Perfecting a Race
In January 1933 Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany. Mein Kampf outlined Hitler’s plans for Germany and the Jewish people. He intended to create a united Germany, a pure Aryan race, and exterminate the Jews. While Hitler was very specific about Germany and the Jews, he was not very specific about how he was going to create a pure Aryan race. As disturbing as his plans were for the Jews, even more disturbing was the ultimate plan to exterminate the mentally and physically handicapped Germans as part of creating a pure Aryan race. Eugenics was the foundation of Hitler’s master plan to creating the perfect German.
Eugenics is a science
that deals with improving the qualities of the human species, by such means as
encouraging reproduction by persons that have inheritable desirable traits.
Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, invented the term eugenics in 1883.
Galton defined eugenics as the science of improving stock, not only by
judicious mating, but whatever tends to give the more suitable races or strains
of blood a better chance of prevailing over the less suitable than they
otherwise would have had (Wikler 184). Galton believed that talents, virtues of
character, personality, and other traits were inherited and as such offered
their bearers an advantage in natural selection. Through his research, he was
convinced that society would benefit if members of families with quality genetics
were to increase their rate of child bearing. Conversely, Galton believed that
people having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable
traits should be discouraged from reproducing.
Galton’s eugenics
movement became popular in many countries and was taught in many leading
universities. In 1905 Germany formed the Racial Hygiene Society and in 1907
Great Britain formed the English Eugenics Education Society, with Galton
elected honorary president. Other countries drawn to the movement were the
United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, Norway, France, Brazil, and
Germany. In the United States, eugenics organizations created events and
exhibits at public expositions and state fairs. They also held competitions
promoting ‘Fitter Families’, with awards being handed out by senators and
governors.
Eugenic program content
varied from country to country. While most eugenicists agreed that the human
race was becoming more genetically unfit however, they could not agree on the
cause and remedy. Several countries eugenics programs were as concerned with
new born care as much as hereditary, believing that parents passed on to their
children traits acquired during their lifetimes. Yet other countries accepted
Galton’s view that heredity was determined by selection rather than
environment. This view tends to imply that medical care frustrates evolution by
allowing people with genetic inferiority to survive and reproduce. A number of
eugenicists in several countries, such as the United States, Scandinavia, and
Germany, used intimidation and force to deal with the unfit. These measures
included sexual segregation and involuntary sterilization to prevent their
undesirable genes from propagating.
Galton, along with many
of the eugenicists, believed that those who excelled in fields such as
literature and science possessed great natural, inherited talent that
distinguished them from others. They believed that a person’s position in
society reflected their capabilities and was a good indication of the genes
likely to be passed down to future generations. Eugenics tended to lean towards
xenophobia, class bias, and racism. These tendencies embodied Nazi Germany‘s
embrace of eugenic doctrines.
The eugenics program in
Germany had the same difference of opinion as the programs in other countries.
However, the Nazis created a uniformity of viewpoint that allowed them to use
any means to achieve their pursuit of a pure Aryan race. Eugenics was the
foundation for the Nazis to accomplish racial hygiene. The emphasis on ‘blood’
called for a purifying of the nation’s gene pool so that Germans could regain
nobility and greatness of their genetically pure forbears (Wikler 185). The
Nazis euthanized unfit Aryans, mostly children, to improve the native Aryan
stock from its degenerated condition. Later the Nazis will add the euthanasia
of the Jews to prevent further adulteration of the pure Aryan race with
inferior genes. Racial hygiene, racial purity, and national health were the
over-riding principles used by Hitler and the Nazis to justify the removal of
those deemed unfit to live and produce inferior offspring.
Many countries, including the United
States, wanted to create the perfect citizen. Adolf Hitler had a vision to
create a pure Aryan race. He approved of the euthanasia of tens of thousands of
German adults and children. Hitler and the Nazis took what was learned from euthanizing
German citizens to create the death camps that killed millions of Jews.
Eugenics was the foundation for Adolf Hitler’s plan to create a pure Aryan race
and the Holocaust.
Works Cited
Dikotter, Frank. "Race
Culture: Recent Perspectives On The History Of Eugenics." American
Historical Review 103.2 (1998): 467. Military & Government
Collection. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Reed-Purvis, Julian.
"From `mercy death' to genocide: Julian Reed-Purvis examines the origins
and consequences of Nazi euthanasia. (The Unpredictable Past)." History
Review (2003): 36+. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Wikler, Daniel. "Can we
learn from eugenics?" Journal of Medical Ethics Apr. 1999: 183. Academic
OneFile. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
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