Eugenics In Swing Kids

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Recommended: A reflection paper on the holocaust museum

The 1993 movie, Swing Kids includes a lot of different incidents and representations of the Nazi Germany concept of eugenics. The concept of eugenics is something that was taught and discussed during our class, making the movie easier to understand. Swing Kids helps to put a name and a face to the concept that was solely read about. One representation from the movie that could be related back to the eugenics articles was one of the earliest scenes. During this scene the main characters, Peter, Thomas, Arvid and Otto, are all walking to school when Peter’s younger brother, Willy, finds them and tells them that a Swing Kid is being beaten by a group of Hitler Youth (HJ) in a nearby alley. All of the boys ran over to the alley to help the Swing …show more content…

During this scene Arvid was innocently walking home with a Benny Goodman record to add to his collection. During his walk, he runs into a couple of HJs who proceed to take his record, smash it, and then go on to beat up Arvid as he struggles to escape. To add onto this, Emile, a former friend of Arvid’s and a former swing kid who is now apart of the HJ, severely beats Arvid and crushes his fingers with his boot. After crushing Arvid’s fingers, Emile then taunts Arvid and challenges him to see how well he will be able to play his guitar. This goes along with the eugenics article referenced in the previous paragraph, “The Origins of Nazi Genocide From Euthanasia to The Final Solution.” In relation to this particular scene from Swing Kids, the quote used in the last paragraph is applicable as well. “Newly enacted laws clearly isolated, excluded, and penalized the handicapped, Jews, and Gypsies.” Arvid is handicapped in the movie, making the scene when he was beaten in the street ‘justified’ according to the Nazi beliefs. Also, unrelated to eugenics, but related to this scene, the exhibition at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C, ‘Some Were Neighbors’, supports change in the relationship between Arvid and Emile over time. Previously, they were close friends but Emile was quick to turn on Arvid because of who he was as a person. These two different sources show the way that Arvid was represented …show more content…

Thomas, who is supposed to be Arvid’s good friend, says "You know if I were you, I wouldn't be worried about anybody but myself, because we're coming after you next." This shows that even though Thomas went into the HJ with intentions to always be a swing kid at heart, his attitude was quickly swayed when it came to the reality of things. This third scene also goes back with the other support for the past 2 scene examples. Also from the previously referenced article, “The Origins of Nazi Genocide From Euthanasia to The Final Solution,” the sterilization law, also known as the Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases, which was issued in July 1933, “opened the attack upon the handicapped.” When Thomas threatens Arvid, he is foreshadowing what is to come and what is going to happen more frequently to people that go through similar things as Arvid

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