Paediatrics in German-Annexed Alsace

Paediatrics during National Socialism focused on the preservation of health for a select idealized version of the future German population. When annexed territories were occupied, their population was subject to such exclusionary idealism too. This paper takes the example of the city of Strasbourg and the Nazified Reichsuniversität Straßburg (1941–1944), particularly the Kinderklinik under Dr Kurt Hofmeier, to illustrate how this process practically worked in the occupied region. This paper also addresses how in the occupied city, pediatric care varied between encouragement to engage with the regime, exclusionary policies for those who were not considered ‘worthy,’ but also placating the local population through an illusion of autonomy. It will also discuss how, because of this regional variation in occupied territories, official policies were often not practically implemented in an effort to placate the community more effectively. Thus, pediatrics in Alsace incorporated regional specificities, while adhering to the overarching ideology of Nazism, in prioritising medical care for the select hierarchy of those considered to be ‘worth’ to the Volk.