Eugen Fischer

Eugen Fischer was a prominent theorist of eugenics whose career, as recounted in the book, connects racial doctrine and mass violence to postwar professional respectability. A mentor to Josef Mengele and an inspiration to Hitler, Fischer was associated with the Herero and Namaqua Genocide, yet lived out his later years in Germany without prosecution.

Eugenics and the Herero and Namaqua Genocide

Fischer is described as a celebrated theorist of eugenics and an inspiration to Hitler. The account also identifies his participation in the Herero and Namaqua Genocide in Namibia. These details place his work and public standing within a history in which theories about heredity and race were linked to destructive policies and actions.

Postwar Reputation

After the war, Fischer retired to Freiburg im Breisgau, where his lifelong friend Martin Heidegger lived in a country retreat. Fischer published his memoirs, Encounters with the Dead, and became an honorary member of the German Anthropological Society. The book emphasizes the contrast between this continuing recognition and his past: neither Fischer nor his colleague Otmar von Verschuer was prosecuted.

Connection to Josef Mengele and Death

Fischer was one of Josef Mengele’s mentors. Shortly before Fischer’s death, Mengele’s father sent him a copy of Fischer’s memoirs. Years later, while living in exile, Mengele recalled how Fischer had successfully distanced himself from his past; the memory formed part of his bitter reflection on the postwar fate of former Nazi-linked scientists. Fischer died in his bed in 1967, aged ninety-three.