Elsevier

Endeavour

Volume 23, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 76-79
Endeavour

Article
Why did the Nazis have the world's most aggressive anti-cancer campaign?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-9327(99)01209-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Recent historical work has shown that while certain kinds of science were destroyed under the Nazi regime, other kinds flourished. Sciences of an applied nature were especially encouraged, as were sciences that fit within the larger program of Nazi segregation and extermination. Little attention, though, has been given to Nazi cancer theory and policy. That is curious, given that the Nazi regime launched one of the most comprehensive and successful cancer prevention programs of the century, involving bans on smoking, restrictions on carcinogenic food dyes, new steps to limit exposure to asbestos and radiation, and much else as well.

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

1

Robert N. Proctor is Professor of the History of Science at Pennsylvania State University, and the author of Racial Hygiene (1988) and The Nazi War on Cancer(1999; Princeton University Press). His research interests coalesce around the political history and philosophy of science; he has also written on environmental policy, molecular anthropology, agates, racial theory, and the ‘social construction of ignorance’. He is now working on a book on theories of human origins.

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