Hitler’s Roots in Darwin
One would agree that the Nazi holocaust actually happened and was devastatingly tragic. It is also not a very great jump of faith to realize that one of the many factors that produced the holocaust and possibly World War II was the belief in survival of the fittest and if the fit were to survive as part of evolutionary progress the weak must be eliminated.
Hitler and his supporter’s motives are very hard to diagnose. As the title of this paper suggests, the role of Darwin’s eugenics played a significant role. Darwinism warranted and sought the Nazi views on both race and war. It is mind boggling to understand that if the Nazi party, and Hitler in particular, held firm in the belief that all peoples were descendants of Adam and Eve and considered equal in God’s eyes, the holocaust might have never happened.
The question that arises is how could the doctrine of divine origin be completely stricken from mainline German theology? What doctrine would take its place? The “expunging of the Judeo-Christian doctrine of the divine origin of humans from mainline German (liberal) theology and its schools, and replacing it with Darwinism, openly contributed to the acceptance of Social Darwinism that culminated in the tragedy of the holocaust.”1Darwin’s theory most likely lead to the death of over nine million people in concentration camps, and about 40 million other humans in a war that cost about six trillion dollars.2 The climate was perfect for the widespread predication of Social Darwinism based primarily on the acceptance by the academic and scientific community. If one studies Darwinism to even the slightest degree, one could see its roots in the fact that evolution proceeds only because the fittest and the stron...
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...was our Christ and we have killed him. Or, what Hitler attempted ranks him among the most monstrous of all humans in humankind. An assessment by “Youngson concluded that the application of Darwinism to society, called eugenics, produced one of the most tragic scientific blunders of all time:
‘The culmination of this darker side of eugenics was, of course, Adolf Hitler’s attempt to produce a “‘master race’ by encouraging mating between pure ‘Aryans’” and by the murder of six million people whom he claimed to have inferior genes.”5 To say that Hitler was obsessed with the idea of eugenics would be an understatement. Hitler believed Galton to be the principle designer of eugenics but could hardly blame him for the Holocaust or even the consequences that followed. So, in terms of its consequences, this must qualify as one of the greatest scientific blunders of all time.
the other modern element in Nazi policy was their commitment to the ‘science’ of race.”
The T4 program was not the beginning of Germany’s effort to reach a super race. Leading up to the war Hitler enacted the “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases” in the year of 1933. The law called for the sterilization of anyone that had any hereditary illnesses. The list of hereditary illnesses included: “schizophrenia, epilepsy, senile disorders, therapy resistant paralysis and syphilitic diseases, retardation, encephalitis, Huntington’s chorea and other neurological conditions.” (History Place) This law was enforced by opening 200 genetic health courts that would analyze the medical records of individuals and decide if they were to be sterilized or not. The sterilization of people usually involved the use of drugs, x-rays, or uterine irritants. Dr. Horst Schumann did a lot of these experiments with sterilization at Auschwitz, where he would take a group of men/women and would expose them to x-rays. Most of his experiments with x-rays were disappointing but he kept using this method. After he subjected his subjects to x...
As one learns when reading The Racial State, Adolf Hitler's eugenic and racial-hygienic theories were not original. Theorists long before his time wrote of the same racist theories. Hitler never mentions any of these theorists in his work, but one can see when reading The Racial State, that the horrific acts that occurred during the Third Reich reflected the ideas of these theorists.
To solve this he made a new wave of propaganda “through newspapers, radios, and films” (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). The colorful commercials covered what would soon become the first mass murder program for the Nazi’s (“Euthanasia Program”). The commercials said that the “program would benefit society by not allowing “inferior people” to be produced and getting a lot more “superior people” in return” (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). The program was derived from Darwin’s Theories of Evolution (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). A new field of science called eugenics was created and helped to make the program seem more credible. Eugenics was defined as the “science of the improvement of the human race by better breeding” (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). The first eugenics institute was at the University College of London (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). The public believed that Euthanasia was a good thing and Hitler was able to put the killings into
Anyone who believes that the Holocaust was not a form of genocide is misleading and to prevent it from happening again, people should do research. The Holocaust in fact was one of the largest cases of genocide, but this is the one where nearly 11 million people, not just Jews, were brutally murdered.
Before it can be understood why the claims of these people are so outrageous, the two sides to the issue of the occurrence of the Holocaust must be explained. The majority of people believe that it did occur and use pictures, memoirs, letters, and other primary sources from the time to prove its existence. On the other hand, there is the smaller community of people who claim that there was no Holocaust. These are radical groups and self-described “revisionists. Those denying the event say that concentration camps were built after World War II was over as propaganda, and that the death toll numbers were simply made up. In their opi...
To this day it remains incomprehensible to justify a sensible account for the uprising of the Nazi Movement. It goes without saying that the unexpectedness of a mass genocide carried out for that long must have advanced through brilliant tactics implemented by a strategic leader, with a promising policy. Adolf Hitler, a soldier in the First World War himself represents the intolerant dictator of the Nazi movement, and gains his triumph by arousing Germany from its devastated state following the negative ramifications of the war. Germany, “foolishly gambled away” by communists and Jews according to Hitler in his chronicle Mein Kampf, praises the Nazi Party due to its pact to provide order, racial purity, education, economic stability, and further benefits for the state (Hitler, 2.6). Albert Speer, who worked closely under Hitler reveals in his memoir Inside the Third Reich that the Führer “was tempestuously hailed by his numerous followers,” highlighting the appreciation from the German population in response to his project of rejuvenating their state (Speer, 15). The effectiveness of Hitler’s propaganda clearly served its purpose in distracting the public from suspecting the genuine intentions behind his plan, supported by Albert Camus’ insight in The Plague that the “townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences”(Camus, 37). In this sense “humanists” represent those who perceive all people with virtue and pureness, but the anti-humanist expression in the metaphor shows the blind-sidedness of such German citizens in identifying cruel things in the world, or Hitler. When the corruption within Nazism does receive notice, Hitler at that point given h...
One of the most destructive and arrogant persons in history was Adolf Hitler. The destruction that he and his regime brought on humanity has seldom seen its equal. In reality the Holocaust was a terrible horror, but in Hitler’s mind it was merely a brushstroke in the masterpiece that he believed he was creating. Hitler believed that the Aryan race was superior to all others and that it was only natural, and not cruel, that the higher would show no humanity toward the lower (296). This prejudiced belief predominated Hitler’s thinking. In his essay, On Nation and Race, his assumption that Aryans are superior to all others creates a type of logical fallacy called “Begging the Question” (Rottenberg 291).
The Holocaust was an extremely horrific period of history. Millions were killed and lost everything, including money, family, and dignity. However, it has taught many lessons. We can study it today to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.
It is no surprise to very few that Adolph Hitler is one of the most infamous humans ever to have been born. To this day, the mention of his name can conjure up emotions deep within us. He is responsible for the deaths of millions of people either directly or indirectly. The fascinating aspect of his life is what was the true motivation behind his prejudice, cruelty, and heartlessness. The next logical speculation for most would be his upbringing or that he was physiologically unstable, more logically it was a combination of the two. However, before that conclusion can be made the history of his environment as well as how heredity could have influenced him.
Adolf Hitler makes many statements in an attempt to evoke anger towards people of the non-Aryan race, but he provides no proof to back up his statements. “All the great civilizations of the past became decadent because the originally creative race died out, as a result of contamination of the blood,” states Hitler. That is simply a statement and nothing more. There is no evidence that the Greek or Roman Empires fell as a result of “cross-breeding,” and if there is Hitler provides no such information. Hitler also says, “All that we admire in the world today, its science, its art, its technical development and discoveries are the products of the creative activities of a few peoples, and it may be true that their first in beginnings must be attributed to one race.” There are many discoveries in all areas mentioned which were made by different races; there is not one dominant race responsible for all advances in the world today. Also, Hitler still neglects...
"Science as Salvation: Weimar Eugenics, 1919–1933." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 27 May 2014.
One of the most relevant chapters in Mein Kampf to understand the basis and roots of Hitler's ideologies is Chapter XI, "Nation and Race," where Hitler discusses the imperative to defend the Aryan race from the Jewish menace and their "corrupt ways". Through this chapter of the book Hitler states his position that cross-breeding decimates the human species by indicating the digressive effects of breeding between races, encouraging the dominance of the strong, and condemning the regression of the superior races.
The treatment of Jews and other minority groups by the Nazi’s can be described as actions that could only be done by a totalitarian state. Hitler believed in eugenics, the idea of improving a race by selective breeding. Nazi ideology of the Jewish race was severe anti-Semitism and pure hatred. The Nazi policy towards the Jews has been said to be the most brutal and horrific example of anti-Semitism in history.