Lecture on Deadly Medicine: Eugenics to the Holocaust
On September 12, I attended a lecture on Deadly Medicine in in the Holocaust exhibit. I was very interested in the information I learned in the exhibit, so I decided to attend the lecture today to learn more.
Eugenics technically means "good birth" in Greek terminology. In Germany, they believed that baby production should be limited to those who have desirable qualities. This was not only true in Germany, but also in the United States. There was an American-Eugenics Movement started by researchers like Davenport, Laughlin, and Madison Grant involving the production of offspring being limited to only the people that are mentally and physically well. Many states even passed sterilization laws in the 1920s to prevent baby production from people that were "unfit to continue their kind". There was a Modern Sterilization Act in Virginia that caused controversy over the idea of sterilization. Because of the US striving for eugenics, Germany decided to join the race. It was taken to a whole new level here. Germany aimed to improve hereditary fitness of the human race through selective breeding and sterilization. Hitler initiated the idea of racial hygiene, aiming to get rid of the Jewish people because he believed they were their own race. He sought to exterminate the Jewish race from Germany and all of Europe because they were not fit for the human race. It started as simply positive eugenics, involving the promotion of "healthy Germany". This eventually led to negative eugenics, involving abortion, termination of mentally ill children, and primarily euthanasia.
Through all of Hitler's reign, he primarily sought to make the German people healthy by getting rid of the Jews. In all of his actions, from Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) to concentration camps, he wanted the Jews extinguished from Europe. I learned so much about the Holocaust and Hitler's power through this exhibit and lecture. I was intrigued by the information about selective breeding of humans. All of these terrible things happened because of one man's beliefs that Jews were a terrible "race". I really enjoyed getting to know more about this time period and the events involved.
Eugenics technically means "good birth" in Greek terminology. In Germany, they believed that baby production should be limited to those who have desirable qualities. This was not only true in Germany, but also in the United States. There was an American-Eugenics Movement started by researchers like Davenport, Laughlin, and Madison Grant involving the production of offspring being limited to only the people that are mentally and physically well. Many states even passed sterilization laws in the 1920s to prevent baby production from people that were "unfit to continue their kind". There was a Modern Sterilization Act in Virginia that caused controversy over the idea of sterilization. Because of the US striving for eugenics, Germany decided to join the race. It was taken to a whole new level here. Germany aimed to improve hereditary fitness of the human race through selective breeding and sterilization. Hitler initiated the idea of racial hygiene, aiming to get rid of the Jewish people because he believed they were their own race. He sought to exterminate the Jewish race from Germany and all of Europe because they were not fit for the human race. It started as simply positive eugenics, involving the promotion of "healthy Germany". This eventually led to negative eugenics, involving abortion, termination of mentally ill children, and primarily euthanasia.
Through all of Hitler's reign, he primarily sought to make the German people healthy by getting rid of the Jews. In all of his actions, from Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) to concentration camps, he wanted the Jews extinguished from Europe. I learned so much about the Holocaust and Hitler's power through this exhibit and lecture. I was intrigued by the information about selective breeding of humans. All of these terrible things happened because of one man's beliefs that Jews were a terrible "race". I really enjoyed getting to know more about this time period and the events involved.
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