"Deadly Medicine" at the Maltz Museum

World War II, Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust, Dr. Mengele—we each experience these words differently creating a web of interpretations, emotions, and philosophies. In the current exhibition at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, these topics are brought together to form “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race,” a thought-provoking collection addressing the history and science of eugenics.

The museum introduces the topic with “Where Would You Draw The Line,” a display filling the wall space of the brief corridor leading in and out of the venue, that poses contemporary questions regarding health and ethics issues. Using small colored chips, you can cast a Yes or No response in the clear plexiglass boxes and see how others have weighed in, too.

Beyond this is the exhibit that leads you through a documentary of artifacts—publications, propaganda, photographs, medical equipment and diagrams—categorized within a chronological framework. The timeline begins in the late 19th century and the origination of eugenics (briefly, the study of genes and heredity to improve humanity), a term that has derived a variety of meanings over time.

The crux of the material details German practices and experiments carried out in the name of eugenics and “racial hygiene” from the Deutsches Reich (Weimar Republic) to the mid-1940s. Mural-size historical images, video screens looping period footage, and text placards relaying summaries and descriptions narrate the challenging topics comprising “Deadly Medicine.”

There’s a good chance that you’ll discover something during your experience. It may be a new fact, a connection, maybe something about yourself. But perhaps, regardless of different opinions, ideas, and world views that form our individual perspectives, visitors to this exhibit can experience a history that belongs to all of us.

“Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race” is on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and is on display through January 20, 2008. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for Seniors and students, and free for children under 12. The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is located at 2929 Richmond Rd.

by Nicole Bryson

^{(photo courtesy of the Maltz Museum)}