Historical Background
Eugenics and the Nuremberg Laws
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Germany government implemented a plan to create a master Aryan race by eliminating individuals they deemed racially undesirable. Post World War I Germany was suffering both politically and economically and needed something to bring “nationalism” back. Eugenics or “racial hygiene” was linked to population policy and government welfare programs. The study of it was popular with some anthropologists, psychiatrists, and geneticists. They believed sterilization of the “unfit” was a good idea. When Hitler took power he instituted forced sterilization of all those suffering from "assumed" hereditary conditions. He also introduced, the Nuremberg Laws, the first stage in anti-sematic aggression.
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"The time is not far distant when I shall be able to say that one doctor, with perhaps, ten assistants can probably effect several hundred, if not one thousand sterilizations on a single day." -Nazi Physician Carl Clauberg to SS Chief Heinrich Himmler, June 7, 1943 |
Racial Segregation and Extermination
The Nazi Racial Hygiene Policy had two purposes: eugenics and racial segregation (later extermination). In order to find a more efficient way of mass sterilization, cruel experiments on concentration camp prisoners were performed, often ending in death. Other doctors found prisoners handy subjects for experiments as well: high altitude, freezing water, and poison, to name a few. Later, Hitler’s final solution, a massive euthanasia and racial cleansing was implemented. They all had different reasons to reject their responsibilities as doctors; whether it was to meet the needs of the Army; reinforce Hitler’s racial ideology of creating a master Aryan race; or pursuing their own personal medical or academic agendas. Regardless of the reason behind the Nazi doctors’ willingness to perform these horrible acts, they disregarded the Hippocratic Oath which, in part, states”…I will keep them from harm…”