Caring and Killing

Nursing and Psychiatric Practice in Germany, 1931–1943

By (author) Thomas Foth Series edited by Hartmut Remmers Consultant editor Wolfgang Rainer Lücke

Book cover: Caring and Killing

Extent: 279 pages

Publisher: V&R unipress

Subjects: German Studies, Twentieth- & Twenty-First- Century History

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(February 2013)

ISBN: 9783847100621

6.42 x 9.65 inches

Price: $94.00

In stock

Die Rolle der Pflegeaufzeichungen bei der Ermordung Kranker wahrend des NS-Regimes oder: Wie werden PatientInnenidentitaten konstruiert


Under the Nazi regime in Germany a calculated killing of chronic “mentally ill” patients took place. Nurses executed this program in their everyday practice. However, suspicions have been raised that psychiatric patients were also assassinated before and after the Nazi regime, suggesting that the motives for these killings must be investigated within psychiatric practice itself. This book highlights the mechanisms and scientific discourses in place that allowed nurses to perceive patients as unworthy of life. This study analyzes patient records as “inscriptions” that actively intervene in interactions in institutions and that create a specific reality on their own accord. The question is not whether the reality represented within the documents is true, but rather how documents worked in institutions and what their effects were. It is shown how nurses were actively involved in the construction of patients’ identities and how these “documentary identities” led to the death of thousands of humans.

  • By (author) Thomas Foth
  • Series edited by Hartmut Remmers
  • Consultant editor Wolfgang Rainer Lücke