Nature (vol. 434, No. 7034, 7 April 2005)

7.4 Editorial 681 MH 5/4/05 2:33 pm Page 681 7 April 2005 Volume 434 Issue no 7034 Uncomfortable truths A thorough investigation of German scientists’ actions under the Nazi regime reveals a more complex and ambiguous story than that implanted in the public mind at the end of the Second World War. he inhumanity of some of the research carried out in Germany during the Third Reich is well known, and universally abhorred. The work of Josef Mengele, the young doctor who conducted deadly genetics experiments on inmates of Auschwitz, is perhaps the most notorious example of these appalling crimes. For decades after the Second World War, the prevailing view of how scientists interacted with the Nazi regime was fixated on such cases of dramatic criminality. According to this view, science during the Nazi era was contaminated by a few, very rotten apples. This version of history also held that these rotten apples were engaged in ‘pseudoscience’ — low-quality research whose results were meaningless; that the Nazis held ‘real’ science in low esteem, so that the main body of scientists simply trod water for the duration; and that most of those who did work to further the aims of the regime did so under duress. This conventional wisdom was broadly framed at the Nuremberg trials, which condemned the heinous crimes of high-ranking Nazis, but did not enquire into the behaviour of less notorious individuals, including rank-and-file scientists. This account suited both the winners and losers of the war. By eliminating the worst offenders, justice was seen to be done. Experienced scientists and research managers were left alone to rebuild the science infrastructure of the destroyed country. The victorious Allies needed what was then West Germany to function as a strong but peaceful country, as a bastion against the communist threat to the East.And science was an