The first program created was the T4 program. The T4 program was set up in order to quickly and efficiently euthanize the both developmentally and physically disabled. The Germans believed, them to be inferior to the general Arian population and could, therefore, be deprived of life.
The Germans had two justifications for this program. One justification was that of mercy. This justification stripped the condemned, of their “inherent dignity,” since they are being treated as animals instead of human beings.
The other justification for the T4 program was of cost effectiveness. It was presented as a way of protecting German Pensioners. They were told, that these two populations were a drain on societies recourses, and the cost of lifetime care would come out of their pensions. This justification, further stripped the condemned, of any remaining shred of “inherent dignity.” If the state believed otherwise, they would not have carried out a program of mass euthanasia, as a way to save money on the cost of lifetime care.
The Germans also carried out a program of mass genocide, known as the final solution. The
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Retribution is often commonly misunderstood as revenge. Retribution means that the punishment fits the crime. This means that the severity of the punishment fits the severity of the crime committed. Therefore, the most heinous crimes warrants the most severe punishment. The problem with this argument is that death penalty, no longer resembles a judicial execution. The death penalty, by design is so sterile and clinical, it no longer looks or feels like an execution. Further, by focusing on providing the condemned, with a quick and painless death, instead of punishing a heinous crime, the death penalty cannot serve as retribution. Therefore, the state is no longer conducting the deprivation of life, pursuant to prong one of its police
Throughout the history of man there has always existed a sort of rule pertaining to retribution for just and unjust acts. For the just came rewards, and for the unjust came punishments. This has been a law as old as time. One philosophy about the treatment of the unjust is most controversial in modern time and throughout our history; which is is the ethical decision of a death penalty. This controversial issue of punishment by death has been going on for centuries. It dates back to as early as 399 B.C.E., to when Socrates was forced to drink hemlock for his “corruption of the youth” and “impiety”.
The phrase “Final Solution” referred to their plan to annihilate the Jewish population. This plan stated that all European Jews would be killed by shooting, gassing, or any way necessary (Final Solution). The article “The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution,” documented that on January 20, 1942, the Nazis and Germans met to tell the non-Nazi Leaders what the Final Solution was, and that they were responsible for helping to get the Jews transported to the camps. The Final Solution was not the beginning for the elimination. This was already being accomplished by mobile killing squads that would shoot any Jewish men, women, or children. Later, on July 22, 1942 the gassing chambers were finished in the extermination or death camps. Camouflaging the chambers as large showers, the Jews would think they were going to bathe, when they were actually being gassed to death
On the premise that punishment is justified so long as it meted out as retribution for the offense committed; asserting that punishment of death for murderers is morally justified simply because of the degree of the crime and requires a vengeful punishment. Could this premise be applied to other crimes such as rape, arson, or burglary?
The Final Solution was the pre-planned idea to exterminate the entirety of the Jewish population. Under the decree of the Nazi Party, the Final Solution was implemented in stages. The First stage was to (essentially) unwelcome the Jews from Germany society, through boycotts, the anti-Jewish legislation, and the Night of Broken Glass, which were all aimed to remove the Jews as quickly as possible from society. This exportation quickly spread throughout Europe after the start of WWII. The second action was to send the Jews to Ghettos, isolated from all other peoples.
On the first of September, 1939 World War II began. Hitler is in power of Nazi Germany and is wanting to cleanse the German people of racially unsound elements. He enacts a program that will aim to eliminate the so called “lives unworthy of life” called the T4 program (History Place). Over the next six years throughout Germany, many people are experimenting with and euthanized to help Nazi Germany reach a “pure” state. Was this program that was enacted ethical and what has happened since then to stop something like this from happening again? What kind of medical advances and data did we achieve from it and is it ethical today to use what they learned in today’s medical trials?
The Third Reich sought to eliminate the Jews because the Germans viewed the Jews as parasites that were infecting their country and the world. With economic and physical pressure, Germany was able to encourage the Jews to flee Germany, however, not many left because of restrictions. The Nazis created the final solution in order to quickly eliminate all of the Jews that existed primarily in Germany. Through the use of medical experimentation, gas chambers, and the crematorium, around 6 million Jews were killed.
During the summer of 1941, Chancellor Adolf Hitler initialized “The Final Solution'; to the “Jewish Question';. Hitler started this program because he wanted to create a highly centralized state and one for the master race, Germans. Exterminating Jews was, for Hitler, the only way to create a perfect Germany because it would eliminate the ‘malignant tumors’, the race that caused Germany to lose World War One. Hitler’s decision to start exterminating Jews changed the course of history. In the end, over 6,000,000 Jews were killed and a Jewish state known as Israel, evolved.
Some of the people had a positive viewpoint. ONe such person was Fritz Lawz, who was a professor of race hygiene at the university of Munich (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). There were also authors that expresssed their strong agreement to the program. One such author was Karl Bindings who partnered with Adolf Hoche to write “The Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life”(“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). Throught the propaganda some families became strong supporters of the program. One such family was the family of the blind Gerhard Herbert Kretschmar, who was born with one leg and part of one arm missing. Gerhard was called an idiot by his father and his family requested his killing to Hitler. Hitler approved and Gerhard became known as the Knauer Child and was a catalyst of euthanasia (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). Some people had a negative viewpoint of the program, like Kurt Gerstein. Kurt was part of the Nazi party, but left after his sister-in-law as killed through the T-4 Program. He used his sorrow to preach at churches of the horrible doings of the Nazi’s. He had no success (Hogan #36). Others, like Samuel Beckett made fun of Hitler’s standards saying that “An Aryan must be blonde like Hitler, think like Gorig, handsome like the Goebbels, virile, like Rӧhn- and named Rosenberg.” With all these viewpoints many were left confused and no actions were being taken to stop the program. It continued
...rocedure for the Nazi regime’s extermination camps and “Final Solution.” In order for the assailants to perform their duties they had to reduce their victims to nothing, so in the end they would be “less burdened by guilt.” (DS, 126) Levi provides readers with the Nazi’s process of destruction and explains how their totalitarian system was accountable for the propagation of this level of brutality. It is mentioned that “all of them, teachers and pupils, became progressively removed from reality as little by little their morality came unglued.” (DS, 107) Here we see why it was so important to perform such useless acts of violence, because we are not conditioned to such mass killings. Both Levi’s writings, Survival in Auschwitz and The Drowned and the Saved provide an insight into life in the Lager, and the dehumanization that ultimately destroyed millions of people.
Starting with creating a Law to strip Jewish immigrants from Poland of their German citizenship. Then moving on to pass a law allowing for forced sterilization of those found by a Hereditary Health Court to have genetic defects. They also prohibit Jews from owning land, also from being newspaper editors. Jewish people are also banned from the German labor front and stripped of national health insurance. The Jews where also prohibited from receiving legal qualifications. The Nazis ban Jewish people from serving in the military. Hitler was trying to form his version of a perfect race by not only stripping Jews of their rights but also Gypsies, the mentally ill, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s witnesses. The name for the plan of the mass extermination was called “the final solution”. The Jews where sentenced to death there was really no escape for them. Some people where very lucky, some people of Jewish ancestry were sometimes able to escape being sent to the Nazi death camps if their grandparents had converted to Christianity before the date of January 18, of 1871. This date marked the start of Germanys unification and the start of the German empire. After the beginning of World War II, N...
The Holocaust is one of the most horrifying crimes against humanity. "Hitler, in an attempt to establish the pure Aryan race, decided that all mentally ill, gypsies, non supporters of Nazism, and Jews were to be eliminated from the German population. He proceeded to reach his goal in a systematic scheme." (Bauer, 58) One of his main methods of exterminating these ‘undesirables' was through the use of concentration and death camps. In January of 1941, Adolf Hitler and his top officials decided to make their 'final solution' a reality. Their goal was to eliminate the Jews and the ‘unpure' from the entire population. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp that carried out Hitler's ‘final solution' in greater numbers than any other.
Assisted- physician suicide also goes by many names such as euthanasia. 'Euthanasia' rings an enormous bell as the same structure used during the holocaust in the 1940s. The difference between now and then is the innocent lives lost because of their inc...
...ure or be used as a means for revenge. The death penalty is a severe penalty for a sever crime. I feel that it does work as a deterrent for crime because of its severity over any prison term. Capital punishment is necessary for a stable society and should not be abolished.
Finally, as part of “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, they created concentration and killing camps. Another thing the Nazi’s did was to use eugenics as another means to micromanage the population. What is eugenics, you might ask? It’s the field of scientific study or the belief in genetically improving qualities, attributes and traits in the human race and/or improving the species as a whole—usually done by controlled/selective breeding. Those with positive, desirable, and superior traits are encouraged to reproduce and may be given monetary incentives by the government to have large families.
Though capital punishment might seem like the only way to get revenge, it is morally unjust. Who are we to decide whether a person should live or die? It is morally wrong, individually or through government action, to seek revenge on a murderer by means of execution. The death penalty violates our right to life.