Nazi Eugenics Approach

With the ideas of Darwinism the seeds of eugenics were also sown , here a biological shaping of its citizens and those deemed beneficial encouraged those that were not were to be managed. The bodily appearance of groups was used as an indicator of a pre-disposition towards anti-social behaviour based upon the conception of they being more similar to animals and thus less rational, more inclined to criminality and less deserving of rights. This domestically this manifested itself in governing in a biopolitical way and of policies that discouraged these groups from having families and carrying on their genetic traits, many that were physically and mentally disabled or ill were sent to asylums, the poor to work houses. Taken to the extreme it was used as justification for the genocide of Jews

The Nazis also adopted the social Darwinist take on Darwinian evolutionary theory regarding the “survival of the fittest.” For the Nazis, survival of a race depended upon its ability to reproduce and multiply, its accumulation of land to support and feed that expanding population, and its vigilance in maintaining the purity of its gene pool, thus preserving the unique “racial” characteristics with which “nature” had equipped it for success in the struggle to survive. Since each “race” sought to expand, and since the space on the earth was finite, the struggle for survival resulted “naturally” in violent conquest and military confrontation. Hence, war even constant war was a part of nature, a part of the human condition. Hitler and the Nazi party outlined their racial enemies in clear and unequivocal terms. For Hitler and the Nazis, the Jews represented a priority enemy both within and outside Germany. Their allegedly racial and inferior genetic makeup spawned the exploitative systems of capitalism and communism. In their drive to expand, the Jews promoted and used these systems of government and state organization, including constitutions, proclamations of equal rights, and international peace, to undermine the race-consciousness of superior races like the German race and to

Eugenics is defined, in some way or the other, as the process of reshaping the human race by determining the kinds of people who will be born. As such, there is much debate in the field of eugenics, with authors, like Philip Kitcher, who support laissez-faire or a minimalist approach of eugenics in which eugenic decision-making should be limited only to avoid neurological illnesses and in which parental free choice is valued. Gregory Stock’s essay, The Enhanced and Un-Enhanced, presents otherwise by supporting the position of maximalist eugenics, allowing individuals the full extent in the selection of genes. On the other hand, the film, Gattaca, raises major ethical problems by illustrating a dystopian society resulted by extensive

The Oxford University Press defines eugenics as “the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics” with a further—and rather illuminating—explanation which states, “Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis”.

Eugenics is a taboo science, but back in 1883 it was a modern advancement, discovered by Francis Galton (Carlson). Galton’s original mission was to improve humanity by encouraging the best and healthiest couples to simply have more children; Galton created positive eugenics (Carlson). However, with the positive comes the inevitable negative. Negative Eugenics was more set on preventing the least able from reproducing, in order to preserve the fitness of the

“Every racial crossing leads inevitably sooner or later to the decline of the hybrid product as long as the higher element of this crossing is itself still existent in any kind of racial unity. The danger for the hybrid product is eliminated only at the moment when the last higher racial element is bastardized.” (Manheim). This quote is important because before concentration camps were created, this quote shows in the future about how Hitler wanted to exterminate the “un-pure” race. Through Hitler’s eyes the basis of social judgment was a three-part categorization of human beings. Aryans were at the top and they were really the only ones, in his mind, that were able to create civilizations. They were classified as culture creating. The next category was culture bearing which were people like the Latinas and Asians that could only maintain culture. The culture destroying people, Hitler believed were the Non- Aryans, which included Jews, Gays, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, Blacks, and even the Handicapped. He believed that they could only destroy civilizations and that Germany had been infected with non-Aryans. He felt like they were sub-human and that they could only threaten his perfect race. So to exterminate this imperfect race he put them in concentration camps, exiled them on the street, or forced them to work on a slave farms. Most of them ended up in concentration camps. Above the gates of all concentration

To what extents did Hitler’s love of racial purity go? Who was willing to meet these expectations? Where were these catastrophic results contained, if they were contained at all? The program was aptly named Lebensborn, or “fount of life”. Over 20,000 children came into the world as a result of the Lebensborn Program. The Lebensborn Program was an attempt to ensure Hitler’s Germanic empire, one of the most awful men in history headed this event, and Lebensborn spread like a virus over Europe.

The world is well aware that the acts of the Nazis were atrocious. This is not something one has to affirm, and is due, in large part, to an understanding of World War II and Hitler’s attempts to achieve “Aryan” purity. Germans have taken responsibility and shown remorse for their government’s actions. The United States’ role as leaders in the eugenics movement of the early 1900’s remains unknown by most Americans, even to many American scholars. The American eugenics movement, is at least partially responsibility for Hitler’s actions, at it laid

Starting in the late 19th century, American philosophers, theorists, and scientists began experimenting and theorizing the idea of eugenics. Derived from Darwinian theories and the extensive works of Gregor Mendel, eugenics is known as a set of practices aimed at enhancing the human genome into sameness. Edwin Black’s “War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race” looks at the horrific background of eugenics, the ones who supported it, and the twisted ends it came to. This source, along with the two others, brings light to the awful means pursued to obtain a brilliant, but illogical and immoral goal of sameness. Overall, a negative vibe is shown through these sources.

The Nazi’s started a huge propaganda campaign against the mentally and physically disabled Germans. In 1939 and 1941, a program of mercy killing ordered by the state, led to murder, doctors and medical staff killing about 70,000 people. According to The Holocaust Explained, “They were viewed as a burden on society, as they were unable to work, and drained resources from the state.” The Physically and Mentally disabled did not fit into the Nazi’s stereotype of the pure Aryan. The pure Aryan is a race that has been used by people who promoted ideas about racial hierarchy. In July, 1933, the Nazi’s passed a law that allowed the sterilization of 350 men and women so they could not produce mutant and unusual children. Overall, the fact that the mentally and physically disabled were thought of as misplaced in th, changed the view on them at that

More details that lead to the racial grooming is when part of the sterilization sent the disabled people to concentration camps. At first, they were to be removed from society in order to keep the true German race going. The first major camp was in Dachau. Many doctors that were involved in determining who was a jew, were the ones who actually submitted the forms to the government. Their analysis often involved measuring the face to compare the..

The idea of eugenics was first introduced by Sir Francis Galton, who believed that the breeding of two wealthy and successful members of society would produce a child superior to that of two members of the lower class. This assumption was based on the idea that genes for success or particular excellence were present in our DNA, which is passed from parent to child. Despite the blatant lack of research, two men, Georges Vacher de Lapouge and Jon Alfred Mjoen, played to the white supremacists' desires and claimed that white genes were inherently superior to other races, and with this base formed the first eugenics society. The American Eugenics Movement attempted to unethically obliterate the rising tide of lower classes by immorally

During the 19th century mankind’s obsession with racial ideas became evident. The belief of racial superiority was not unknown and we see these ideas play out in Nazi Germany. The basis of Nazi ideology was the belief of ‘superior and inferior species of human beings.’ These ideas were adapted from Social Darwinism and Eugenics.

Fritz Lenz once said that “Nazism is nothing more than applied biology.”(pg.96) While imprisoned for leading Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler read about race science and was immediately fascinates. Once the Nazis took power in the 1930s, Hitler passed the Sterilization Law. “The outlines of the were explicitly borrowed from the American eugenics program…” The law mandate that all people suffering from any disease they thought to be hereditary would be made infertil.

One way was through the selective breeding program and the other was through kidnapping of children who were considered racially pure. In his famous work, Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote, any crossing of two beings not at exactly the same level of the two parents...such mating is contrary to the will of nature for a higher breeding of all life. The Aryan race was viewed as the highest of all races, and they were not permitted to blend with the weaker race because doing so sacrifices their own greatness. The doctrine of a particularly German racial superiority was a strong belief of all Nazi Germans. Because of this emphasis on racial purity the marriage guidelines were very strict. The Nazis appointed so-called experts to determine and lay out the qualities of those that fit into this master race. Those qualities included, tall, long head, narrow face, well-defined chin, narrow nose with a very high root, soft fair (golden-blond) hair, receding light (blue or gray) eyes, and pink white skin color. In 1933, children from Eastern European occupied countries that fit the racial qualities began to be kidnapped. Himmler was a major player in the decision to deport children in occupied areas of Poland into Germany. The children from ages six to ten were relocated and settled into homes and underwent the process of Germanization. In his 1940 memorandum he wrote, It is our duty to