Eugenics and the Horrors of Genocide in Nazi Germany - Essay Example

Eugenics and the Horrors of Genocide in Nazi Germany The theory of eugenics is based upon the idea that had good intentions with a wide number of very terrible results. The basic idea was to improve the population through genetic manipulation so that a better form of human species would be the result. This sounds like a wonderful idea to increase higher quality traits and decrease less desirable traits to form a better society. The horror of the concept is that it promoted the ideas that were prejudicial based on physical traits. Furthermore, the diversity of the human race was in jeopardy through men believing that they had the right to control the procreative process. Everything from sterilizing people with mental challenges to the desire to curb the procreation of darker skinned people became a part of the eugenics program. This was taken to the extreme during Adolf Hitler’s reign in Germany when he terrorized the landscape with ambitions of genocide in order to create a blonde, blue-eyed race of people. Ironically, Hitler was a dark haired man whose features were more Slavic than the light features that he seemed to prefer. Through the belief that he could create a superior race, Adolf Hitler took the ideas of eugenics to its extreme and even after discounting it, he developed his own theories of hygienics with which widespread attempts at genocide were developed along a variety of racial and social group lines. In the 1870s industrialization began to create a thriving economy in Germany, but a wide gap between wealth created a society in which was exacerbated by a lack of infrastructure. The population was growing at a rate that was not in step with the provisions that were available at a social level. Mortality rates began to skyrocket and the development of a definable issue meant that solutions would soon also emerge. Medical ‘advances’ began to define the meaning of human existence, often through the delusions of prejudiced theories that supported an idea that there was a human race and a series of sub-human races. (Hawkings 12). During the time between the 1870s and the 1930s a relationship had developed between American eugenics experts and German scientists with the same goals. In the 1930s, however, the relationship became strained. The racism that developed in Nazi Germany involving those of an ethnic Jewish background became an issue of contention and the American scientists were not interested in the idea that being Jewish meant being inferior (Kuhl 98). One of the clear signs that the racism was infecting the society of Germany is that of the Nuremburg laws which stated that those with Jewish heritage in their background would not be allowed to have citizenship. Decrees began to emerge that were further and further limiting the rights of those with ethnic Jewish ancestry, creating a prejudicial climate that began to define the nature of the believes as being centered on heritage that broke the code of acceptable genetics which was growing in the nation (Kujl 99). The Americans were not limited to eugenic beliefs that were focused only on race based on skin color, but the anti-Semitism in the United States did not extend to the extent it was being practiced in Germany. German propaganda suggested, however, that the United States was taking a similar stand on the position of Jewish people within their society (Kuhl 99). Although this was not strictly true, Hitler had been in close correspondence with scientists in the United States who were interested in the study of eugenics. Hitler used devices in order to create support in Germany for the beliefs that he was confusing with science. One of these devices was to give honorary degrees in German universities to scientists whose work supported some of his ideas (Kuhl). The idea of eugenics and the laws that were passed in Germany were framed by the German government as a science, proving that they had a superior knowledge on biology and the nature of genetics as they were applied to the species and sub-species of the human race. More importantly, there was a growing belief that by destroying certain gene lines, an improved race of people could perform at a higher level of intelligence towards discovery and innovation (Kuhl). The concepts of eugenics seem to create superiority and oppression, dividing the human race through classifications that dehumanized certain heritages while exalting others so that birth was considered a determinant of how the individual was restricted for what they could accomplish in society. Friedlander writes that “Nazi genocide did not take place in a vacuum’ (1). The problem with the period of time in which the ideas of the Nazi regime were developed is that many of the ideas that were being put forward were only slightly more radical than what mainstream science was discussing at the time. The idea that a superior species was the primary species of humanity, with sub-species which consisted of Native Americans, African Americans, and those who did not have European ancestry was ripe within the scientific community. Friedlander continues to write that what the German government did was provide political context for the belief system that supported the ideas about eugenics. He states that “the Nazis created the political framework that made it possible to translate the ideology of equality into a policy of exclusion” (Friedlander 1). This meant that the ideology of exclusion was made policy, placing a great number of people at risk. It was through biology that Hitler formed his National Socialism. Kuhl quotes Hitler for saying “the final step in the overcoming of historicism and the recognition of purely biological values” (62). The medical community fell in step behind the goals that Hitler had developed his belief in the potential for a ‘pure’ state of human biology supported by the science that was bent on being convinced on the issue. When it was taken to the next step, however, the world began to see the fallacy of the idea of eugenics. Hitler, on the other hand, used his beliefs to work towards taking out a wide number of different people who represented what he did not believe was a part of the primary set of species in the human line of existence (Proctor 65). While the supporters of eugenics were searching for proof of different species of humans, the Socialists began to believe that there were not sub-species of human beings, but that the state of the human being could be improved by removing certain gene pools (Kuhl 77). The development of the Nazi plan to change the genetics of the human being was met with criticism at the Seventh International Congress for Genetics. The conflict came between American geneticists and Nazi hygienists, their plan to cleanse the world of the impure not outside of the idea of genetic manipulation. Scientists were questioning the theory of human racial differences that were scientifically relevant and that maybe there was only one species of human being (Kuhl 78). When the theories of cleansing the Earth through the hygienist theories about human existence were put into place, the world saw devastation on a new level. Not only were people outside of the program taken out of society and denied their rights as citizens, they were put into camps where their rights as human beings were placed in jeopardy. Life was no longer defined by human rights to food, care, and shelter, but survival was the singular idea that was held over the heads of the various prisoners who were routinely killed through mass murder in chambers filled with gas. Scientific theory was twisted until it fit the beliefs that people had cultivated about the superiority and inferiority of different types of people. According to Kuhl, the scientists at the 1937 Congress sent a resolution to the secretary of the congress calling for “a special section to discuss differences between human races, to explore the question of whether theories of racial superiority had any scientific basis, and to debate whether eugenics measures to lead to any definite improvements in society” (78). While there was a belief in the differences mattering where human species was concerned, there was a significant number who began to question that idea as they saw the beginnings of what could happen should people truly believe that there were sub-species of human beings. The development of the eugenics theory supported the ideas that Adolf Hitler had about how human existence should be controlled. Although he eventually came to the conclusion that people were not different species, but rather merely in possession of better or less desirable traits, the foundation of his research and discovery when working with different scientists set him on the course that led him to commit the horrors of the torture and death in the concentration camps intent on eradicated undesirable genes from the human pool. Without the exploration of junk science based on beliefs that had no scientific foundation, the beliefs that Hitler used to create his theories might never have developed. Eugenics led to a terrible destination. Works Cited Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1995. Print. Hawkins, Mike. Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: Nature As Model and Nature As Threat. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997. Print. Kuhl, Stefan. The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Nationalism, and German National Socialism. New York: Ford University Press, 1994. Proctor, Robert. Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1988. Print. Rubenfeld, Sheldon. Medicine After the Holocaust: From the Master Race to the Human Genome and Beyond. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print. Outline Thesis: Through the belief that he could create a superior race, Adolf Hitler took the ideas of eugenics to its extreme and even after discounting it, he developed his own theories of hygienics with which widespread attempts at genocide were developed along a variety of racial and social group lines I. Introduction II. Body A. Historical developments 1. Population issues in Germany 2. Lack of an infrastructure B. Hitler and Science 1. Hitler formed social policy based on eugenics 2. Hitler formed relationships with scientists 3. Hitler gathered goodwill until the scientists discounted his theories C. The Beginning of Hygienics 1. Scientists in the world began to question eugenics 2. Hitler had abandoned the idea of eugenics for hygienics III. Conclusion Read More