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Unit 8: Eugenics

Lesson 3: American Influences on Eugenics in Nazi Germany

Grades

  • 9-10
  • 11-12

Subjects

  • Civics
  • History
  • Social Studies

Overview of Lesson Plan

Standards

  • 1. Employ critical historical inquiry to reconstruct and reinterpret the past.
    2. Compare and evaluate the impact of stereotyping and other behaviors on individuals and groups.
    3. Analyze influences on people, events, and elements of culture in both historical and contemporary settings.
    4. Analyze how science and technology influence the core values, beliefs, and attitudes of society.

Objectives

  • 1. To understand how the American eugenics movement was connected to the social and political climate of the time and identify examples of eugenic policies and practices from American history.
    2. To understand the relationships between the American eugenics movement, the Nazi belief in and pursuit of racial purity, and the Nazi campaign to exterminate people with disabilities, Jews, gays and lesbians, and other social groups.
    3. To describe ways in which science has been used and misused to develop public policy and to influence public opinion.
    4. To identify contemporary examples of the influence of eugenic thought on people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behavior.
    5. To identify examples of American policies and politics that might be influenced by eugenics.

Questions to Consider

  • 1. What are the practical implications of eugenics?
  • 2. In what ways did American eugenics influence Nazi Germany?
  • 3. Is eugenics thought and practice “alive” today?

Resources and Materials

Activities and Procedures

  • 1. Class Discussion: Have students read “Doctor To Let Patient’s Baby Defective Die” (November, 17, 1915) The Chicago Daily Tribune.  As a class, discuss the following quote from Dr. Haiselden found in the article:
    “Many a child marked plainly as an idiot or badly deformed has been allowed to die by not tying the umbilical cord. If the cord, which must be severed at birth, is not tied immediately after, the infant will die of loss of blood. I do not mean to say that children are permitted often to die by their physicians. But such deaths are not infrequent.”
    Instead of struggling to save deformed children and those marked plainly for insanity and uselessness,” the surgeon continued, “physicians should have only the fit. I have thought over this problem for years.”
    Have students address the following questions:
    • a) What beliefs did the doctor hold about medicine, disability, and human difference?
    • b) How did the doctor determine whether or not to let the baby die?  In other words, what characteristics"in the doctor’s opinion"make someone worthy of life?
  • 2. Class Discussion: Have students read the essay, “The Nazi Biomedical Vision: Disability as Justification for Murder” (Schwartz, 2006).  Remind students to pay attention to the dates in both articles; the Chicago Tribune story is from 1915 and the programs described in Schwartz’s essay took place in the 1930s and 1940s.  Have students discuss the following questions:
    • a) What did you already know about Hitler and his pursuit of the perfect race?
    • b) What new information did you learn from the essay?
    • c) It is well known that Hitler murdered thousands of Jews.  His murder of other groups (e.g., people with disabilities, gay and lesbian people) is not as well known.  Why?
    • d) How is the logic used by Dr. Haiselden similar to the logic used by Adolph Hitler in his quest to exterminate Jews and others?
  • 3. Documentary and Class Discussion: If using the documentary (optional), “A World Without Bodies,” it would fit well in this lesson. The documentary vividly illustrates the linkages between American eugenics and the Nazi’s killing of people with disabilities.  After viewing the documentary, students can address the following questions:
    • a) How does the Nazi extermination of people with disabilities mirror the American eugenics movement?  How is it different?
    • b) Compare and contrast the way the Nazi’s dealt the death camps for Jews and the gas chambers for people with disabilities.
    • c) What might explain the town’s people’s lack of resistance to the Nazi’s campaign against people with disabilities?
  • 4. Web Search, Group Discussion, and Class Discussion: Remind students that the extermination program in Nazi Germany caused eugenics theorists in the United States and Europe to publicly backpedal on their beliefs about eliminating disabilities through euthanasia.  Beliefs and practices related to eugenics, however, are still very much a part of the world.  Ask students to explore contemporary social situations, debates, policies, laws, or institutions that appear influenced by eugenics-oriented thinking, practices, or beliefs.  
    In groups of two-to-three, have students conduct informal research in the library and on the web and explore at least one of these contemporary situations, debates, policies, laws, or institutions.  Students might explore, for example, immigration policies, mercy killing, population control strategies, or genocide.
    Students should then report back to the whole class about their topic and address the following questions:
    • a) How is this topic potentially connected to eugenics?
    • b) What are the potential dangers of this idea or concept or behavior?
  • 5. Class Discussion: Brainstorm the following questions as a whole class: Who is usually hurt by eugenics theories and practices (what types of people)?  How can individuals resist thinking and practices that devalue individuals or groups and put them at-risk in some way?

Eras

  • 1866-1920
  • 1921-1960

Disability

  • Developmental Disabilities
  • Intellectual Disabilities
  • Mental Retardation
  • Physical Disabilities

Topics

  • Eugenics
  • Euthanasia
  • Nazi Germany
  • Science and Culture

Copyright

  • ©Syracuse University, 2006.  All rights reserved.

Author(s)

  • Paula Kluth, Ph.D.

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Copyright © Syracuse University 2004. All Rights Reserved.