Exhibit details Hitler’s ‘Deadly Medicine’
Display at Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum shows path from Darwin and eugenics to Nazi Germany and Holocaust

A new exhibit at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum, opened in conjunction with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, demonstrates that Hitler was backed by physicians, researchers and surgeons from Europe and North America who also supported the master race theory.
“Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race,” a multi-floor exhibit at the kibbutz museum, was lent by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. The exhibit has already been hosted by museums across the US, Canada and Germany.
The exhibit begins with an explanation of the spread of eugenics, inspired by Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory, which was at the core of Hitler’s race ideology.
The depictions of eugenics in the exhibit provides a way for students of all nationalities and backgrounds to ask themselves what happens when others do not look, act, or talk like them, said museum director Evelin Akherman.
“The exhibit provides a fresh way to look at the Holocaust,” Akherman said, “especially for young Israelis and Palestinians exposed to racism and stereotypes.”
The museum, which was established by the Holocaust survivors who founded the Ghetto Fighters’ kibbutz, often hosts school groups.
All of the content in the exhibit is written in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
In addition to explaining Hitler’s role in the Holocaust, the exhibit demonstrates the medical professionals’ enthusiasm and willingness to practice inhumane treatments on the prisoners.
“We usually think the Holocaust was solely the fault of Hitler and his lieutenants,” said Professor Shmuel Reis, who teaches medical education at Bar-Ilan University. “But it has become very obvious in the last 20 years that there was a very specific leadership implementing, executing and advising scientists and physicians.”
Reis said the Holocaust is the worst-case scenario of what can emerge from medicine and science.
“We can now say that it’s not about psychopaths,” he opined. “It’s not about crazy or especially cruel people. It’s about ordinary people, ordinary physicians, who diverted into this kind of mindframe.”
It wasn’t a tiny percentage of German healthcare professionals swayed by the “superior race” theory, but a large number of Germany and Austria’s medical community, added Reis.
The “Deadly Medicine” exhibit will run at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum for two years. The museum is open Sunday-Thursday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.