Compare And Contrast Nazi German Eugenics

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In the early twentieth century, eugenics became a integral part of common life in nations such as the United States and later on, Germany. Eugenics, the Greek word meaning “good birthed,” involved selectively breeding humans to pass down favorable traits while expelling unfavorable traits, with glorified nationalistic intentions to better a nation and its future progress. The United States eugenics movement was surprisingly not much different from Nazi Germany’s eugenics movement, and in fact, the United States may have helped influence Adolf Hitler into adopting such radical practices. While the American eugenics movement and Nazi Germany eugenic movement were very similar in nature, they differed in many aspects such as motivations and intensity. American eugenics grew and popularized in the early twentieth century when the country was in social and economic turmoil with the recent Great Depression crisis. The more wealthy elites were having fewer children than the lower working class, which made the elites feel like they were threatened of being out …show more content…
In fact, Hitler claimed that the Nazi eugenic program was no different than the American one. Both countries use scientific reasoning of natural selection Darwinism to support their movements, mass propaganda, and use inhuman marriage and sterilization laws. Although Hitler may have gotten some of his ideas from the United States, he took these ideas and twisted them even more into an unthinkable, extremely violent level. Both countries employed these radical ideas of artificial reproduction in hopes that it will bring success and progress to their people’s future generations. The idea of eugenics stemmed from tensions in social aspects using pseudoscience to back up genetic claims. These occurrences are detrimental to society and it is important that they do not repeat themselves in the future, through proper education and