The Science Of Eugenics In The Holocaust
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, eugenics is: “a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed”. ("Definition of Eugenics by Merriam-Webster") The most common example of this concept would be the Holocaust, which was the extermination of Jewish people and others deemed “unfit” for society in World War Ⅱ. But little do many know, the Nazi’s were not the only people practicing eugenics in the early 1900’s, eugenics was being practiced in the United States long before the Holocaust. The American Eugenics Society aimed to educate American people on the science of Eugenics. It was established by Madison Grant, Harry H Laughlin, Henry Crampton, Irving Fisher and Henry …show more content…
Accounts about the behavior past generations were taken from children and grandchildren, or sometimes even people like neighbors or friends. (The University of Florida, "Science of Eugenics", 2014) This made the accuracy of their studies questionable. It is not certain that the science of eugenics was really science at all, but rather the scientists twisted the information or their sources to prove what they wanted to prove. The Americans then took their inaccurate science and sent it to countries including Germany. After studying the American eugenics concept, Hitler medicalized their concept in an attempt to legitimize it even more. “"I have studied with great interest," he told a fellow Nazi, "the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would, in all probability, be of no value or be injurious to the racial stock."” (Black, "The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics", 2003)These countries were then able to use the Americans study of eugenics for their own practices if they chose to, as Germany did. “...at the Nuremberg trials that followed World War Ⅱ, Nazis who has carried out 375,000 forced eugenic sterilizations cited Buck v. Bell in defense of their actions.” (Cohen, Imbeciles: the Supreme Court, American eugenics, and the sterilization of Carrie Buck, 2016, p. 11) The Americans gave the Germans justification for their actions and “science” to back them up, which influenced their decision to carry out the things they did during World War Ⅱ like the
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