Ethics and Extermination: Reflections on Nazi Genocide

This series of essays by one of today's most original and prolific scholars on German racial policy concerns three interrelated aspects of Nazi Germany: relations with 'the east', 'euthanasia' and extermination. They are linked closely by the sub-themes of professionals or 'experts' and an interest in competing systems of morality. The collection includes important and wholly new contributions to the German-Soviet war and other national tragedies; to the controversial question of whether the Nazi analogy has any relevance to contemporary ethical discussions; and to the contemporary historiography, including works of fiction and literary criticism, of the Holocaust. The product of twelve years' research on Nazi Germany, the book will be essential reading for anyone interested in current scholarship on the period, or indeed in how we might view the period in future decades.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Part I. The Germans and the East: 1. The knights, nationalists and the historians; 2. Albert Brackmann, Ostforscher: the years of retirement; 3. 'See you again in Siberia': the German-Soviet war and other tragedies; Part II. 'Euthanasia': 4. Psychiatry, German society and the Nazi 'euthanasia' programme; 5. The churches, eugenics and the Nazi 'euthanasia' programme; 6. The Nazi analogy and contemporary debates on euthanasia; Part III. Extermination: 7. The racial state revisited; 8. A 'political economy of the Final Solution'? Reflections on modernity, historians and the Holocaust; 9. The realm of shadows: recent writing on the Holocaust.

Review :
'This is a formidable achievement. As Auden forecast, accurate scholarship may uncover what has driven a culture mad: here is a contribution to that process.' Social History of Medicine 'This is a marvellous book that can be read ... by anyone interested in the Nazi period and the ethical and philosophical issues it throws up ... detailed historical research of the highest quality ... the style is direct, gripping and unevasive in its conclusions ... can only encourage people at least not to miss this book.' John Shand, Journal of Medical Ethics 'This book is to be very strongly recommended for its scholarship, clarity, and contemporary relevance.' Journal of Forensic Medicine '... powerfully written, intellectually challenging and morally courageous. It should be read by anyone who wants to know more about our century's inhuman practices ... and should be required reading for students of Nazism.' Omer Bartov, The Times Literary Supplement 'I like books which make me think. Michael Burleigh poses troubling questions and shows how interacting ideas and policies - a colonising mission, eugenics, euthanasia - were gradually transformed and then fused by the opportunity of war into genocide and the Final Solution.' Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1997 Book of the Year, The Sunday Telegraph 'This marvellously varied collection of his essays ... Burleigh's work stands out for three reasons. First, he never loses sight of the fact that those involved were human beings. His use of evidence that illuminates individual experience is consistently superb and often painfully memorable. Second, he writes without jargon in an unaffected and often arresting style. And third, he does not strike facile moralising poses.' Niall Ferguson, The Sunday Telegraph