Eugenics and racial hygiene: applied research strategies before, during and after National Socialism

Eugenics was a field straddling the boundaries among various human sciences: biology, genetics, medicine, psychiatry, hygiene etc. In Germany the first iniatives came from outsiders at the margins of the scientifc community, who attempted to establish the new concept of racial hygiene. Although eugenics was popular in many countries prior to World War II, only Germany carried eugenics to its murderous conclusion of extermination and genocide