80.
Nazi Eugenics
Under The Able Tutelage of Uncle Sam
After the eugenics movement was well established in the United States, it was spread to Germany. California eugenicists began producing literature promoting eugenics and sterilization and sending it overseas to German scientists and medical professionals.[3]
By 1933, California had subjected more people to forceful sterilization than all other U.S. states combined. The forced sterilization program engineered by the Nazis was mostly inspired by California’s.[4]
The Rockefeller Foundation helped develop and fund various German eugenics programs, including the one that Josef Mengele worked in before he went to Auschwitz.[35]
Upon returning from Germany in 1934, where more than 5,000 people per month were being forcibly sterilized, the California eugenics leader C. M. Goethe bragged to a colleague:
“You will be interested to know that your work has played a powerful part in shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind Hitler in this epoch-making program. Everywhere I sensed that their opinions have been tremendously stimulated by American thought. I want you, my dear friend, to carry this thought with you for the rest of your life, that you have really jolted into action a great government of 60 million people.”[6]
Eugenics researcher Harry H. Laughlin often bragged that his Model Eugenic Sterilization laws had been implemented in the 1935 Nuremberg racial hygiene laws.[7] In 1936, Laughlin was invited to an award ceremony at Heidelberg University in Germany (scheduled on the anniversary of Hitler’s 1934 purge of Jews from the Heidelberg faculty), to receive an honorary doctorate for his work on the “science of racial cleansing”.
Due to financial limitations, Laughlin was unable to attend the ceremony and had to pick it up from the Rockefeller Institute. Afterwards, he proudly shared the award with his colleagues, remarking that he felt that it symbolized the “common understanding of German and American scientists of the nature of eugenics.”[8]
By 1933, California had subjected more people to forceful sterilization than all other U.S. states combined. The forced sterilization program engineered by the Nazis was mostly inspired by California’s.[4]
The Rockefeller Foundation helped develop and fund various German eugenics programs, including the one that Josef Mengele worked in before he went to Auschwitz.[35]
Upon returning from Germany in 1934, where more than 5,000 people per month were being forcibly sterilized, the California eugenics leader C. M. Goethe bragged to a colleague:
“You will be interested to know that your work has played a powerful part in shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind Hitler in this epoch-making program. Everywhere I sensed that their opinions have been tremendously stimulated by American thought. I want you, my dear friend, to carry this thought with you for the rest of your life, that you have really jolted into action a great government of 60 million people.”[6]
Eugenics researcher Harry H. Laughlin often bragged that his Model Eugenic Sterilization laws had been implemented in the 1935 Nuremberg racial hygiene laws.[7] In 1936, Laughlin was invited to an award ceremony at Heidelberg University in Germany (scheduled on the anniversary of Hitler’s 1934 purge of Jews from the Heidelberg faculty), to receive an honorary doctorate for his work on the “science of racial cleansing”.
Due to financial limitations, Laughlin was unable to attend the ceremony and had to pick it up from the Rockefeller Institute. Afterwards, he proudly shared the award with his colleagues, remarking that he felt that it symbolized the “common understanding of German and American scientists of the nature of eugenics.”[8]
Hitler’s Views On Eugenics
Propaganda for Nazi Germany’s T-4 Euthanasia Program: “This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money, too.” from the Office of Racial Policy’s Neues Volk.
Adolf Hitler read racial hygiene tracts during his imprisonment in Landsberg Prison.[9] He thought that Germany could become strong again only if the state applied the principles of racial hygiene and eugenics to German society.
Hitler believed the nation had become weak, corrupted by the infusion of degenerate elements into its bloodstream.[10] These had to be removed quickly. He also believed that the strong and the racially pure should be encouraged to have more children, and that the weak and the racially impure should be neutralized by one means or another.
The racialism and idea of competition, termed social Darwinism in 1944, were discussed by European scientists and also in the Vienna press during the 1920s. Where Hitler picked up the ideas is uncertain.
The theory of evolution had been generally accepted in Germany at the time but this sort of extremism was rare.[11] In 1876, Ernst Haeckel had discussed the selective infanticide policy of the Greek city of ancient Sparta.[12]
In his Second Book, which was unpublished during the Nazi era, Hitler praised Sparta, “The exposure of the sick, weak, deformed children, in short, their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject, and indeed at any price, and yet takes the life of a hundred thousand healthy children in consequence of birth control or through abortions, in order subsequently to breed a race of degenerates burdened with illnesses.”[13],[14]
Hitler believed the nation had become weak, corrupted by the infusion of degenerate elements into its bloodstream.[10] These had to be removed quickly. He also believed that the strong and the racially pure should be encouraged to have more children, and that the weak and the racially impure should be neutralized by one means or another.
The racialism and idea of competition, termed social Darwinism in 1944, were discussed by European scientists and also in the Vienna press during the 1920s. Where Hitler picked up the ideas is uncertain.
The theory of evolution had been generally accepted in Germany at the time but this sort of extremism was rare.[11] In 1876, Ernst Haeckel had discussed the selective infanticide policy of the Greek city of ancient Sparta.[12]
In his Second Book, which was unpublished during the Nazi era, Hitler praised Sparta, “The exposure of the sick, weak, deformed children, in short, their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject, and indeed at any price, and yet takes the life of a hundred thousand healthy children in consequence of birth control or through abortions, in order subsequently to breed a race of degenerates burdened with illnesses.”[13],[14]
Nazi Eugenics Program
The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, proclaimed on July 14, 1933, required physicians to register every case of hereditary illness known to them, except in women over 45 years of age.[16] Physicians could be fined for failing to comply.
In 1934, the first year of the Law’s operation, nearly 4,000 people appealed against the decisions of sterilization authorities. A total of 3,559 of the appeals failed.
By the end of the Nazi regime, over 200 Hereditary Health Courts (Erbgesundheitsgerichte) were created, and under their rulings over 400,000 people were sterilized against their will.[17] 70,000 were killed under Action T4, a “euthanasia” program.[12]
In 1934, the first year of the Law’s operation, nearly 4,000 people appealed against the decisions of sterilization authorities. A total of 3,559 of the appeals failed.
By the end of the Nazi regime, over 200 Hereditary Health Courts (Erbgesundheitsgerichte) were created, and under their rulings over 400,000 people were sterilized against their will.[17] 70,000 were killed under Action T4, a “euthanasia” program.[12]
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for kindly participating in this Krsna consciousness movement. This movement is very important. It is the movement to save human society from spiritual death. At the present moment human society is being misled by blind leaders. The situation is like that of a blind man helping other blind men to cross the street. There is blind following in the sense that we do not know what the real aim of human life is.
The aim of human life is to achieve self-realization and reestablish our lost relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That relationship is the missing point in today's society. The Krsna consciousness movement is trying to enlighten human society on this important point.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Paris, 1973)
Nazi Eugenics Institutions
The Hadamar Clinic was a mental hospital in the German town of Hadamar used by the Nazi-controlled German government as the site of Action T4. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927.
Hartheim Euthanasia Centre was also part of the euthanasia programme where allegedly disabled individuals were murdered by the Nazis.
The first method used involved transporting patients by buses in which the exhaust gases were passed into the interior of the buses, and so killed the passengers. Gas chambers were developed later and used pure carbon monoxide gas to kill the patients.
Grafeneck Castle was one of Nazi Germany’s killing centers, and today it is a memorial place dedicated to the victims of the Action T4.
Hartheim Euthanasia Centre was also part of the euthanasia programme where allegedly disabled individuals were murdered by the Nazis.
The first method used involved transporting patients by buses in which the exhaust gases were passed into the interior of the buses, and so killed the passengers. Gas chambers were developed later and used pure carbon monoxide gas to kill the patients.
Grafeneck Castle was one of Nazi Germany’s killing centers, and today it is a memorial place dedicated to the victims of the Action T4.
Identification
The Law for Simplification of the Health System of July 1934 created Information Centers for Genetic and Racial Hygenie, as well as Health Offices. The law also described procedures for ‘denunciation’ and ‘evaluation’ of people, who were then sent to a Genetic Health Court where sterilization was decided.[18]
Information to determine who was considered ‘genetically sick’ was gathered from routine information supplied by people to doctor’s offices and welfare departments. Standardized Collection bus for killing patients questionnaires had been designed by Nazi officials with the help of Dehomag (a subsidiary of IBM in the 1930s), so that the information could be encoded easily onto Hollerith punch cards for fast sorting and counting.[19]
In Hamburg, doctors gave information into a Central Health Passport Archive (circa 1934), under something called the ‘Health-Related Total Observation of Life’. This file was to contain reports from doctors, but also courts, insurance companies, sports clubs, the Hitler Youth, the military, the labor service, colleges, etc. Any institution that gave information would get information back in return.[20]
Information to determine who was considered ‘genetically sick’ was gathered from routine information supplied by people to doctor’s offices and welfare departments. Standardized Collection bus for killing patients questionnaires had been designed by Nazi officials with the help of Dehomag (a subsidiary of IBM in the 1930s), so that the information could be encoded easily onto Hollerith punch cards for fast sorting and counting.[19]
In Hamburg, doctors gave information into a Central Health Passport Archive (circa 1934), under something called the ‘Health-Related Total Observation of Life’. This file was to contain reports from doctors, but also courts, insurance companies, sports clubs, the Hitler Youth, the military, the labor service, colleges, etc. Any institution that gave information would get information back in return.[20]
Nazi Eugenics Policies Regarding Marriage
Nazi Germany had strict marriage laws in which marriage partners had to be tested for any hereditary diseases. Everyone was encouraged to carefully evaluate their prospective marriage partners eugenically during courtship. Members of the SS were cautioned to carefully interview prospective marriage partners to make sure they had no family history of hereditary disease or insanity.
Reference
Source: Wikipedia and others.
1. “Close-up of Richard Jenne, the last child killed by the head nurse at the Kaufbeuren-Irsee euthanasia facility.”. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
2. Ian Kershaw, Hitler: A Profile in Power, Chapter VI, first section (London, 1991, rev. 2001)
3. a b Black, 2003: p. 1
4. Murphy & Lappé, 1994: p. 18
5. Black, 2003: p. 5
6. Black, 2003: p. 4
7. Jackson, John P. & Weidman, Nadine M. (2005). Race, racism, and science: social impact and interaction. Rutgers University Press. p. 123.ISBN 978-0-8135-3736-8.
8. Lombardo, Paul A. (2008). Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and “Buck v. Bell”. JHU Press. pp. 211–213.ISBN 9780801890109.
9. Friedman, Jonathan C. (2011). The Routledge History of the Holocaust. Taylor & Francis. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-415-77956-2. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
10. Evans, Richard J. (2005). The Third Reich in Power. Penguin Press. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-59420-074-8. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
11. Dónal P O’Mathúna: “Human dignity in the Nazi era: implications for contemporary bioethics”, BMC Med Ethics 2006. online March 14, 2006(English)
12. Haeckel, Ernst (1876). “The History of Creation, vol. I”. New York: D. Appleton. p. 170. “Among the Spartans all newly born children were subject to a careful examination or selection. All those that were weak, sickly, or affected with any bodily infirmity, were killed. Only the perfectly healthy and strong children were allowed to live, and they alone afterwards propagated the race.”
13. Hitler, Adolf (1961). Hitler’s Secret Book. New York: Grove Press. pp. 17–18.ISBN 0-394-62003-8. OCLC 9830111.
14. Hawkins, Mike (1997). Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: nature as model and nature as threat. Cambridge University Press. p. 276. ISBN 0-521-57434-X. OCLC 34705047.
15. San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, November 9, 2003--”Eugenics and the Nazis – the California connection” by Edwin Black:
16. facinghistorycampus.org – The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased
17. Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988): 108.
18. The Nazi census: identification and control in the Third Reich, By Götz Aly, Karl Heinz Roth, Edwin Black, Assenka Oksiloff , 2004, Temple University Press, p104
19. Please see IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black, 2001, Crown / Random House, pg 93-96 and elsewhere
20. The Nazi census: identification and control in the Third Reich, By Götz Aly, Karl Heinz Roth, Edwin Black, Assenka Oksiloff , 2004, Temple University Press, p104-108
21. Padfield, Peter Himmler New York:1990--Henry Holt
Source: Wikipedia and others.
1. “Close-up of Richard Jenne, the last child killed by the head nurse at the Kaufbeuren-Irsee euthanasia facility.”. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
2. Ian Kershaw, Hitler: A Profile in Power, Chapter VI, first section (London, 1991, rev. 2001)
3. a b Black, 2003: p. 1
4. Murphy & Lappé, 1994: p. 18
5. Black, 2003: p. 5
6. Black, 2003: p. 4
7. Jackson, John P. & Weidman, Nadine M. (2005). Race, racism, and science: social impact and interaction. Rutgers University Press. p. 123.ISBN 978-0-8135-3736-8.
8. Lombardo, Paul A. (2008). Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and “Buck v. Bell”. JHU Press. pp. 211–213.ISBN 9780801890109.
9. Friedman, Jonathan C. (2011). The Routledge History of the Holocaust. Taylor & Francis. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-415-77956-2. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
10. Evans, Richard J. (2005). The Third Reich in Power. Penguin Press. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-59420-074-8. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
11. Dónal P O’Mathúna: “Human dignity in the Nazi era: implications for contemporary bioethics”, BMC Med Ethics 2006. online March 14, 2006(English)
12. Haeckel, Ernst (1876). “The History of Creation, vol. I”. New York: D. Appleton. p. 170. “Among the Spartans all newly born children were subject to a careful examination or selection. All those that were weak, sickly, or affected with any bodily infirmity, were killed. Only the perfectly healthy and strong children were allowed to live, and they alone afterwards propagated the race.”
13. Hitler, Adolf (1961). Hitler’s Secret Book. New York: Grove Press. pp. 17–18.ISBN 0-394-62003-8. OCLC 9830111.
14. Hawkins, Mike (1997). Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: nature as model and nature as threat. Cambridge University Press. p. 276. ISBN 0-521-57434-X. OCLC 34705047.
15. San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, November 9, 2003--”Eugenics and the Nazis – the California connection” by Edwin Black:
16. facinghistorycampus.org – The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased
17. Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988): 108.
18. The Nazi census: identification and control in the Third Reich, By Götz Aly, Karl Heinz Roth, Edwin Black, Assenka Oksiloff , 2004, Temple University Press, p104
19. Please see IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black, 2001, Crown / Random House, pg 93-96 and elsewhere
20. The Nazi census: identification and control in the Third Reich, By Götz Aly, Karl Heinz Roth, Edwin Black, Assenka Oksiloff , 2004, Temple University Press, p104-108
21. Padfield, Peter Himmler New York:1990--Henry Holt
