**************************************************************************************Why was a ship with German Jews
sent back to Nazi Germany from the U.S.A.?
[article in the Public Domain]
In The Science and Politics of Racial Research (pp. 126-127), Rutger's psychology professor William H. Tucker informs us:
The American eugenicists [such as Margaret
Sanger] even made their own modest contribution to the plight of Jews in
the Reich. In the late 1930s there were last-ditch attempts to waive some
of the restrictions in the 1924 Immigration Act in order to grant asylum
to a few eventual victims of the Holocaust. These efforts were vigorously
opposed by eugenicists, especially by [Harry Hamilton] Laughlin, who submitted
a new report, Immigration and Conquest, reiterating the biological warnings
against the "human dross" that would produce a "breakdown
in race purity of the ...superior stocks." While almost one thousand
German Jews seeking to immigrate waited hopefully in a ship off the coast
of Florida, Laughlin's report singled them out as a group "slow to
assimilate to the American pattern of life," and he recommended a
60 percent reduction in quotas, together with procedures to denationalize
and deport some immigrants who had already attained citizenship. For the
eugenicists, Nordic purity was as important in the United States as it
was in Germany. The ship was sent back to Germany.
What is Eugenics?
Professor Tucker's book is certainly an excellent primer on the
history of eugenics. Eugenics postulates that that (sic) both physical
and mental problems are primarly caused by inferior or defective 'inheritance'
(what we would now call genes) and that people with good genes should be
encouraged to reproduce; people with bad genes should be discouraged from
reproducing. Believers in eugenics even believed that poverty was cause[d]
by poor 'biological inheritance' (ie. genes).
Who is Margaret Sanger?
Life Magazine has ranked Sanger as one of the most important persons
of this century. She is the founder of Planned Parenthood and an 'outstanding'
proponent of eugenics: "to give certain dysgenic groups in our population
their choice of segregation [concentration camps] or sterilization",
advocated the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger in April 1932
("A Plan For Peace," Birth Control Review; see 'appendix' for
this full unabridged seminal article).
'Dysgenic' was Sanger's term for people with 'bad' genes. Which country pioneered forced sterilization in the 20th century, Germany, Sweden, or the U.S.A.? The Swedish sterilization was in place by 1935.
The German program began in January 1934, but the U.S. state of Indiana passed a forced sterilization law (for mental defectives) in 1907 (when Adolf Hitler was 18 years old). Before the German program began, at least seventeen U.S. states (including California) had 'forced sterilization' laws. Before 1930 there were 200-600 forced sterilizations per year (in the U.S.A.) but in the 1930s the rate jumped to 2,000-4,000 per year. (1)
Who 'Inspired' the architects
of the German Sterilization law?
"The leaders in the German sterilization movement state
repeatedly that their legislation was formulated after careful study of
the California experiment as reported by Mr. Gosney and Dr. [Paul] Popenoe.
It would have been impossible, they say, to understake such a venture involving
some 1 million people without drawing heavily upon previous experience
elsewhere." (2)
Who is Dr. Paul Popenoe?
He was a leader in the U.S. eugenics movement and wrote (1933) the
article 'Eugenic Sterilization' in the journal (BCR) that Margaret Sanger
started. How many Americans did Dr. Popenoe estimate should be subjected
to sterilization? Between five million and ten million Americans. "The
situation [in the U.S.A] will grow worse instead of better if steps are
not taken to control the reproduction of mentally handicapped. Eugenic
sterilization represents one such step that is practicable, humanitarian,
and certain in its results." (3)
Who is Ernst Rudin?
Ernst Rudin was director of the foremost German eugenics research
institute (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Genealogy, in Munich, Germany).
"On June 2, 1933, [German] Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick
announced the formation of an Expert Committee on Questions of Population
and Racial Policy .... to plan the course of Nazi racial policy. The committee
brought together the elite of Nazi racial theory: Alfred Ploetz, .....
Ernst Rudin, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Genealogy in
Munich;...." (4) On July 14, 1933 this committee's recommendations
were made law, the sterilization law ("Law for the Prevention of Genetically
Diseased Offspring"); the start date for exercising the law was 1
Jan 1934.
What was Ernst Rudin's opinion of Adolf Hitler and eugenics ('racial hygiene')?:
Academic William H. Tucker (The Science and Politics of Racial Research, 1994, University of Illinois Press) tells us about Ernst Rudin (p. 121):
In an address to the German Society for Rassenhygiene [Race-hygiene] Ernst Rudin, a professor of psychiatry who was one of the organization's original members and now its head, recalled the early, fruitless days when the racial hygienists had labored in vain to alert the public to special value of the Nordic race as "culture creators" and the danger of "unnatural" attempts to preserve the health of heredity defectives. Now Rassenhygiene [Race-hygiene] was finally receiving the attention it deserved, and Rudin virtually slavered over the man whose efforts produced this change: "The significance of Rassenhygiene did not become evident to all aware Germans until the political activity of Adolf Hitler and only through his work has our 30 year long dream of translating Rassen- hygiene into action finally become a reality." Terming it a "duty of honor" (Ehrenpflicht) for the society to aid in implementing Hitler's program, Rudin proclaimed, "We can hardly express our efforts more plainly or appropriately than in the words of the Fuhrer: 'Whoever is not physically or mentally fit must not pass on his defects to his children. The state must take care that only the fit produce children. Conversely, it must be regarded as reprehensible to withhold healthy children from the state.' (E. Rudin, "Aufgaben and Ziele der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Rassenhygiene," Archiv Fur Rassen- und Gesellschafts- biologie 28 (1934): 228-29)
Who is author William H. Tucker?
He is an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University,
Camden, New Jersey. Tucker is apparently somewhat left of center politically,
since he complains about the 'Reagan slash and burn spending cuts.'
How many Germans were 'force
sterilized'?
Most estimates are in the range of 250,000-500,000. The Germans
started twenty-seven years later that (sic) the U.S. but within a few years
they greatly outpaced them.
Did Ernst Rudin advocate sterilization
of Americans?
Three months before the German 'sterilization law' was passed, Rudin's
"Eugenic Sterilization: An Urgent Need" article was published
in the journal (BCR) Margaret Sanger started and continued to influence
until its demise in 1940.
In addressing an American audience Rudin is much more circumspect with his choice of words: "The following essay is concerned only with sterilization as a a voluntary practice, that is, when undertaken with the consent of the patient himself or his statutory guardians......" But as the essay wears on, the mask begins to slip: "My experience has led me to the conclusion that systematic and careful propaganda should be undertaken where sterilization is advisable. Such propaganda should, of course, be gradual and and should be directed in the first instance at the medical directors in institutions and schools, medical officers of health, and finally at private practitioners....."
Margaret Sanger corresponded with Ernst Rudin and never once renounced his eugenic views.
The Planned Parenthood connection
- Who is Lothrop Stoddard?
Margaret Sanger appointed Lothrop Stoddard as a board member of
the Birth Control League (the forerunner of Planned Parenthood).
What did Stoddard think about
Nazi eugenics?
Author Stefan Kuhl writes (5): "When the Nazis came to power,
argued Stoddard, they started to increase "both the size and the quality
of the population." They coupled initiatives designed to encourage
"sound" citizens to reproduce with a "drastic curb of the
defective elements." (7) Stoddard personally witnessed how the Nazis
were "weeding out the worst strains in the Germanic stock in a scientific
and truly humanitarian way."
Lothrop Stoddard and the "Jews Problem" - It is no secret that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis favored Jews be more subject to induced abortion and sterilization than other groups. Stefan Kuhl writes (pp. 61-62):
He [Lothrop Stoddard] even met personally with Adolf Hitler. William L. Shirer, an American colleague who had been in Germany since 1934, complained that the Reich minister for propaganda [Joseph Goebbels] gave special preference to Stoddard because his writings on racial subject were "featured in Nazi school textbooks." (8) Kuhl continues: Stoddard claimed in 1940 that the "Jew problem" is "already settled in principle and soon to be settled in fact by the physical elimination of the Jews themselves from the Third Reich."
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, made Lothrop Stoddard a board member of the forerunner to PP (the Birth Control League). Why was the Birth Control League reconstituted as Planned Parenthood? The 'Nazi smell' of BCL was so bad, that some 'cosmetics' were required.
High Praise from Adolf Hitler
Margaret Sanger was a prominent proponent of eugenics and forced
sterilization. Stefan Kuhl writes:
In 1934 one of Hitler's staff members wrote to Leon Whitney of the American Eugenics Society and asked in the name of the Fuhrer for a copy of Whitney's recently published book, The Case for Sterilization. Whitney complied immediately, and shortly thereafter received a personal letter of thanks from Adolf Hitler. In his unpublished autobiography, Whitney reported a conversation he had with Madison Grant about the letter from the Fuhrer. Because he thought Grant might be interested in Hitler's letter he showed it to him during their next meeting. Grant only smiled, reached for a folder on his desk, and gave Whitney a letter from Hitler to read. In this, Hitler thanked Grant for writing The Passing of the Great Race and said that "the book was his Bible." Whitney concluded that, following Hitler's actions, one could believe it. (unpublished autobiography of Leon F. Whitney, written in 1971, Whitney Papers, APS, 204-5) (6)
Sanger's Siren Song of Sterilization
This article started with a Sanger quote, "to give certain
dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization."
To assure yourself that this is NOT an 'out of context quote', read the
full article (A Plan For Peace) in the 'appendix'. Although Margaret Sanger
may have been unaware of it, one possible side-effect of an induced abortion
is sterility. If only 4% of women undergoing an induced abortion suffer
sterility as a side-effect, then the U.S. has had over one million sterilizations
(from induced abortion alone), easily topping the Nazi 'record'.
(1) The Surgical Solution, Philip R. Reilly
(2) Legal and Medical Aspects of Eugenic Sterilization
. . in Germany, American Sociological Review, Marie E.
. . Kopp, 1936:763
(3) Eugenic Sterilization, Birth Control Review, Dr.
. . Paul Popenoe, April 1933
(4) Racial Hygiene, Robert N. Proctor, p. 95
(5) The Nazi Connection (Eugenics, American Racism, And
. . German National Socialism), Stefan Kuhl, Oxford
. . University Press, 1994, p... 62
(6) The Nazi Connection, p. 85
(7) Into The Darkness: Nazi Germany Today, Lothrop
. . Stoddard, 1940, pp. 190-191
(8) Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent,
. . William L. Shire (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1941):257
Healthy Choices for Women,
Mike Richmond
email: newscan@vcn.bc.ca
'Appendix'
A. Dr. Paul Popenoe
Author William H. Tucker also identifies Paul Popenoe as a researcher favored eugenics. Says Tucker:
The biologist Paul Popenoe, author of the most widely used American eugenics text and editor of the Journal of Heredity, also reviewed the new German law. Noting that Hitler had read the definitive German work on heredity by Baur, Fischer, and Lenz, Popenoe judged the fuhrer's program to be based "solidly on the application of biological principles to human society." (p. 123)
In the April 1933 BCR Paul Popenoe tells us:
Eugenic sterilization is one of the many indispensable measures in any modern program of social welfare. It is an integral part of a general system of protection, parole, and supervision, for those who by reason on mental disease or deficiency are unable to meet the responsibilities of citizenship.
It promotes eugenics by cutting off some of the lines of descent that are spreading mental disease and mental defect throughout the population. It is conservatively estimated that there are approximately 5,000,000 people in the United States who will at some time be committed to state hospitals as insane and that there are approximately 5,000,000 more who are so deficient intellectually (with less than 70% of average intelligence) as to be, in many cases, liabilities rather than assets to the race. The situation will grow worse instead of better if steps are not taken to control the reproduction of the mentally handicapped. Eugenic sterilization represents one such step that is practicable, humanitarian, and certain in its results.
All emphasis added.