Shoah | Facts| Mengele| Nazi Beliefs
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|Genocide| Judenrein, Aryanization &
Germanization |
The
Eugenics Movement | Brief History|
Eugenics| Experiments
| |Marriage & Race
Laws| Judenrein |
The
Aryan Experiment|
Philosophies
Several philosophical underpinnings are important for the understanding
of the rise of the Eugenics Movement. In the then newly developing area of
Psychology, Sir Francis Galton in England became fascinated at patterns of
optimal functioning (genius) running in families. At the time, most of the
idea of inherited traits was speculative: measurements of individual
differences such as hand-strength, height, weight, reaction-time, and so
on , were the subject of exhibitions; one such exhibition appeared in the
World Fair of 19xx. Galton collated great bodies of data tracing
individual differences in prominent families in London as well as
collecting and analyzing histories. His work greatly influenced also the
growing interest of psychological measurement and studies of intelligence
measures.3
In Addition to Natural Selection and the Study of Individual
The Third Reich did not announce publicly its more sinister beliefs and
plans as they took over political control of Germany in the early 1930s.
Goebbels, in his conference notes8 noted that "we will of
course not mention Wotan", meaning Woden, the Norse Warrior God. (pg. xxx)
The Nazis, especially the upper echelon such as Hitler, Himmler and
Goebbels were keenly interested in the emerging field of Eugenics. They
were training youth from the cradle in their new philosophies and goals
with a strong emphasis on nordic traits, physique and physical fitness and
procreation: German mothers were encouraged in a variety of ways to have
many children. New icons of perfect aryan children were promoted in the
culture of the time. Early in the Reich, doctors were recruited to the
field of Eugenics: one of Hitler's more prominent doctors published
research in Margaret Sanger's journal on Birth Control in the United
States. By the time research and experimentation in Eugenics hit the
Concentration Camps, it had already been well-developed. Volumes had been
written and compiled on racial features and characteristics and the
measurement thereof. Eugenics figured heavily in the facilitation of
proposed replacement of the Aryan race and culture for others.
The Eugenics Movement in America was more pronounced than many knew.
Two persons figured heavily in the new field: Margaret Sanger, known for
Birth Control, Women's Liberation and the founding of what was to become
Planned Parenthood; and W.Davenport, a reknown Eugenicist and Zoologist.
Davenport, a Harvard educated Scientist who taught at the University of
Chicago, and headed the "Station for Experimental Evolution"1in
New York, believed that biological Statistics could be applied to the
Study of Inheritance. He proposed that certain moral traits were also
subject to inheritance/genetic factors such that one could 'breed' moral
traits into the human race. He was one of a number of scientists, who in
the first part of the century argued heartily against immigration;
redefining bigotry as science, believing that immigrants were largely
genetically inferior. His ideology set the the tone for the emerging
interest in Eugenics in this country.
Equally or even more influential on popular culture was Margaret Sanger
1883-1966. Sanger is known as a crusader for contraceptive rights; but few
know that her concern for contraception was based firmly on concern for
racial control. Her early work in impoverished environments led her to the
belief that 'genetically inferior' persons should have less children, and
that centers for birth control should be 'wisely' placed in neighborhoods
which were impoverished, which also frequently happened to be in minority
settings. Her first major 'research' journal, Birth Control
Review published articles and research by Eugenicists including a
few published by one of Hitler's Eugenicists. 9 Few know of
Sanger's concern with racial policies and control, but a careful perusal
of authors and articles in these early journals demonstrate her concern
with human engineering. She was later in life appointed honorary head of
Planned Parenthood, the group which grew out of her original organization
in the 1940s; the journal has continued as a research arm of Planned
parenthood till this day, under a different name. These and other
influences of Eugenics proponents in the United States were formidable
contributing factors in the lobbying for isolationism and restricted
immigration during World War II, hurting mostly Jewish persons wishing to
escape the Shoah.
Why were the Jewish people genetically unacceptable to the Nazis? The
answer lies in the way the Third Reich viewed the Jews. Much of this has
been discussed in other sections.(See "Judenrein") While
many people throughout history have seen and defined the Jews as both a
race and religion, the Nazis went to great links to define the Jews first
as a race, with complex racial definitions R and secondarily as
a religious and political threat.p The Nazis wanted to rid
Europe of the Jews not just because of their religion and politics, but
because they believed that the Jews were the modern day descendants of the
Hebrews, a group they considered the "root-race". ( See Root Race
Theory A Superior or Master Race would emerge and take over Europe and
then the World when this 'root race' was eradicated, ushering in a Utopian
period populated by a genetically superior people. That people, according
to the belief of the Nazis was the Aryan Race, with strong Nordic
characteristics, white, with blue and light-colored eyes and light-colored
hair, with strong physiques. The upper-most decision makers believed that
by eliminating the Jewish bloodlines of Europe and the other bloodlines of
'less-desireable' peoples, that within a generation or two, this perfect
Aryan Race would emerge, and usher in the Third Millenium, the Third
Reign, which Hitler would rule. Himmler even believed he was the
re-carnation of Heinrich I, who reigned earlier in history in a similar
matter. The plan to make Europe "Jew-free" Judenfrei or
Judenrein was from the beginning: excuses and apologetics having to
do with 'relocating' the Jews for economic reasons covered the true
motivation of the upper echelon of the Third Reich. The aim was to
annihilate even the remnant of Jewish blood (we would now say DNA) from
the peoples of Europe. the Jews were by far the most criminally treated in the Shoah, but the
Poles were among the peoples seen as "less-desireable" than the Germans.
For the most part, German-Polish marriages were not forbidden or outlowed
as were Jewish liasons, which were seen as racial-defiling. The Poles
however were seen as less intelligent, and less noble a people than the
Germans, in part because of their tolerance for the Jews in Poland. While
many Poles were in league with, or were Nazis, many also saw German
occupation as a very intolerable condition. Polish citizens were among
those relocated and deported to Auschwitz, and a number of Polish children
who were not Jewish were the subject of the bizarre experiments of
Mengele. Polish land once confiscated was seen as the manifest destiny for
the accomplishment of "Lebensraum" or the brancing out of the German
populace into the realm of Europe to reign and command resources.
Even before the Jews were targeted by Hitler as genetically
unacceptable, the developmentally delayed or 'mentally-retarded' citizens
of Germany came under the bitter scrutiny of the Third Reich. Hitler had
no no appreciation of the value of a human life for its own sake: the
mentally unfit were seen as a flaw in the German bloodlines and an
economic/social burden to the state. For this reason, early on, the Reich
sought sterilization and euthanasia procedures in institutions which
housed large numbers of what Hitler considered the 'unfit'. This was often
done without the consent of families of the 'feeble-minded' as they were
often called: parents and families would often receive a notice that their
loved one had died a peaceful death, without explanation. They would often
have to carry the costs of burial. With the mentally ill, the
developmentally delayed were also the subjects of early experiments in
mass murder, as the Nazis sought 'efficient' means of killing large
numbers of persons with minimum problems. One of the first pamplets by
Bishop Galen which the White Rose group
at the University of Munich distributed, had to do with a protest and cry
against the Reich's treatment of the mentally infirm. 10 The mentally-ill, while not slow in intelligence were also seen as
genetically inferior to ideals for Hitler's Master Race. His scientists
believed then as many believe now that "mental-illness' is a genetically
predisposed condition, and that it can be bred in or out of the human
condition. Others disagree vehemently to the nature of what we call
"mental-illness", attributing much of it to social-adaptibility and
developmental factors.11 Most of the deaths of the mentally ill
took place earlier in the 'final solution' and were independent of racial
factors.
Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience are the only category
here which were not really a 'genetic' category: but often their treatment
was the same: they were forbidden procreation in order to breed out if
possible even political/religious predispositions. They were not seen or
handled in the same way the others were handled.
the Roma and Sinti were European groups of peoples, often having roots
in Hungarian and Slovak areas which are popularly called 'gypsies'. They
were considered undesireable and targeted for eradication because of their
perceived qualites of deceptiveness, instability and wanderings. They were
considered of lesser intelligence and some even considered them 'evil'.
Many Roma and Sinti were sent to the Killing Centers for extermination
along with the Jews.
Mixed race marriages early on were seen as unacceptable and outlawed in
Germany. Jews who dated or married aryans wee accused of
'racial-defilement' and were publicly humiliated, as were their mates.
However, when Jewish spouses were arrested and deported and robbed of
citizenship, their spouses most often were not and retained full
citizenship rights.
Again, while not considered a racial group to be expunged, the
'religiously-unacceptable' were often treated in the same manner, and were
also sent to concentration camps and often executed. The most prevalent
were Jehovah's Witnesses, Evangelical Christians, and what the Nazis
called "Political" Catholics and Protestants. These persons were
considered incorrigible because of their firm stands against Nazi policies
and beliefs and because they seldom recanted their positions even under
pressure. Freemasons were also watched carefully, but the Nazis also
incorporated certain of their beliefs in their own. their inclusion here
is not because they were a direct target of the Reich's Eugenics programs,
but becuase their treatment was the same as those who were.
The elderly were often targeted for euthanasia or extermination not
because of bloodlines or defects but becuase of their lack of contribution
in a utilitarian philosophy. Jewish elderly were sent often to Terezin
which the Nazis tried to promote as a 'retirement community', but which in
fact proved to be a disguised gateway to Auschwitz. In Hitler's
progressive views of youth and vitality and a new Germany, the elderly of
all racial backgrounds were denigrated as contributing little to the new
Reich. They were among the first killed when deported to the killing
centers because of their perceived burden.
One would automatically assume that Hitler and the Nazis would see all
non-Aryan people as genetically inferiour, and to a certain extent, this
was true. All non-white, non-european peoples were seen as genetically
inferior to the Nordic peoples. However, the Nazis views towards for
example, the blacks or Indians, was more complex than one might think.
Early in the war, the Nazis courted the Indians for thier anti-British
sentiment: Goebbels encouraged comparisons between Hitler and
Ghandi.12 There were very few persons of African descent in
Europe, but the views of the Nazis on the persons of color were at once
disparaging, and sometimes 'magical': they were seen as having a role in
the move towards the replacement of the root-race with the Master Race.
Sexual deviants were seen as genetically and socially unacceptable,
although this was a hypocritical position because it is now known that
many of the upper-level Nazis were sexual deviants. This category included
homosexuals, pedophiles and those with perversions. In Dachau, homosexuals
were forced to wear pink triangles as badges to denote their reason for
incarceration. Many have strongly speculated that Hitler and his cohort
may have had a homosexual relationship, although this may have equally
played in the removal and death of the many who is credited with the
fierce countenance of the "Brown Shirt"s or SA. Often in a
'reaction-formation' or 'projection' mechanism, those behind the Third
Reich at once condemned social deviants and at the same time participated
in the deviancy in a perverse catharsis.
As mentioned previously, Germany, America and Britain were the three
nations leading in fascination and experimentation with the pseudo-science
of Eugenics in the first half of the 20th Century. While we tend to think
only of Germany in this manner, the Eugenics programs flourished in this
country, reaching even the legislature for avenues of acceptance. Many
Eugenists on both continents believed that society and a nation could rid
itself of human ills by 'breeding-out' genetically based unacceptable
temperaments and behaviors: there was an underlying assumption than much
criminal behavior had a genetic base. In this pre-cloning, pre-DNA era,
the emphasis was on breeding: the principles of animal breeding were
thought to be closely applicable to the breeding of humans as well. German
scientists, in line with views on race began to search for viable means of
establishing "clear" or "pure" Nordic/German/Aryan bloodlines. In addition
to wishing to establish a perfect physical race, their spiritual beliefs
intertwined to produce the concept of a genetically perfect, and
intellectually superior people who would tke the reigns of Europe in the
3rd Reich (or Realm, or Millenium) The funding and focus on developing a science of "Eugenics" or human
engineering increased immediately with the Nazis taking power in 1933.
This was also a function of timing: American interest in Eugenics was at
its apex also; it fit perfectly into early plans of Hitler to create a
Europe free of Jewish citizens. This 'racial cleansing' was decided early.
While some argued for years after the war that Hitler either did not know
about the mass exterminations or that he had no direct decision-making
role, nothing could be further from the truth. Early documents, speeches
and writings of Adolf Hitler show clearly that he formulated plans early
in his involvement in the Nazi party to eradicate the Jewish Race and
begin 'Endlosung or final solution to the "Jewish Problem". For
example:
Hitler did not stop at the idea of eradicating Jews and Judaism from
Europe. Once this "inferior race" was eradicated, a new Aryan race with
Nordic characteristics (see above) would over a generation or two replace
earlier inferior races. A master race concept is not new: the idea or
concept appears in many cultures, and the description of the race usually
fits the archetype of the racial group describing it. Hitler's concepts
however went far deeper. He believed with many of his inner circle that
the race that inhabited the Ancient possibly mythical city/civilization of
Atlantis were a superior group of human beings excelling in every human
attribute, physical and intellectual. This race disappeared with some
cataclysmic event but certain descendants survived. The Nazis believed the
German/nordic people called "aryans" were descendants from this super-race
of people. They also believed that the races evolved from more primitive
races, and a 'root-race' to more and more complex races. When the 'lower'
races were erased, a utopia would evolve. Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels and
others believed that a new Aryan Germany would take leadership in this
era, over a unified Europe and then over a global society. Eugenics was
the science which would aid in this process: people, like animals would be
bred towards this aryan perfection: anomalies would be removed from the
bloodlines. In Hitler's estimation, the Jews fouled the bloodlines and
this purpose: if Jewish children could not be germanized they also would
be killed. (Those few chosen for 'germanization' after their parents were
deported were often those with aryan-looking phenotypes). Experiments in
bring about that perfect bloodline included Lebensborn, the Medical
Experiments of Mengele and others in the Killing centers including "Twin "
Studies, basic research and the implementation of Racial Laws.
Additionally men and women were separated in the Camps to avoid
procreation, in the hopes of erasing Jewish birth rates. Forced abortions
and outlawed Jewish pregnancies were also legislated in some areas. (See Ghettos
Many laws were enacted when Hitler took the reigns of both Chancellor
and President, giving him absolute dictatorial power of enactment and
veto, meaning that no German legislation went into law without his
approval, and that no law he wished enacted would fail. The early laws
began to erase the rights of Jews (1933); The Nuremberg Laws (1935) erased
Jewish Citizenship and access to due process and ownership, and various
Race Laws, developed other concepts among which was 1)outlawing marriage
between Aryans & Jews and 2)Limiting Jewish Procreation. ( See "Jewish Civil
Liberties Timeline".)
Corollary to the promotion of the 'pure-aryan' family; was the push
legally and medically to make Germany and then Europe Jew-free. One of the
first measures was social: mixed marriages of Jews and Gentiles were
mocked and ridiculed and even persecuted. By 1935, Jews and Germans were
forbidden mixed marriage by law, as they were denied civil rights and
access to the the courts. Mixed couples were often in distress when one
was set for deportation and degradation, and one was allowed to stay as a
free citizen in Germany: some even chose deportation and the killing
centers over separation from spouses and children: others sought avenues
of hiding family members or aiding escapes.x
In the ghettos, many Judenrats were forced into policies and laws
regarding a ban on Jewish offspring and pregnancy. A woman already
pregnant entering the ghetto could have the child, but in some ghettos, if
a woman became pregnant, she was required to have an abortion: if she did
not willingly have one, it was forced upon her, so intent were the Nazis
on putting an end to the Jewish race. The camps were the same, only worse:
infants born in camps such as Auschwitz were immediately put to death or
used in experimentation, therefore many Jewish midwives would smother or
drown newborns and tell the mothers their children had been stillborn. A
live baby meant both mother and child would be destroyed in the gas
chambers. Couples were also separated in the camps: partly this was due to
difference in labor divisions, and partly to avoid married couples having
children. The aim was clearly a generation that would see an end to Jewish
youth. How Jewish did one have to be to be included in the Nazi Laws? This
question was greatly in discussion among"Racial Scientists" early in the
Reich. Generally, to be even 1/4 Jewish would suffice to have one fall
under the laws of racial impurity. Marriage to a Jew was discouraged at
first and later outlawed, but the Nazis mistreated but did not deport
aryans married to Jews: it was the 'race' of Jews which was the target of
the Final
Solution. The Nazis wanted to erase BLOODLINES, not just the present
generation. They wanted to make sure first, that all Jews were removed
from Germany and Europe, then that all Jews were exterminated, and lastly
that there would be no seed to begin again. The Laws declaring German
Citizenship,
the Nuremberg Laws, , stated in Article 2, the requirements for
citizenship:
and the exact definitions of Racial Purity:
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 went on to blantantly outlaw German Citizen
for Jews, stating they had no part in the Civil Rights of the
Reich.13 Racial Science by the beginning of the Reich had become so engrained in
German Society, that it rapidly gained scientific status. Methods of
verifying race like the They were essentially looking at the 'phenotype', or outward visible
manifestations of 'jewishness', before the days of DNA testing. Many of
these tests took place before deportations allowing Nazis to identify
Jewish persons for their planned pogroms. Husbands and wives, and in most cases all females and males were
segregated in the Work Camps and Killing Centers. More than just a move
for convenience, it was so there would be no sexual contact, and hence no
births: it was deemed fruitless by the Nazis to proceed with a 'final
solution' to the Jewish Question if they continued having offspring. When
on occasion a child was born in the camps, some midwives killed the child.
While this may sound brutal and heartless, a mother giving birth meant
death for both the mother and the child at the hands of the Nazis, so in
dire conditions, some midwives tried to save the mothers, since the
children were seen as a resource burden and would most certainly be killed
anyway. Separation of husbands and wives and males and females in the
Camps, was one further means of ending the Jewish race in the Nazi's eyes.
On this foundation, Hitler's earliest experiments in Eugenics and
deliberate influencing of 'bloodlines' came under the T-4 program. The T-4
program, named for its Headquarter address, was founded on the principles
of Binder and others who posited that some lives, could be classifed as
"Lebensunwerte Leben" or Life Unworthy of Life. This term meant to Binder
that the state need have no conscience in terminating lives which did not
reach a certain criteria of value or consciousness, redefining those lives
as subhuman and not for equal consideration, detrimental to both society
and to the 'cost-effectiveness' of the economy. Binder had recommended
that a State Review panel of at least three persons be appointed to
determine the degree of 'unworthiness' of the life at hand, but by the
time Conti and Brandt put the T4 program into practice, the criteria had
degenerated to a single doctor assessment, and then to a single physician
'caretaker' assessment in which , for example, the head of a State home
for 'mental deficients' could make the decision for all those in the
institution. By the end of the program, through starvation, lethal
injection and other means, close ot 75,000 deaths were accounted for in
this manner with many more continuing after public outcry stop the
practice, at least officially. The men trained in the T-4 experiments
became the central figures in Operation Reinhard, developing from
experience, excellent deceptions to keep victims calm until extermination,
and methods of extermination which would kill the most in the shortest
time, with the least 'demoralization' to the killers. Many of the Concentration or 'Killing Center' experiments were begun
partly as funded investigations of Racial Science, and partly as a larger
body of Medical Experiments in general. Scientific research was given a
wide berth and paranormal phenomena, racial and racial-determinant
research, rare language and culture research as it applied to Race were
funded along with traditional sciences which grew to focus on rocketry and
technology for the war effort. The vast number of those in forced labor,
also allowed for ease in selection 'subjects' [victims] for medical
research, without screenings or consent. Experimentation included
submerging victims in frigid waters to study hypothermia in pilots down
over waterways, disease and bacilli transmission, studies of skeletal
structures and preparation of skeletons of certain types for University
research [see Nazweiler near
Strasbourg] the study of wounds in which victims would be inflicted
with wounds to study their course and treatment, and Eugenics studies,
such as Mengele at Auschwitz conducted. Mengele is
perhaps the most widely known physician of the Shoah era, known
predominately for his cruelty and horrific experiments, even on children.
During and after conducting his doctoral research on cranial size and
features across the races, Mengele continued with his chairperson work on
Eugenics, distinguishing features across races, and other studies
involving cruelties not allowed by modern standards. Known for his "Twin
Studies" at Auschwitz, which was government funded research, Mengele and
others selected out certain 'kinds' of individuals such as twins, dwarfs,
or those with physical abnomalies for clinical 'investigation'. Medical
Experimentation) The investigations and 'research' into racial science
issues at Auschwitz and several other camps (e.g.Natzweiler) were of such
a cruel and bizarre calibre that they became issues of the War Crimes
trials. The Physician Trials were heard separately, from the traditional
charges, and while some experimentation had to do with the war effort
(e.g. studies of hypothermia, typhoid), many of the charges had to do with
human experimentation in investigations of racial science. Massive studies
were made of criteria to differentiate racial characteristics for further
use after the war.
1(Picture Credit:USHMM archives)
10 Scholl, Inge. Students Against
Tyranny
11The 'nature' vs 'nurture' arguments in psychology
and psychiatry will always proceed: most never come to any
synthesis: the most important issue here is that the consequences of
belief is behavior: because the Reich believed that mental
illness was either disease-process or congenital process, their
methods were to eradicated the defective genetic state: this was
before the more extensive knowlege of DNA and concepts of DNA
engineering came about: at that point in history, the cessation of
thosese with the condition and the cessation of procreation which
produced the condition was targeted. Even more than the retarded,
the populations of mental hospitals were targeted for
experimentation in killing methods, most notably on record is a
detailed description the use of truck exhaust pipes routed into a
small room with no ventilation for the purpose of carbon monoxide
poisoning of groups of 30 or so. It was determined early in the
Shoah, that this means was not the most efficient, and that the
poulation of interest took too long to die, and that the clean-up
was too intense. Also, there was the occasional misfortune of a
survivor who had to be killed, rather than news of the experiments
becoming known. These experiments led to the earlier forms of
killing in which specially-designed truckss were fitted with exhaust
pipes that fed back into tightly sealed back carriage of the truck.
Later it was decided that the numbers required for the extermination
of the Jews could not be accomplished killing only small groups at a
time.
12See reference 8: Op Cit.
I. The Eugenics Movement
Probably one of the most hideous aspects of the Third Reich
was their notorious fascination and experimentation 
with Eugenics. Eugenics
may be defined as "The study of hereditary improvement of the human race
by controlled selective breeding."1 It is a science of applied
Eugenics, negatively characterized by many because it it often used in the
interest of racial "refinement" or in extreme cases, genocide. The general
movement of Eugenics prospered from the late 1800s to the 1950s; there are
still outspoken advocates. While the notions of 'pure-breeding' the human
race has been around since the time of the Greek philosophers, the actual
'science'(or pseudo-science) of Eugenics has taken hold mostly in the last
100 years, as more accepted sciences such as Genetics and studies of
"Individual Differences" and Psychometrics began to appear. Encarta sites
the United States, England and Germany as the foremost nations in which
the Eugenics Movement Developed.
Darwin around the turn of the century influenced
the development not only of the emerging social sciences but also the
emerging concepts in Eugenics. Most have heard of the "survival of the
fittest" or natural selection theories of Darwin, in which he believe
according to evolutionary patterns, over the course of human history, the
most fit individuals and hence traits would survive and prevail over the
weaker, leading in course to a more fit and able person, presumably ending
in a perfected homo sapien. He also developed the concept of the
GAS: General Adaptation Syndrome; in which this evolving perfection would
suit itself progressively to the enviroment and social conditions.
Inherent in his beliefs was the assumption that over time, man and the
world would evolve in every level towards a more perfect state. Eugenics
relied heavily on that process, hoping to hurry it along by genetically
altering and selecting what were deemed more desireable4
traits. What many do not know, is that Darwin recanted much of what he had
proposed near his death.5
II. The Genetically Unacceptable
III. Nazi Germany and the Eugenics Projects
Marriage and Race Laws
a belief in
'Social Darwinism' as well as the 'natural' kind, the Third Reich went to
task with the German people to propigate the 'superior' German-aryan race
whatever way possible. One of the first ways that Hitler promoted this
cause was to give legal and tax benefits to couples marrying and bearing
children. One such act, enacted shortly after he came to office in 1933,
was to provide a loan to couples marrying who planned to bear children.
This loan could be paid off at 25% per child, hence, with 4 children, the
loan was forgiven. The promotion of the large German family was for a
variety of reasons, including producing an upcoming generation totally
raised in on 'fuhrer principles' and on the vision of the "New Reich". The
promotion of the increase in propagation was reflected, in art,
advertisement, media messages, literature and speeches of the hierarchy of
the Reich.
ARTICLE 2. (1) A citizen of the Reich may be only one who is
of German or kindred blood, and who, through his behavior, shows that he
is both desirous and personally fit to serve loyally the German people
and the Reich. (2) The right to citizenship is obtained by the grant of
Reich citizenship papers.
An individual of mixed Jewish blood is one who is descended
from one or two grandparents who, racially, were full Jews, insofar that
he is not a Jew according to Section 2 of Article 5. Full-blooded Jewish
grandparents are those who belonged to the Jewish religious
community
methods that were developing in the Psychological fields of
Individual differences and personality theory, took hold and German
scientist developed methods of measurements that included
IV. The Eugenics Experiments in the Camps: Souless Science
V. The Creation of a Master Race
One of the best known 'facts'
about the Nazis and the Holocaust among the general public is that the
Nazis thought they were and wanted to produce a 'Master Race' or in German
'Herrenvolk'. This Master Race would have utopian qualities and
characteristics of high intelligence, and cleverness, superior strength,
and a variety of other human qualities. Many believed that the superior
qualities included paranormal abilities. Nazi scientists and Racial
theorists believed they could breed this superior race, from the stock of
Nordic/ Aryan peoples, and that ridding the bloodlines of Germany of other
influences, particularly the Jews and infirm, would facilitate the
emergence of a superior people.
Shoah | Facts| Mengele|
Nazi
Beliefs |
|Genocide| Judenrein,
Aryanization & Germanization |
2"The American Heritage® Concise Dictionary," (c)
1994 Houghton Mifflin Company. (c) 1994 INSO Corporation. All rights
reserved.
3Corollating closely with Galton, Piaget's
work in Switzerland and France was aligned with the study of
individual differences in Intelligence. He was assigned the task of
identifying mentally-deficient persons in Public schools in order to
provide segregated special education and/or removal. Piaget parted
company with other psychometricians in that he looked for positive
and normal differences instead of genetically inferior 'traits'.
4The very crux of the issue of Eugenics is not in the
realm of Science; Genetics can indeed, apart from ethical
considerations now modify many aspects of human growth and
countenance. What sets Eugenics apart from Science, is the critical
issue of "Desireability". The concepts of which behaviors and traits
are socially desireable in the Eugenics model almost always focused
on political and philosophical concepts, mostly utilitarian, in
other words, what is 'useful' to society. Eugenics leaves out a more
mature understanding of human suffering, depth, and all concepts of
faith, leaving society and life as little more than "machines" of
adaptation.
5Anastasi, A. Individual
Differences
6The Gnostic Gospels Harvard
Press; 198x.
7 x
8Boelke, C. (Ed.)
The Secret Conferences of Josef Goebbels
rThe
racial definitions examined the racial inclusion not only of a
person's parents, but also of their grandparents. While orthodox
Judaism uses definitions of maternal inclusion, the Nazis used
racial criteria. Originally, a person had to be 1/4 Jewish by
genetic definition and later, even broader definitions were used. In
addition to the Reich's fascination with human engineering and
genetics, they developed psuedo-scientific methods and measures
based on bigotry and sterotypes: for example, instruments were
developed to measure nose-length and depth of eye color, believing
that "Jewishness" was manifested by these characteristics. Portrayal
of Jews followed these assumptions. (See
Anti-Semitism
pThe Jews, the Nazis believed were
a degenerate people of degenerate politics, and were held as
synonymous with "Bolsheviks" or early communists. They reasoned that
since Karl Marx and others were Jewish, that the Jews would bring
these hated 'egalitarian' ideas and poverty and social degeneration
into the social environ of Germany.