Transcript Eugenics

Eugenics
Prophesy Speech
• January 30, 1939 Hitler gives “Prophesy
Speech”
• In this speech, Hitler tells his intention to
annihilate the entire Jewish race
• Annihilate means to make into nothing
Eugenics
• Eugenics (“good birth”) term coined by British
scientist ; movement dedicated to improving
the human race by better breeding
• Eugenics is stemmed from Italian criminalist
César Lombroso who said entire groups of
people were born to be criminals
– People with sloping foreheads, unusually large
ears, excessive length of arms, etc
• By adding biology a cure could be created
Eugenics
• One cure-sterilize those that are less sufficient in
order to keep them from reproducing
• Involuntary Sterilization was required in countries
like Italy, Germany, and The United States
– Half the states in the US passes these laws
• 1927 The United States Supreme Court upheld a
ruling in Virginia that enforced involuntary
sterilization
– “three generations of imbeciles is enough”
Eugenics
• July 1933 Nazis made the Law for the Prevention
of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases
• Nazis justify this law by congenital (at birth)
feeblemindedness
– Most often down syndrome, schizophrenia, manic
depressive, hereditary epilepsy, hereditary deafness,
hereditary blindness, severe alcoholism
• Sterilizations by year
– 1932-32,000 1935-72,000 1936-65,000
Eugenics
• Most congenital defects were reported by
facility workers
• Complications from the sterilization caused
many to die (women mostly because of the
complexity of the surgery)
Eugenics
• Next step-getting rid of the people that
already have these problems
Euthanasia
• Euthanasia is generally referred to as a “mercy
killing”
• People who may be in a coma and is not likely
they will recover or suffering from an
incurable and very painful disease; a third
party may in some cases put an end to that
person’s suffering
• It is illegal in most of the United States
– Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Texas are
exceptions
Euthanasia
• Knauer Infant
• The father of an infant born with 1 leg, 1 arm, and
blind wrote to Hitler; the father described the child
as an “idiot”
• Hitler sent his personal physician, Karl Brandt, to
examine the child; his orders were that if the doctor
found the fathers description to be accurate that in
the name of Hitler, the child should be euthanized
• Upon Brandt’s return to Berlin, he handled similar
cases in the same manner
Euthanasia
• In May 1939, Hitler instructed
Brandt to pave the way for
the killing of children by
setting up a body entitled the
`Reich Committee for the
Scientific Registering of
Serious Hereditary and
Congenital Illnesses’.
• By a decree dated 18 August
1939, doctors and midwives
were ordered to report all
cases of “deformed”
newborn.
T4
• The program quickly spread beyond infant
ages Euthanasia program codename is T4
– The name is that of the street address of the
headquarters: Tiegartenstrasse 4 in Berlin
• Bishop von Galen, a catholic priest, preached
against the T4 program; raised the issue that it
could happen to war vets next
T4
• In response Hitler shut the program down
(1941); about 71,000 had been killed by that
time (more accurately paused the program)
• The program for adult “euthanasia” was
suspended, but “children’s” and “wild”
euthanasia continued
• Much of the personnel from the Euthanasia
centers were transferred to killing centers
Last child killed in T4 program
St. Louis
• St. Louis passenger liner left
Hamburg; the ship was loaded
with 930 Jewish refugees
headed for Havana, Cuba
• Once they arrived in Cuba,
they would await their quota
number to be able to enter
into the United States
• Each passenger was required
to pay extra 230 reichsmarks
to cover a contingency fee
which was supposed to cover a
return trip if needed
St. Louis
• Corrupt Cuban officials sold the visas to Nazis
without Cuban authorization
• only 28 Jewish passengers had valid visas; the
remaining passengers were not allowed to
disembark from the ship or be admitted into
Cuba
• Ship forced out of Cuban waters; sailed along
Eastern coast; tried to radio FDR, but no
response; US would not allow refugees in
St. Louis
Holland,
France, Great
Britain , and
Belgium each
allowed a
share of the
passengers
into their
country
Anschluss
• 1938 Germany annexed
Austria
• Hitler makes the demand
on Czechoslovakia to turn
over the Sudetenland
• The idea is not unpopular;
most of the population are
German speakers and were
becoming unhappy with
Czech-dominated
government
Pretext for War
• Munich Conference
• Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister,
and Edouard Daladier, French Prime Minister
practicing the policy of appeasement, agreed
to let Hitler have the Sudetenland; most of the
people there wanted to be a part of Germany
• Hitler agreed to not take over any more of
Czechoslovakia or any other land in exchange
for the Sudetenland
Pretext for War
• March 1938 Hitler takes
Bohemia and Moravia,
another part of
Czechoslovakia
• Great Britain and France
issue guarantees to
other countries like
Poland and Slovakia;
political unrest in
Slovakia
Pretext for War
• Danzig (Gdansk) important
seaport on the Baltic Sea
• The Treaty of Versailles gave
the piece of land known as
Danzig Corridor to Poland
(from Germany)-Danzig is
on this piece of land
• Hitler issues orders to have
Danzig returned to
Germany; Poles refuse-still
counting on the promise
from Great Britain and
France
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
• In WWI, Germany struggled with war on both
fronts, so he planned ahead
• August 23, 1939 Hitler and Stalin sign a nonaggression pact stating that each country would
not attack the other
• September 1, 1939 Hitler invades Poland (Danzig
Corridor); Poland’s fate is sealed once the Soviet
Union invades; Poland falls within a month
• Both sides profit from the Non-Aggression Pact
Poland
• Nazi divides it parts of Poland
– The areas that are on the border, they are
incorporated into Germany; the area becomes
known as Warthengau
– Warsaw and Krakow were the farthest away from
Germany and had a larger population of Jewish
people
Einsatzgruppen
• Mobile killing units
were assembled; they
were called
Einsatzgruppen
• They were run out of
the SS (Nazi police
organization)
• Reinhard Heydrich was
the head of the SS
Einsatzgruppen
• One Einsatzgruppen was assigned to each
major army unit
• As a unit would invade a part of Poland, the
Einsatzgruppen would come behind to
eliminate anyone that was dangerous to Nazi
Germany, (higher ups, educators, etc.)
Schnellbrief
• A “for your eyes only” brief written by Heydrich to
determine what to do with Jews in occupied areas
• Jews could be killed if they didn’t follow German
instructions
• Judenrat is the Jewish council; generally made up of
prestigious Jews; urged Jews to comply
• Many Jews lived in small towns on the countryside
called shtetl; Germans wanted them to move to the
city
AB Aktion
• Aimed at eliminating Polish intellectuals
• About 6,500 people shot
• Germans assume that if the intellectuals are
dead, there won’t be much resistance, but
they are wrong
Polish Jews
• Hans Frank is the governor general of Krakow
• 1939 Jews are made to wear an armband with a blue
star of David; this is the first time they are made to
wear distinctive clothing
• Jews are not allowed to move without permission
• Jews are forced into slave labor
• Jewish businesses are marked with the Star of David
• Can’t use trains
• Assaults and taunting by non-Jews
Ghettos
•
•
•
•
•
They begin putting Jews in ghettos
1st ghettos 1939-40
Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, and Lublin
They seal off the ghettos with Jews inside
German authorities choose the most crowded
part of the city for the ghetto; walls are
usually built around the ghetto
Ghettos
• Severe punishments
were dealt for trying to
escape; usually death
• They had to risk leaving
because they weren’t
getting enough food
Ghettos
• Starvation brings disease
• Typhus spreads through lice
• Tuberculosis– death rates in Warsaw Ghetto
were about 90 for every 1,000
– Death rates in Lodz Ghetto
were about 76 for every 1,000
Ghettos
• In Eastern Poland, Heinrich Himmler suggests
using Lublin reservation for a dumping ground
• Adolf Eichmann is in charge of dumping Polish
Jews, but the plan never goes any further than
paper
• Hitler turns to deadlier means to solve the
“Jewish problem”
Madagascar Plan
• Madagascar Plan
• Antisemites thought of
sending Jews to the
island of Madagascar,
Africa
• As the Battle of Britain
took longer than
planned and Hitler
decided to invade the
Soviet Union, the plan
became unfeasible
Ghettos
• In the summer of 1940, Hans Frank halts
construction of further ghettos because he
thinks they are moving Jews to Madagascar
• Germany can’t conquer North Africa, timing of
Battle of Britain, and invasion of Soviet Union
impedes the Madagascar plan
Commissar Order
• September 1941 Commissar Order
• May 1941 Einsatzgruppen was reinstated
• 3,000 men split into 4 Einsatzgruppen groups:
A, B, C, D
• Responsible to army to control front lines
• June 1941 invasion began to carry out
Commissar Orders
– It demanded that any Soviet political commissar
identified among captured troops be shot
immediately
“Euphoria in Victory”
• Some historians believe that the German
reason to commit mass murder was “euphoria
in victory”
– Hitler was overconfident because he thought he
was winning the war
• 1942 was the most murderous year of the
Holocaust
– Of those that would not survive the Holocaust
only 25% of those were already dead
Polish Jews
• October 1941 Jews are no longer allowed to
emigrate from German occupied Europe
• Residential restrictions are put into place
– Jews are forced to live in same apartment
buildings
– “Jewish Star Regulation” forced to wear the star of
David as an indicator they are the enemy
– Systematic deportation to East, most to Polish
ghettos
Polish Jews
• Nazis recognize that the evacuation of certain
Jews, particularly prominent elderly,
decorated, and disabled WWI vets, would lead
to protests in foreign nations
• Heydrich and Eichmann decide to create a
“model” ghetto for prominent Jews
• They choose a Czech town named Terezin
– Terezin is and old Austrian town surrounded by
walls and a moat
Theresienstadt
• Judenrat, under the orders of Nazi authority,
compiled lists of Jews to be placed on
transport
– Theresienstadt was a transit camp for AuschwitzBirkenau
– To save some, they had to send others to death
Theresienstadt
• The International Red Cross wants to tour the
camp (they had developed a belated concern
for Jews)
• Nazis had parts of the camp cleaned, fed some
of the prisoners, and sent some off to death
before bringing in the Red Cross
• Once the Red Cross came in they saw elderly
Jews enjoying a cup of coffee at an open air
café listening to an orchestra
Theresienstadt
• They were fooled by the
façade
• Nazis even made a
propaganda film about
Theresienstadt
– “The Führer gives the
Jews a city”
– Historical Film Footage
• http://www.usmbooks.com/confiscated_pass
ports.html