GHSM faculty members Mildred Solomon and Scott Podolsky have brought the exhibitDeadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race to the Countway Library as of April 4. Dean Jeffrey Flier announced that Harvard Medical School has partnered with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to bring this groundbreaking exhibition to the Boston community. It will remain on display until July 17, 2011. 

Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race lays bare the critical role German physicians, scientists, public health officials and academic experts played in supporting and implementing the Nazis’ murderous program of “racial eugenics.” It examines Nazism’s roots in biology and genetics dating back to the early 1900s and illustrates how—in the name of utopian ideals—the Nazi leadership, in collaboration with individuals in professions entrusted with the protection of life, subscribed to unbridled violations of human rights and ultimately genocide.

This exhibition also speaks to fundamental questions that resonate today: What is the responsibility of medical professionals to their patients? How is the need to foster a healthy society balanced against the responsibility of health care professionals to protect the rights of the individual? What are the social implications of today’s scientific and medical innovations? The Museum produced Deadly Medicine to examine these issues.

For detailed information on the exhibition and for visiting hours, please visit the website.

Mildred Solomon is associate professor of social medicine in the Division of Medical Ethics. Scott Podolsky is assistant professor of social medicine and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Library.