1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:05,000 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. A quick content warning before we start the show. 3 00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:08,800 Speaker 1: This episode contains mention of Nazi eugenics, so if there 4 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:11,120 Speaker 1: are children around or you are sensitive to this kind 5 00:00:11,119 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: of topic, you might want to skip it. Hi um 6 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,959 Speaker 1: Eve's Welcome to This Day in History Class, a show 7 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: that reveals a little bit more about history day by day. 8 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:36,479 Speaker 1: Today is July fourteen, nineteen. The day was July fourteenth, 9 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 1: ninety three. Nazi Germany passed the Law for the Prevention 10 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: of genetically Diseased Offspring. The law mandated the forced sterilization 11 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,880 Speaker 1: of people with disabilities and further the goals of Nazi eugenics. 12 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:54,680 Speaker 1: Sterilization is the process of making a person unable to reproduce. 13 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker 1: Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess said Nazism was applied biology and 14 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,480 Speaker 1: not see ideology. The Nordic or Aryan race was biologically 15 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: superior to all others. Through their racial policies, they aimed 16 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:15,959 Speaker 1: to eliminate any biological threats to a so called healthy Germany. Eugenics, 17 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:18,920 Speaker 1: or the practice of attempting to improve the genetics of 18 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:23,279 Speaker 1: a population by increasing the occurrence of hereditary characteristics deemed 19 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: desirable and reducing the occurrence of those deemed undesirable was 20 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:32,680 Speaker 1: popular in the United States, Brazil, Canada, and many European countries. 21 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:37,319 Speaker 1: Forced sterilization and the encouragement of reproduction in people who 22 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:40,400 Speaker 1: were determined to be fit to do so were common 23 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:44,560 Speaker 1: in those eugenics movements. Not see eugenics and The Law 24 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: for the Prevention of genetically Diseased Offspring grew out of 25 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:53,560 Speaker 1: existing eugenics policies. German physicians and scientists who supported so 26 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 1: called racial hygiene before the law was passed continued to 27 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: support Nazi policies that ordered as sterilizations based on scientific 28 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: racism and false ideas of genetic fitness. With the backing 29 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: of medical and scientific professionals, the Nazi regime carried out 30 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: a program of hundreds of thousands of forced sterilizations and 31 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:20,080 Speaker 1: euthanasia deaths. The law was based on a voluntary sterilization 32 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:23,799 Speaker 1: law created by Prussian health officials in nineteen thirty two. 33 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:27,920 Speaker 1: It was co authored by lawyer Falk Rutka, director of 34 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,960 Speaker 1: Public health Affairs are tour Good, and psychiatrists Ant Ruden. 35 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: According to the law, people who were likely to have 36 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: a child with quote serious physical or mental defects of 37 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: hereditary nature should be sterilized. People who were subject to 38 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:47,560 Speaker 1: sterilization under the law included people with, in the law's words, 39 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: congenital mental deficiency, schizophrenia, manic depression, hereditary epilepsy, hereditary Saint 40 00:02:54,880 --> 00:03:00,640 Speaker 1: Bidas's dance also known as Huntington's corea, hereditary blindness, hereditary deathness, 41 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:06,320 Speaker 1: and serious hereditary physical deformity. People with chronic alcoholism were 42 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: also subject to sterilization. The person is subject to sterilization 43 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:14,840 Speaker 1: could apply for sterilization. The state physician or the head 44 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:19,080 Speaker 1: of a hospital, nursing home, or penal institution could also 45 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: request sterilization for a person. Applications would be made to 46 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:26,520 Speaker 1: the Office of the Eugenics Court, which was attached to 47 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:30,600 Speaker 1: a district court. Once the court decided a person should 48 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: be sterilized, the operation had to be done even if 49 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:38,520 Speaker 1: it was against the person's will. If necessary, direct force 50 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: could be used. The law came into effect on January first, 51 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: ninety four. Though there were courts, the decision to sterilize 52 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 1: was often based just on the petition and some testimonies, 53 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: and the patient was not always present. The three member 54 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: panel that reviewed petitions consisted of two doctors and a judge. 55 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: Most of the petitions ended with approval of the sterilization. 56 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:08,200 Speaker 1: The sterilization method was typically either vasectomy or tubal litigation, 57 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: and invasive procedure that caused many deaths. Many of the 58 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:16,159 Speaker 1: people sterilized were in asylums, but the main targets of 59 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: the program were people who were not isolated from society 60 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:21,920 Speaker 1: and who were of the age to be able to reproduce. 61 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: The application process courts and physicians and scientists gave the 62 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:31,680 Speaker 1: program an air of legitimacy, but in reality, the decision 63 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:34,799 Speaker 1: to sterilize just came down to who the Nazis thought 64 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 1: would contaminate the gene pool and weaken the national body. 65 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: They even sterilized people for their anti Nazi beliefs around 66 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 1: the world. Some supporters of eugenics praised the policy, and 67 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: people outside of eugenics movements also thought the policy was 68 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: a good service for public health. Other people denounced the 69 00:04:56,720 --> 00:05:01,560 Speaker 1: policy and feared the mass persecution it could cause. The 70 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:04,799 Speaker 1: Nazis went on to experiment with ways to sterilize people 71 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:09,159 Speaker 1: that didn't require as long of a recovery period. The 72 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: sterilization of people based on hereditary illness and ambiguous categories 73 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: of disease morphed into the murder of millions of people 74 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:22,160 Speaker 1: in the Holocaust. The sterilization program was largely suspended by 75 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 1: ninety nine, but by the end of World War Two, 76 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,480 Speaker 1: the eugenics courts had ordered the sterilization of an estimated 77 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: four hundred thousand people. I'm Eve Jeff Code, and hopefully 78 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: you know a little more about history today than you 79 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:41,360 Speaker 1: did yesterday. If there's something that I missed in an episode, 80 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: you can share it with everybody else on Twitter, Instagram, 81 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:59,400 Speaker 1: or Facebook at t D I HC podcast. For more 82 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, 83 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.