The issues of maintaining racial purity and building an ideal society are most often associated with Nazi rule, German concentration camps and the Holocaust. Few people realize, however, that the basics of the so-called Race theory was formulated in the United States of America.
When Dr. Mengele begins his "career" in the concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, the idea of racial purity is already several dozen years old. It was not born in the sick mind of Adolf Hitler; appeared in Europe many years before the outbreak of World War II.
The British, Germans, Norwegians and Swedes contributed to its creation, but the Americans were the real pioneers in this field. The fight for the purity of the white Nordic race was not initiated by the mad Nazis, but by respected doctors, scientists, and faculty of American universities. They were all focused around the pseudoscience called eugenics.
In the beginning there were peas
For the father of eugenics (Greek eugenes - well-born) is generally considered to be Francis Galton. This British scientist, who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, based on the theory of Darwin's evolution and the principle of inheritance by Gregor Mendel, created a theory saying that it is possible to collectively representatives of a given species in order to obtain desirable traits (both physical and mental) in the children born in this way. ).
In theory, therefore, it would be possible to control human reproduction in such a way that the society created in this way would consist of representatives of the best genes. On the other hand, however, Galton believed that humans are not peas (Mendel used different varieties of peas in his research on the theory of inheritance) and that the only form of eugenics should be to raise awareness and suggest the benefits of mixing such and not other genes. In 1904 he wrote: "We cannot match men and women as we please, like roosters and hens" .
Francis Galton is commonly considered the father of eugenics (Greek eugenes - well-born).
Unfortunately for the history of the world, its idea caught the eye of all kinds of racists and madmen who started building the so-called negative eugenics.
Contrary to Galton's original assumptions, negative eugenics allows for such activities as segregation, sterilization, euthanasia and the elimination of individuals with "defective" traits, which would prevent "spoilage" of the gene pool and help build a new and better race. Its basis was to be the Nordic race standing highest in the genetic hierarchy. But where did this "fixation" of eugenics with Nordic blood come from? To answer this question, go to America at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The American dream
In 1900, the United States is a true melting pot of nations. Irish, Italians, Slavs, Jews, Mexicans, Chinese and representatives of many other national and ethnic groups come to the USA. In addition, the American society also includes the reserved Indians and not so long ago liberated blacks. In most cases, however, it is an uneducated population who very quickly joins the ranks of the poor.
On the other side of the social barricade, there are descendants of newcomers from Anglo-Saxon countries who came to America many years earlier. In the early twentieth century, they are often middle and upper class, and view the masses of immigrants flowing into the United States with increasing dislike.
Such views were held by, among others the future founder of American eugenics Charles Davenport. At the end of the 19th century he became fascinated by the works of Galton and Mendel
Such views were held by, among others the future founder of American eugenics Charles Davenport. At the end of the 19th century, he became fascinated with the works of Galton and Mendel and began to form his first theses on their basis. He argued that descended from the Norse "American race" was contaminated by hordes of poor, handicapped and disabled people pouring into America.
He believed that Italians had a natural tendency to violence, and that the Irish were mentally retarded. The only useful immigrants were those who came to the USA from Anglo-Saxon countries ( he considered the Germans, for example, to be exceptionally honest and intelligent ). Soon, Davenport's views will find fans in the United States, and eugenics will be embedded in American law and state institutions. For that to happen, however, one more thing was needed. Money.
Applied eugenics
Davenport's ideas soon find support among the richest sections of American society. The eugenic movement begins to support, among others Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie (the one from Carnegie Hall), Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) and widow of the great railroad magnate E. H. Harmina.
Thanks to financial support, in 1904 in Cold Spring Harbor near New York the Experimental Evolution Station was established, the first in history "scientific" facility dealing with eugenics. Its boss is none other than Charles Davenport. Initially, the centre's research focuses on animals, but soon humans become their primary focus.
In 1909, another eugenics facility was established - the Eugenics Record Office (ERO). Its main assumption is: "segregation of imbeciles during the reproductive period" . ERO collects data from psychiatric hospitals, shelters for the disabled, prisons, and social welfare centers and uses them for pseudoscientific research. According to the assumptions of American eugenics, handicapped people should be segregated, locked in special centers or sterilized.
The eugenic movement begins to support, among others Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie
ERO employees also obtain information about families with many highly gifted people. These should be encouraged to reproduce and financially encouraged to have numerous offspring. All this to increase the pool of good genes in society.
Eugenics is slowly becoming an alliance of pseudoscientists, racists and the American rich. It is gaining more and more support among the middle class, and its ideas are preached by famous doctors, respected teachers and outstanding lawyers. All of them are starting to lobby more and more over the introduction of relevant legal acts, which would allow the eugenic theory to be put into practice.
After all, in 1909, this art succeeds. The state of Indiana is the first in the world to authorize the sterilization of the mentally ill and prisoners . Men have the vas deferens, women have fallopian tubes. Washington, Connecticut and California soon joined Indiana, and in 1910 Nevada. In 1911, the Sterilization Act is signed by New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, who will become the 28th president of the United States in two years. By 1940, about 36,000 people will be subject to compulsory sterilization in the US. women and men.
God bless America
Soon, eugenics finds its way to America's most prominent universities. It is taught at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Barkley . Before the outbreak of World War I, one of the staunch supporters of eugenics, Henry Goddard, created tests for the US military to assess the mental level of recruits. Later, similar tests are one of the basis for the decision about possible sterilization.
Over the years, new eugenic organizations have sprung up like mushrooms, and some activists of the movement are becoming more and more radical. Among others, The Society for Eugenics Research, headed by Lothrop Stoddard and Madison Grant - unrepentant racists who prove the superiority of the Nordic race and the need to eliminate the elements contaminating American blood . Another member of the Society is Edwin Katzen-Ellenbogen (Galician-born naturalized American), who will be one of the main torturers in the German concentration camp in Buchenwald.
"It is better for the world when society, instead of waiting for the execution of degenerates who have committed crimes, or letting imbeciles starve, prevents the birth of defective offspring"
Although eugenics is not popular with the general public in America, it is triumphant among the elite. The enormous wealth of the Rockefellers and Harriman allows not only to finance research, but also build the authority of the eugenic movement among politicians. Eugenics has departments within the state, police, prisons, and courts. Additionally, eugenicists collaborate with the US Army, the Department of State, and Congress.
In 1924, an extremely important trial for the eugenics movement takes place (the case of Carrie Buck). It is to evaluate the compliance of state laws on compulsory sterilization with the American constitution once and for all (finally 27 states allowed compulsory sterilization) . Ultimately, the case ends up in the Supreme Court in 1927. The verdict perfectly describes the atmosphere of that time and the influence that eugenics gained among the American elite. Supreme Court Chairman Oliver Wendell Holmes stated as follows:
It is better for the world when society, rather than waiting for the execution of degenerates who have committed crimes, or letting imbeciles starve to death, prevents the world from giving birth to defective offspring. poor parents. The rule that permits compulsory vaccination is broad enough to also apply to the cutting of the fallopian tubes.
Towards international expansion and decline
In 1912, the First International Congress of Eugenics is held in London. It is attended by the most important representatives of the eugenic movement from around the world, but the Americans are definitely the leader here. At a time when eugenics is still in its infancy in Europe, the first related legal acts are already being drafted in the US, and the eugenics lobby is constantly expanding.
It is the United States that will spread to the world the idea of the supremacy of the Nordic race, which will soon be admired by totalitarian European regimes . Texts based on American research will be read in prison by a frustrated Austrian corporal. Nevertheless, US eugenicists will never cross the threshold.
At the end of the 1930s they will regret to say that:"The Germans beat us on the head in our own game" . Davenport and Co. will dream of a complete blocking of immigration and the elimination of "maladjusted" people, but they will not. The defeat of the Third Reich in World War II will forever link eugenics with crimes committed in concentration camps. Discredited in the eyes of the public, "science" will never again have such an impact on the American elite as it did at the beginning of the 20th century.