Lingua Franca, May-June 1999:

In The Nazi War on Cancer (Princeton), [ Penn State science historian Robert J.] Proctor argues that medical and scientific research under Hitler produced some significant, verifiable breakthroughs.... The Third Reich promoted a series of public-health measures that might well be called forward-looking: banning smoking in certain public places, running an aggressive antismoking propaganda campaign, and placing restrictions on how tobacco could be advertised. Proctor asks a stunning question: Could the most extensive cancer-prevention campaign of this century have been initiated by Hitler? ...

Proctor suggests that his predecessors may have passed on this project in part because "it's kind of an embarrassing fact. Who's going to be interested? Even in Germany, they don't like to see anything 'good' come out of the Nazi era." In the end, he argues, "We do not want to forget Mengele's crimes, but we should also not forget that Dachau prisoners were forced to produce organic honey and that the SS cornered the European market for mineral water."

†