Correspondence with others concerning B. Müller-Hill, (trans. G.R. Fraser), Murderous Science.

Letters of appreciation from J.D. Watson and other friends and colleagues to whom Fraser sent copies of the book.

1989-1992

1 file

Fraser recorded, 'In 1985, soon after my arrival in Oxford, a lady from the Oxford University Press asked to see me to discuss a proposed translation of a book by Benno Müller-Hill (Müller-Hill, B: Tödliche Wissenschaft: Die Aussonderung von Juden, Zigeunern und Geisteskranken 1933-1945. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmBH, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1984). She told me that the Oxford University Press intended to employ a professional translator and asked me whether I would be interested in reviewing the translation. I took the book home; a month later I told the lady that I found the prospect of reviewing the translation rather alarming, and that I would really prefer to translate the book myself. I did not make this offer because I have a fluent knowledge of German. Rather, it was because the book interested me, and after studying it with the help of dictionaries and various other reference books, I felt that I could translate it even though I have had only limited formal training in German, dating back to my schooldays at Winchester College. I thought that my knowledge of the technical aspects of the science involved and my feelings of empathy with respect to the topic of the book would more than make up for my relative lack of expertise in translating from a language which I did not know very well. The translation appeared as Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others Germany 1933-1945, (Oxford University Press, 1988). A revised and expanded version with an afterword by J D Watson was published in 1998 as Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others Germany 1933-1945, (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1998).'