lifton, Proctor et al.), offering a groundbreaking and thorough investigation of the dangerous - and preventable - disease, typhus. Through deception, complicity, inhumanity and a disregard for professional standards, Nazi medical personnel created the conditions for typhus and perpetuated epidemics in the ghettos and camps. As a result, 1.5 million prisoners died of the disease. The book is profusely illustrated and referenced with examples of Dr. Baumslag's impressive research in international archives.

Professor Baumslag has given us an important book which reveals the medical atrocities perpetrated by Nazi doctors during the Holocaust

For many people typhus was a given, it was there and the conditions in the camps made it happen. Or so we thought.

We now learn that this was another sadistic method of murder carried out by the very doctors who were ethically bound 'to do no harm'.

A few of the interesting facts in this book are :
There were 350 criminal doctors in the concentration camps Nearly all were not punished after the war.
They even managed to make use of their work in future years and were rewarded for their scientific efforts.

One chapter in this book deals with the International Red Cross and its lack of neutrality during the Third Reich.

Another chapter relates how instead of finding preventive measures for infectious diseases, germs are being developed for biological warfare.

Many thoughtfully chosen illustrations accompany this fact filled book. The author urges us to be vigilant so such evil never happens again.

The first right of humans is the right to live, this was taken away from tens of millions during the last century. My wish is that amongst future readers will be people in power who will be able to prevent such horrors from happening again.

Evi Adams
Israel

This is a book which will appeal to those interested in medicine, the holocaust, social issues or just a very good read. Baumslag writes in a clear, lucid style and her research is meticulous. This is an IMPORTANT book that I believe every physician and medical student, every healthcare worker and policy maker should read. But for the rest of us, it is a thought provoking subject which will stay with us for a long time after we put it down. It is a page turner that spells out facts of which I was unaware: how typhus was spread around the world, when its cause was known, when treatment was available and how this knowledge was used or ignored and why. It tells of financial influences on doctors and treatment. It names international companies and nations and reveals their roles during the holocaust. Baumslag has found documentation to support these revelations, which are sometimes jaw-dropping. For me, this was a very moving book, which has changed how I look at doctors, diseases and current social and political issues.

Baumslag's account of the use of typhus fever by Nazi doctors is a detailed account of the atrocities that can occur when human beings misuse knowledge and technology. Written in a personal voice, Baumslag, not only provides multiple historical references, she also provides the personal touch of one who understands persecution, abuse and ethics.

Historically accurate and technically rich, this book should be advised reading for those interested in the holocaust, the history of medicine, and public health.

I read many books on WWII and this book is hugely informative about a not well known subject. If you do not like technical books with lots of numbers and prefer a story this is not the book for you, however I have found it extremely informative and intresting.

What an excellent book! It is clear that the author researched the book well. An eye opening book for those who are in research.

The philosopher, George Santayana, warned that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. It is for this reason that Dr. Baumslag's book, "murderous Medicine" is a "must-read" for all who never again want to experience such atrocities for themselves or the rest of mankind. Dr. Baumslag has documented and illustrated in great detail how the much-respected science and art in medicine and medical research that has been created to heal and lessen pain can be used effectively to torture. In the medical research, German doctors used human guinea pigs to test vaccines and drugs to combat typhus. Typhus was taking its toll on the German army at the front. The Nazi doctors decided that tests on animals were inconclusive. Therefore, it was necessary to use humans for their experimentations. At first, Jewish prisoners volunteered with the promise of special privileges. When others learned that the special privileges included being sent to their death in the gas chambers, the volunteering ceased. Healthy Jewish prisoners were then selected to be infected with the louse, typhus. The Red Cross turned its back on these atrocities and industries such as I.G. Farben participated in these atrocities. I would recommend this book.

I bought this book because it's an important one -- and is touted as one of the best available on Nazi typhus experiments.

However, there are errors in Murderous Medicine that make me question its scholarship. For me, the most grave is on page 64, where the author states that HCN (Zyklon B ) was used in Treblinka. Carbon Monoxide gas was used in the Aktion Reinhard camps. This error could create confusion going forward, especially with younger or less experienced scholars. And just this one factual error makes me seriously question the research in the rest of the book -- in spite of the fact that I am almost positive that the information about typhus experimentation is solid.

I wish I were able to recommend this book; but in the present edition, I just can't.