Introduction
“A race is a group with inborn qualities that can either improve or degenerate.”
Reason 1
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website, Nazi racial ideology centered around the idea that people’s characteristics, attitudes, abilities, and behaviors were determined by their racial makeup. These qualities were considered able to be transmitted from one generation to the next and could not be overcome. With this idea of race as their backing, the Nazi Germans considered themselves to be a part of the superior Aryan race. While this race was supposed to be gifted above all other races, they still were faced with threats of internal dissolution through intermarriages between “inherently inferior races” including Jews and Blacks, people who were “genetically degenerate” (including the mentally and physically disabled) and people who engaged in socially deviant behaviors (including promiscuity and homosexuality). To prevent this from becoming a reality, Nazi Germany adopted a similar method of thinking to the American Eugenics movement that “favored the elimination of degenerate elements within the white race and argued for preventing miscegenation between races” (Kuhl, 6:5a).
Galton, within his theory of race, defines eugenics as “the science that deals with all influences that improve the quality of a race; also with those that develop them to the utmost advantage.” (Bernasconi, Lott 79). Eugenicists believe that there are innate differences within human stock. Hitler and the Nazi Germany movement were no exception. Hitler “assumed that such differences were vitally important and that the purity of the racial strain must be preserved” (Kuhl, 5:5a). These methods of preservation included very extreme measures such as the sterilization of mentally and physically disabled and euthanasia of those considered inferior. Thus, this definition of Eugenics directly facilitates Nazi rhetoric by appealing to German fears in losing racial distinction as a superior group and allowing them to protect their position as a superior group by any means necessary.
Reason 2
In general, “mainline eugenicists explained the inequality between races as the result of superior adaption by some groups in the struggle for existence.” (Kuhl, 6:5b). This struggle for existence, also known as the “Survival of the Fittest” concept, was considered to be consistent with the laws of nature in the both the eugenicist and Nazi perspective. Thus, they believed that superior races had not just the right, but the obligation to subdue and even exterminate inferior races. “As it lies within his [human’s] power”, Galton states, “so it becomes his duty to work in that direction.” (83). Galton believed that eugenics cooperated “with the workings of nature by securing that humanity shall be represented by the fittest of races.” (Bernasconi, Lott 83) Within Galton’s theory, he claims that the eugenics movement does what nature “blindly, slowly and ruthlessly” does on its own (Bernasconi, Lott 83). Galton’s theory supports Nazi Germany’s eugenics movement by attributing the purpose of their eugenics movement to the natural order of the world and making the movement appear as if it is doing nature a favor by quickly removing the “inherently inferior” from the earth or preventing them to reproduce.
Reason 3
Finally, Galton’s theory of race helps to facilitate Nazi rhetoric by stressing the importance of placing Nazi rhetoric in Germans’ daily life and conversation. According to Galton, there must be a “persistence in setting forth the national importance of eugenics” (Bernasconi, Lott 83). Firstly, “it [eugenics] must be made familiar as an academic question until its exact importance has been understood and accepted as a fact.” (Bernasconi, Lott 83). Nazi rhetoric was definitely prevalent in Germany during this time starting with the youth in academia. According to Judy Monhollen, “history classes focused on the Nazi revolution and reinterpreted history based on racial principles, especially the significance of the Aryan race in the world. Biology centered on the laws of heredity, racial breeding and the need for racial purity.” Hitler placed a special focus on German youth by instilling a sense of belonging to an exclusive racial community so that these things would become unquestionable. Secondly, “it [eugenics] must be recognized as a subject whose practical development deserves serious consideration.” (Bernasconi, Lott 83). Throughout the history of the Eugenics movement as the Kuhl articles show, research on and development of eugenics has been an ongoing process. Multiple perspectives, considerations and ideals on the topic of eugenics have been passed back and forth between America and Germany. Lastly, “it [eugenics] must be introduced into the national conscience like a new religion.” Hitler introduced the Nazi rhetoric to Germany through repetitive propaganda. “Hitler highly valued propaganda as a means to reach the masses and he did so with aplomb,”Judy Monhollen wrote, “founding the Reich’s Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in 1933 and placing Joseph Goebbels in charge of the Ministry.” As Minister of Enlightenment, Goebbels goals were to ensure there was no propaganda against the Nazi Party and to persuade Germans to see the importance in the Nazi Party. (Trueman). The Ministry accomplished these goals by infiltrating all sources of news and media.
Counterargument
It is realistic to assume that the idea that race is the attempt to define human beings by visible differences or through scientific methods and to distinguish them physically, psychologically, intellectually, socially, or culturally since Nazis and eugenicists have done scientific or medical experiments to try and define “race”. I would be more inclined to believe this argument if the Nazi Ideology of race extended beyond their bias toward themselves, however it does not. Most of the experiments conducted by Nazi doctors have of course been swayed to support the Nazi Party.