Michael Ragland  wrote:

> As I recall Deichmann, she explicitly exempted Lorenz from active
> participation in selection of camp deportees or other war crimes, but
> condemns him as an active and relatively enthusiastic Nazi. 
> -- 
> John Wilkins 
> [I]magine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, "...interesting
> hole I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? ... 
> must have been made to have me in it." Douglas Adams, Salmon of Doubt
> 
> ______________________________________
> 
> An actual Deichmann reference would be more meaningful here than your
> recollection. The term "active and relatively enthusiastic Nazi" is a
> generalized term which lacks specificity. One could be an active and
> "relatively ethusiastic" Nazi (whatever "relatively
enthusiastic means")
> and not necessarily be involved in the selection of camp deportees and
> other war crimes. On the other hand, some active and "relatively
> ethusiastic" Nazis did participate in selection of camp deportees and
> other war crimes. 

Unfortunately I am on holidays, away from my uni library, and it is now
about 12 months since I read the book. My apologies for this lack of
academic rigor. 
> 
> I must severely criticize you Mr. Wilkins for what appears to be an
> attempt at obfuscating Deichman's information regarding Lorenz in her
> book "Biologists under Hitler" in what could be construed as an effort
> by you to deflect responsibilty for Lorenz's participation in selection
> research.

If I am right, though, then it is not obfuscation, nor is it deserving
of criticism.
> 
> As I've already posted Deichman doesn't mention Lorenz's war crimes
> because technically he committed no war crimes. As was stated before by
> Deichmann nobody later mentioned Lorenz's work for the Reich Foundation
> for German Eastern European Research (pg. 197). Why would that be?

It is a bad thing. But not unusual, in the immediate postwar period.
People who had committed no legal crimes (I am not thinking of moral
crimes) were absolved by the Allies, and their pasts ignored, in order
to re-establish a working society. Similar things happened in Japan. I
do not think there is any overarching academic conspiracy here, and once
Lorenz shared the Nobel, there was even more impetus to whitewash him.
But he did not commit war crimes, so far as I have ever seen evidence.
> 
> Here is what we do know. Deichmann states, "Unless otherwise indicated,
> the following account of the studies in Posen is based on the
> information in Hippius et al. 1943. Carried out from May to September
> 1942, the studies invoved a total of 877 people, who took the tests in
> small groups, each headed by a psychologist. Like Hippius and Kurt
> Stavenhagen (professor of philosophy in Posen), Lorenz was one of the
> psychologists who participated in an honorary capacity." (pg. 194-195)
> 
> Deichmann goes on, "To begin with, the German population of Warthland
> was divided into two categories: those who declare themselves Germans
> and those of German descent. An expansion of the Germanization of Poles
> in the district was rejected as undermining the position of Germandom.
> However, Himmler also wanted the Germanization of "those related to
> Poles by marriage" and of "certain racially valuable Poles." As a
> result, at the suggestion of the SD, group 3 (people of German descent
> absorbed into Polishness and capable of becoming Germanized again), and
> in January of 1941 group 4 (primarily "ethnic German relapsers who can
> be re-Germanized") were added to the Volksliste (Broszat 1961, p. 123).
> As indicated above, these two groups were among the target groups of
> Hippius's "worthiness studies as to psychological suitability and
> character." Beginning in 1940, members of groups 3 and 4 were sent to
> the Reich to work and to be "Germanized." Those members of group 4 who
> were considered "asocial," "of inferior value as to
genetic biology," or
> politically strongly compromised were to be transferred to concentration
> camps (Broszat 1961, p. 133)."
> 
> Deichmann clearly states these "small groups" which
comprised a total of
> 877 people were "headed by psychologists". Hippius, Stavenhagen and
> Lorenz are specifically mentioned. They are the only psycholgists which
> are mentioned. 
> 
> I greatly doubt "fieldworkers" were responsible for interviewing these
> 877 people for psychological suitability and worthiness. Assuming that
> was the case, however, determination of where these 877 people would be
> sent was the responsibilty of these psychologists who headed these small
> groups.
> 
> The question of whether Lorenz actually sent victims of group 4 off to
> concentration camps remains to be seen. Circumstantially, it seems
> highly likely but the evidence Deichmann draws from is not so detailed
> as to provide which persons in group 4 were sent to concentration camps
> and what psychologists were responsible for making those decisions. 
> 
> Based on what I've read the purpose of Hippius's working group was and
> circumstantial evidence I believe Hippius, Stavenhagen and Lorenz all
> selected some persons from group 4 to be sent off to concentration camps
> because they were deemed "politically compromised", psychologically
> unsuitable or not worthy. 

I don't dispute any of this, and I don't defend Lorenz. However, I do
doubt that it (his acquiescence, if that is what it was - many Germans
ignored that unpleasant aspect of their government's eugenics policies,
as Americans, Canadians, Australians, and others did theirs before and
*after* the War) had much to do with his Darwinian theoretical
commitments. In my reading of the history, eugenics has always been
closely allied to theoretical *genetics*, and this is true of the older
"animal husbandry" eugenics that goes back to the Spartans and Plato's
Republic. It never has anything to do with natural selection, except for
Patrick Matthew's fable.
-- 
John Wilkins
"Listen to your heart, not the voices in your head" - Marg Simpson
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