Current Exhibition: Deadly Medicine

Current Exhibition | Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race

At the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center:
July 23, 2010 - January 2, 2011

 

From 1933-1945, Nazi Germany carried out a campaign to “cleanse” German society of individuals viewed as biological threats to the nation’s “health.”  This temporary exhibition examines how Nazi leadership, in collaboration with individuals in the professions traditionally charged with healing and the public good, used science to help legitimize persecution, murder and, ultimately, genocide.  It looks at the Nazi regime’s use of Eugenics theory to define, persecute and murder individuals and people of “inferior” races – including Jews, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, the disabled, the mentally ill and other minorities – in order to “scientifically” build a German society in which the fittest “Aryans” could thrive.

“Deadly Medicine, an exhibition produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, explores the Holocaust’s roots in then-contemporary scientific and pseudo-scientific thought,” explains exhibition curator Susan Bachrach. “At the same time, it touches on complex ethical issues we face today, such as how societies acquire and use scientific knowledge and how they balance the rights of the individual with the needs of the larger community.”

           

Deadly Medicine opened to wide acclaim at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in April 2004.  Since then, it has traveled to Canada, Germany, and across the United States.  Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race will be on display through January 2, 2011. An online version of the exhibition is available at www.ushmm.org/deadlymedicine.

Viewer Discretion Advised:  The exhibition contains difficult subject matter and imagery.  It is recommended for visitors 12 years and older.

 

Related Events

Connecting with the Chicago Medical Community
Thursday, August 19, 6-9 pm
This program intended for physicians, medical schools, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals provides a deeper look at the actions of their professions during the Holocaust, as well as an opportunity to consider how the exhibition serves as a community resource.
Attendance by invitation only; not open to the public.

Film & Discussion - The Architecture of Doom
Sunday, August 22 | 1:30 pm
This documentary traces the transformation of Hitler's Germany into the ideal setting for pure Aryans - from the banning of "degenerate" artists to the ultimate elimination of "inferior" individuals and races.

Members Event - Helen Rappaport: Reflections of a Mengele Twin
Sunday, August 29 | 1:00 pm
Survivor Helen Rappaport will share her story in an informal conversation with her nephew, Howard Ackerman, Senior VIce President of Fifth/Third Bank and Museum Board Member.  Reception and exhibition viewing afterwards.
Free to members.  Memberships available online or at the door.
Reservations required | Call 847.967.4889

Film & Discussion - In the Shadow of the Reich: Nazi Medicine
Sunday, September 19 | 1:30 pm
This film graphically documents the "science" of eugenics and racial theories in the Third Reich, which led to the practice of euthanasia, sterilization, and unprincipled human experimentation.

Program - Overcoming Adversity: Surviving as a Little Person in a Big World
Sunday, September 26 | 1:00 pm
Matt Roloff, patriarch of the Roloff Family on TLC's reality series Little People, Big World, discusses his advocacy for the rights of little people.  In 1999, Matt wrote and published Against Tall Odds, which chronicles his business and professional success in the face of enormous medical and social adversity.  He is the former president of Little People of America (LPA) - a social and advocacy group for little people.  Q&A session will follow the presentation.  

$20 Non-Members (includes Admission)/$10 Members.
Reservations required | Make Reservations Online Now >

Film & Discussion - Selling Murder: The Killing Films of the Third Reich
Sunday, October 17 | 1:30 pm
This documentary examines the use of film by the Nazis to gain public support and justify their actions by reason of cost, natural laws of selection, and mercy.

Special Nazi and Medical Ethics: Context and Lessons
Thursday, November 18 | 7:00 pm
This lecture explores ways in which physicians became complicit in the crimes of the Holocaust and how that experience continues to influence modern-day medicine and medical ethics.  Presenters are Patricia Heberer, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; and Matthew Wynia, M.D., M.P.H. Director, Institute for Ethics, American Medical Association. 
Reservations Required | Call 847.967.4889

Film & Discussion - Liebe Perla
Sunday, December 19 | 1:30 pm
"Dear Perla" examines an unusual frendship between two women" Hannalore, a young German researching the treatment of little people during the Holocaust; and Perla, an Auschwitz survivor.  Perla and her family, a performing group of musical "lilliputen," owed their survival to Mengele's interest in their condition.


Please Note: Unless mentioned otherwise, all events are Free with museum admission.

Images

Left: Nazi officials at the “The Miracle of Life” exhibition, German Hygiene Museum, Dresden, 1935. The new Nazi museum leadership asserted that societies resembled organisms that followed the lead of their brains. The most logical social structure was one that saw society as a collective unit, literally a body guided by a strong leader.  Credit: National Archives and Records Administration

Right: “Don’t Go Blindly into Marriage!” Eugenics had the support of many scientists worldwide, including the U.S. This drawing illustrated a 1924 pamphlet that urged couples to be informed about the health, including genetic health, of prospective spouses. This image was first published by Louisiana’s Department of Health.  Credit: USHMM Collection, Gift of Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden