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The Nazi Symbiosis: Human Genetics and Politics in the Third Reich. By Sheila Faith Weiss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Pp. 392. Cloth $45.00. ISBN 978-0226891767.
For nearly three decades, historians of science and medicine, as well as of modern Germany, have examined science under National Socialism. One of the most prominent subjects has been biomedical science, particularly genetics and eugenics. With this work, Sheila Faith Weiss once again contributes to the field, this time by examining the "symbiotic" relationship between German scientists and the Nazi state, a relationship which she defines as a "Faustian bargain." Weiss analyzes how and why this bargain came to be and explores its evolution during the Third Reich.
To assess the relationship between science and politics, Weiss chooses four examples to demonstrate the circumstances under which such "bargains" were sealed. The first two cases...