Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg: No Supporter of Eugenics
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics

Dr. Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg was always the scientist, always the humanist, she never supported racial theories, she opposed racism, and such ideologically based Eugenics!

The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWI-A) was founded in 1927. The Rockefeller Foundation supported both the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Psychiatry and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics. The Rockefeller Foundation partially funded the actual building of the Institute and helped keep the Institute afloat during the Depression.

These stereotypes were primarily used to create propaganda support for the Lebensborn program; the sterilization program; the euthanasia program; genocide at concentration camps; deportations; and medical experimentation done by other programs such as the Waffen-SS (low pressure experiments, hyper- and hypothermia experiments, etc.). For details, see the Doctors' Trial, also known as the Nuremberg Medical Trial.
The purpose of the propaganda was to dehumanize those who were considered to be enemies of the Third Reich. Methods of dehumanization included the use of stereotypes in newspapers (Julius Streicher cartoons) and films such as Jud Suss (1940 film). At that time, films that were very popular internationally, such as "Nosferatu" (directed by F. W. Murnau, starring actor Max Schreck), depicted dehumanized forms with very wan complexions, long noses and long ears, and cadaverous body shapes, who drank blood. Unfortunately, some people in the 21st century still believe these things. 3, 4, 5


1   Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics, 1927-1945", Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol 259, Wallstein verlag, Gottingen, 2003, p. 263.
.
2   Yisrael Gutman, Michael Berenbaum , "Anatomy of the Auschwitz death camp", Indiana U. Press, 1998, p. 318
.
3   Marcel Lozinski, "Witnesses: Anti-Semitism in Poland, 1946" released 1990. A university-educated person provides his evidence that Jews are vampires.
.
4   John Frankenheimer, "The Fixer", released 1968. Based on a novel and screenplay by Bernard Melamud about the famous 1913 Beilis 'blood libel' trial in Czarist Russia in 1913.
.
5   Judit Elek, "Memories of a River", released 1990. Based on the famous Tiza River blood libel trial of the late 19th century, in the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Back

© Copyright 2006 - 2018    The Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg Trust     Web Site Terms of Use