During World War II in Nazi Germany, over 200 doctors conducted painful, barbaric, and typically lethal experiments on concentration camp prisoners, often against their will. The purported purpose of these experiments included increasing survival odds of military personnel, testing pharmaceuticals and treatments to cure illnesses and injuries, and researching methods to promote “German nationalism.” However, the covert purpose of many of these medical experiments was for the Nazi’s to implement the “Final Solution,” a plan which ultimately resulted in the extermination of over 6 million Jews.1 While perhaps only the highest ranking Nazi doctors were privy to the grand Nazi strategy concerning medical experimentation on prisoners, a rather wide
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First, the global history of the eugenics movement is contextually relevant to this study since eugenics policies provided the backbone which legitimized the prisoner medical experimentation program in Nazi Germany. In 1859, Charles Darwin’s published On the Origin of the Species, in which he elucidated his Theory of Evolution through natural selection. Darwin’s suggested that species arise and thrive through inherited variations that increase the species’ ability to compete, survive and reproduce in order to pass on favorable traits to offspring. Sociologist Herbert Spencer took Darwin’s Theory of Evolution one step further, by proposing that societies behave like organisms and also evolve through natural selection. Spencer believed that strong cultures containing individuals with genetically advantageous characteristics would eventually overpower weak cultures containing individuals with genetically disadvantageous characteristics. Spencer’s theory, called Social Darwinism, expanded globally in the 1870’s providing a basis for the subsequent eugenics movement. As Richard Weikart of Johns Hopkins University wrote, “The eugenics movement emerged…forthrightly based on Darwinian presuppositions”2 [SHOULDN’T …show more content…
With the end of World War I in 1918, Germany was left in relative disarray. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was forced to accept blame for the war, to pay reparations to the Allied Nations, to reduce its army, to destroy its air force, and to give up its colonies.6 The terms of the treaty not only left the previously proud German people humiliated and angry, but it also created a very unstable economic environment which incited civil unrest. The “economy in Germany steadily grew worse, eventually devaluing [its currency] to an exchange rate of 4.2 trillion marks to one U.S. dollar…[and leading] to the German policy of passive resistance.”7 The ruling government at the time, the Weimar Republic, was unable to return national pride to the Germans, to reverse the high unemployment and extreme inflation in the German economy, or to otherwise calm its citizens. Furthermore, a leadership vacuum created by the weak Weimar Republic provided an opportunity for extremist German political parties to fill the leadership void. In 1931, Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), or Nazi Party, was formed. The Nazi Party became very powerful in German politics leading to Hitler’s political takeover in 1933. Shortly thereafter, Hitler set into motion his plan to end German democracy and began
First, the global history of the eugenics movement is contextually relevant to this study since eugenics policies provided the backbone which legitimized the prisoner medical experimentation program in Nazi Germany. In 1859, Charles Darwin’s published On the Origin of the Species, in which he elucidated his Theory of Evolution through natural selection. Darwin’s suggested that species arise and thrive through inherited variations that increase the species’ ability to compete, survive and reproduce in order to pass on favorable traits to offspring. Sociologist Herbert Spencer took Darwin’s Theory of Evolution one step further, by proposing that societies behave like organisms and also evolve through natural selection. Spencer believed that strong cultures containing individuals with genetically advantageous characteristics would eventually overpower weak cultures containing individuals with genetically disadvantageous characteristics. Spencer’s theory, called Social Darwinism, expanded globally in the 1870’s providing a basis for the subsequent eugenics movement. As Richard Weikart of Johns Hopkins University wrote, “The eugenics movement emerged…forthrightly based on Darwinian presuppositions”2 [SHOULDN’T …show more content…
With the end of World War I in 1918, Germany was left in relative disarray. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was forced to accept blame for the war, to pay reparations to the Allied Nations, to reduce its army, to destroy its air force, and to give up its colonies.6 The terms of the treaty not only left the previously proud German people humiliated and angry, but it also created a very unstable economic environment which incited civil unrest. The “economy in Germany steadily grew worse, eventually devaluing [its currency] to an exchange rate of 4.2 trillion marks to one U.S. dollar…[and leading] to the German policy of passive resistance.”7 The ruling government at the time, the Weimar Republic, was unable to return national pride to the Germans, to reverse the high unemployment and extreme inflation in the German economy, or to otherwise calm its citizens. Furthermore, a leadership vacuum created by the weak Weimar Republic provided an opportunity for extremist German political parties to fill the leadership void. In 1931, Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), or Nazi Party, was formed. The Nazi Party became very powerful in German politics leading to Hitler’s political takeover in 1933. Shortly thereafter, Hitler set into motion his plan to end German democracy and began