Throughout the mid 1800’s groundbreaking genetic research was being conducted by Greger Mendel and Charles Darwin. Mendel, who is considered the father of modern genetics, worked with animals and plants and demonstrated how cross breeding could favor desirable traits. Darwin looked at the inheritance of traits through both natural and artificial selection. He described selective breeding, also known as artificial selection as, “the intentional breeding of organisms with a desirable trait in attempt to produce offspring with similar desirable characteristics or with improved traits.”  While Mendel and Darwin’s research sought to inform human understanding of plant and animal life, it was never intended to be perverted and applied to humans. Unfortunately, their discoveries were used by others, including Francis Galton, who was Darwin’s cousin, to establish the field of eugenics.

The goal of eugenics was to improve the human population by controlling breeding to increase desirable characteristics. While the response to eugenics in Europe was initially weak, after Germany’s defeat in World War I, many were, “bitter and angry at the nations’ losses, many looked for someone to blame. Some turned against ‘the Jews’ and other ‘racial enemies’.”  In January 1933, when Hitler was appointed Chancellor, he entered the leadership position with a resentful German population and with a goal of creating a “racial state”. Thus, a critical component of the Nazi platform was the application of eugenic principles to German society. Through the perversion of Gregor Mendel’s work on genetics and Charles Darwin’s findings on natural and artificial selection, Hitler sought to rid Germany of undesirable races and traits.

Almost immediately upon coming to power Hitler began to enact laws with the goal of eliminating undesirable people from German society. In July of 1933, the Nazis passed the “Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring,” which legalized the sterilization of certain people with supposedly “unfortunate” single-gene traits. This law was followed by many others including the “Law against Dangerous Career Criminals” in November, of that same year, which expanded the range of people subject to sterilization. The forced neutering and castration of the mentally ill and sex offenders, was only the beginning of the Nazi’s “purification” of Germany. It was only a year later when Hitler enacted the “Law for the Protection of Germany Blood and German Honor” banning marriage and sexual relations between Aryans and Jews.  As if the legislation itself was not severe enough, in September of 1939 Hitler discreetly ordered the death of all “mentally and physically disabled in Germany and Austria.”  It was evident by this point that nothing but the total extermination of all non-Aryans would satisfy Hitler’s vision of a utopian Germany. So, in January 1942, top German leaders met to discuss the “Final Solution”. They determined that in order to achieve their goals they would open more death camps and work more efficiently to eradicate all Jews and minorities from Germany. After this conference, in Auschwitz alone, ten thousand Jews were killed daily.

With the Treaty of Versailles signed, the German people were left humiliated and hopeless. The economy was in pieces and there was rampant inflation and unemployment. Hitler rose to power because he provided Germans with hope and patriotism. He used the Jews as scapegoats for nearly all of Europe’s problems and this idea was quickly adopted by a population with deep seeded anti-Semitic views. He distorted and fabricated the findings of eugenics to back his claim. Then he united all of Germans against the “traitors”, and vowed to rid them from Germany. Essentially, Hitler and the Nazi’s set out to make Germany a “flawless society”, where the Thousand Year Reich could flourish. Their means for achieving this goal was propaganda based on the science of eugenics. Through the harsh legislation and brutal implementation, they almost succeeded. During one of Hitler’s speeches he said, “Today Europe, tomorrow the world.” This statement powerfully captures his long term goal for world domination. Unquestionably and unfortunately, his implementation of eugenics, through forced sterilization and murder, brought him closer to achieving this goal.