The Nazi Connection To Eugenics

1. The Nazi Connection To Eugenics By: Alison Kozol, Josh Czik, Ben Solomon, Hannah Zhu, and Daisy Joo

2. Reasons for Eugenics • To make everybody racially pure • To reduce violence • To create a utopian society Galton Davenport Spencer

3. Eugenics: From America to Germany • Eugenics held validity in the eyes of Americans because it was supported by people from Harvard and Yale, and much of its studies is funded by prestigious organizations such as the Carnegie Institute, the Rockefeller Center, and the Harriman railroad fortune. • Rockefeller funded many of the eugenics studies and institutions, such as Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Eugenics, Anthropology, and Human Heredity.

4. Eugenics: From America to Germany • Hitler was greatly impressed by the ideas of Eugenics, such as sterilization, from Laughlin and Davenport. He thought Germany should model its society on that of the eugenics policies in the U.S. • At the same time, certain conditions in Germany made American eugenics especially appealing.

5. Influences on the Germans to Use Eugenics • World War I was a massive defeat for the Germans • Because of the armistice, they seemed to be the public hatred of the world • Germany had also suffered widespread hunger during the war and many casualties

6. Influences on the Germans to Use Eugenics Cont’d • Germans needed to find a scapegoat to blame their troubles upon • Eugenics was seen as the solution to the German’s problems. In early 1900’s, Alfred Ploetz, founder of the German eugenics movement, thought that it was unfair that the “less fit” should live at the expense of people who are more fit.

7. Influences on the Germans to Use Eugenics, Cont. • They could advance in science and make a new name for themselves. • 1920: Alfred Hoche, a physician, and Rudolf Binding, a lawyer, published Sanction for Destroying Lives Not Worth Living. • Argued that it was not worth helping disabled people survive when so many German youth have died in war. Only certain people have the right to live. Hitler became greatly attracted to these ideas.

8. Implementing Eugenics • 1923: Gustav Boeters, a district health officer in Germany, wanted Germany to sterilize all who were “unfit.” He claimed that since the U.S. had such sterilization laws, Germany should do so too. German government didn’t act on Boeters’ request.

9. Implementing Eugenics • Hitler put in practice laws that ordered for many people to be sterilized. • In 1933, Germany’s minister of justice proposed a euthanasia law. Many religious leaders objected to this law, and it was not legally implemented into a law.However, Hitler continued to attempt to popularize it by describing disabled people as “marginal human beings.”

10. Hitler’s Use of Eugenics • Hitler began taking serious action against Jews in 1935 • Hitler targeted minority groups, mostly groups that were discriminated against • Jews • Romas • Communists • Disabled People • Poles • Homosexuals

11. Hitler’s Use of EugenicsAgainst Jews • September 15, 1935: Hitler implemented laws that defined who was Jewish and who was part of the Reich. People who were part of the Reich were Germans “who, through his conduct, shows that he is both desirous and fit to serve the German people and Reich faithfully. • A Jew was a person with two Jewish parents or had three Jewish grandparents. A person was still a Jew if he practiced Jewish customs or married a Jew.

12. Hitler’s Use of Eugenics • 1938: Nazi film popularizing eugenics against Jews. Film called “Erbkrank” in German and “Genetically Diseased” in the U.S. • Depicted Jews as people with inferior genes • 1939: Hitler put into action the euthanasia of disabled children. Physicians were asked to fill out questionnaires for each child. The questionnaires were used to decide whether the child should be killed or not.

13. Hitler’s Use of Eugenics • When child taken away from parents, parents only told that their children were being placed in programs to “improve treatment.” • This later included teenagers and adults. Eventually there were also questionnaires for the elderly. • Program was supposed to be secret, but many Germans knew of these murders by the odor of dead human bodies • Mobile gas vans and showers used for killings. This technology would later be used against Jews in concentration camps

14. Germans Implementing Ideas • Established Eugenics Centers • Advocated sterilization for disabled people • Celebrated Aryan Children • Awards • Illegitimate children • Law of the Protection of German Blood and Honor • Made interbreeding illegal, specifically between Jews and Germans • Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring • Lawfully sterilized mentally disabled, deaf, and blind people

15. The Laws Get More Oppressive • At first, the laws were seen as “medical advancement” through Eugenics • It soon progressed to complete discrimination against minorities

16. Opposition to Eugenics Franz Boas made a case against Eugenics by stating that with a different American diet and culture, the children of immigrants began to look and act more “American.” Myerson criticized the entire process by which Eugenicists came to their conclusions about whether a person was “feebleminded” or not. Many German scientist, doctors, and clergymen spoke against Eugenics, but they were quickly silenced when Hitler came to power Henry Wallace: spoke against eugenics of Germany and America and urged that only democracy can allow for scientific advancements to aid society.

17. Choices Every time a new policy was implemented by the Nazi regime the German people had a choice. They could choose to stand up and not obey the Nazi polices. However, they did not because they knew that it would get them killed. It was much easier to go with the flow and accept the Nazi propaganda. This is how the T4 plan became a reality in Germany, no-one was opposing it.

18. In the U.S. • People were enraged by the killings done in Germany, including those of Jews. • No effort to help • National Origins Act of 1924 placed restriction on population of immigrants admitted to U.S. • Eugenicists like Laughlin discouraged help for the Jews, reminding the Americans that allowing them among the midst of Americans would pollute the Caucasian race

19. Repercussions for Today • Because of eugenics, many people were sterilized • Hitler’s eugenics program and the Holocaust were largely fueled by the eugenics policies of the U.S. • If eugenics hadn’t been born, many people killed would have still been living. • If the U.S. accepted Jews into its society, then many Jews would have been saved from the Holocaust. • Although what’s done in the past cannot be reversed, at least we learn a valuable lesson in the harms that prejudice against others can do.