Social Welfare in Nazi Germany

Abstract

The functions and activities of social work and the social welfare establishment in Hamburg during Nazi Germany were not merely an extension of the regulations and procedures of the pre-Nazi era, but their radicalization. There is evidence that social workers from the Rauhe Haus, a major Protestant church-related social welfare institution, enthusiastically accommodated the Nazi regime. I attempt to interpret and understand these phenomena and the resultant crimes against humanity within the context of the Nazi social technology. This technology, through its own internal logic, lends itself to “Selection and Exclusion,” the separation of technical from moral responsibility, and the isolation and distancing of the victims from the perpetrators. I will discuss the relevance of some of the major issues to contemporary social work practice in the West.

Key Words:

• Social hygiene
• social work
• social policy
• social technology
• professional identity
• Nazi Germany
• Holocaust
• eugenics
• racism
• faith-based services