How much is the USA responsible for the holocaust?

Question

Eugenics is a pseudo science that followed Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest.
They argue that in order for men to survive only a selected few should procreate. Because if we let weak procreate they will weaken the entire race. Basically under Eugenics everyone is created different.
“Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler was infamous for eugenics programs which attempted to maintain a "pure" German race through a series of programs that ran under the banner of "racial hygiene". Among other activities, the Nazis performed extensive experimentation on live human beings to test their genetic theories, ranging from simple measurement of physical characteristics to the horrific experiments carried out by Josef Mengele for Otmar von Verschuer on twins in the concentration camps. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazi regime forcibly sterilized hundreds of thousands of people whom they viewed as mentally and physically "unfit", an estimated 400,000 between 1934 and 1937. The scale of the Nazi program prompted American eugenics advocates to seek an expansion of their program, with one complaining that "the Germans are beating us at our own game".[13] The Nazis went further, however, killing tens of thousands of the institutionalized disabled through compulsory "euthanasia" programs.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics#Eugenics_and_the_state.2C_1890s.E2.80.931945

But Eugenics was partially homegrown right here USA!!!
“The second largest eugenics movement was in the United States. Beginning with Connecticut in 1896, many states enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was "epileptic, imbecile or feeble-minded" from marrying. In 1898 Charles B. Davenport, a prominent American biologist, began as director of a biological research station based in Cold Spring Harbor where he experimented with evolution in plants and animals. In 1904 Davenport received funds from the Carnegie Institution to found the Station for Experimental Evolution. The Eugenics Record Office opened in 1910 while Davenport and Harry H. Laughlin began to promote eugenics.[16]
During the 20th century, researchers became interested in the idea that mental illness could run in families and conducted a number of studies to document the heritability of such illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Their findings were used by the eugenics movement as proof for its cause. State laws were written in the late 1800s and early 1900s to prohibit marriage and force sterilization of the mentally ill in order to prevent the "passing on" of mental illness to the next generation. These laws were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927 and were not abolished until the mid-20th century. By 1945 over 45,000 mentally ill individuals in the United States had been forcibly sterilized.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics#Eugenics_and_the_state.2C_1890s.E2.80.931945
What concerns me is that Eugenics is still being followed right here in the USA.
Modern Psychiatry alleges with out any evidence that the source of mental illness is genetical.
“Compelling evidence exists that disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar
disorder, and autism to name a few have a strong genetic component.”
http://www.psych.org/news_room/press_releases/mentaldisorders0339.pdf
Just as German Psychiatrists told Nazi Germany that it was a scientific fact that he German race was a superior race; Americans are being told that the source of depression is a chemical imbalance with out any scientific proof. This theory is being challenge by many in the scientific community as being pseudo-science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbTqjSfMPKA&mode=related&search=
My concern is that once more modern day pseudo-sciences will destroy morality in society in the name of science?

Answer 1

The eugenics movement that did in fact occur here in the early part of the century has been omitted from history class so you can't blame most of these kids for not knowing anything about it. The fact that they don't care to learn about it or flat out deny it is troubling. It is a stinging reminder of what we are capable of and should never be forgotten.

It startles me that you can hear this kind of rhetoric coming from many universities with advanced bio science programs. The science is better now but these people still place no value on human diversity and are just modern day nazis with PhD's. It's not only about superior genes as they are arguing that disabled people are a financial burden on society as well which was exactly the argument in the U.S. eugenic movement. Look at the current research into disabled persons, especially those with mental abnormalities. Their lives are described as tragedies and their value to humankind is nominal at best. We are repeating history and it is scary.

Thanks for pointing this out-more people need to know about our ugly past.

Answer 2

about the time you said: Eugenics is a pseudo science that followed Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest.
They argue that in order for men to survive only a selected few should procreate. Because if we let weak procreate they will weaken the entire race. Basically under Eugenics everyone is created different.
“Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler was infamous for eugenics programs which attempted to maintain a "pure" German race through a series of programs that ran under the banner of "racial hygiene". Among other activities, the Nazis performed extensive experimentation on live human beings to test their genetic theories, ranging from simple measurement of physical characteristics to the horrific experiments carried out by Josef Mengele for Otmar von Verschuer on twins in the concentration camps. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazi regime forcibly sterilized hundreds of thousands of people whom they viewed as mentally and physically "unfit", an estimated 400,000 between 1934 and 1937. The scale of the Nazi program prompted American eugenics advocates to seek an expansion of their program, with one complaining that "the Germans are beating us at our own game".[13] The Nazis went further, however, killing tens of thousands of the institutionalized disabled through compulsory "euthanasia" programs.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/eugenics#eu...

But Eugenics was partially homegrown right here USA!!!
“The second largest eugenics movement was in the United States. Beginning with Connecticut in 1896, many states enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was "epileptic, imbecile or feeble-minded" from marrying. In 1898 Charles B. Davenport, a prominent American biologist, began as director of a biological research station based in Cold Spring Harbor where he experimented with evolution in plants and animals. In 1904 Davenport received funds from the Carnegie Institution to found the Station for Experimental Evolution. The Eugenics Record Office opened in 1910 while Davenport and Harry H. Laughlin began to promote eugenics.[16]
During the 20th century, researchers became interested in the idea that mental illness could run in families and conducted a number of studies to document the heritability of such illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Their findings were used by the eugenics movement as proof for its cause. State laws were written in the late 1800s and early 1900s to prohibit marriage and force sterilization of the mentally ill in order to prevent the "passing on" of mental illness to the next generation. These laws were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927 and were not abolished until the mid-20th century. By 1945 over 45,000 mentally ill individuals in the United States had been forcibly sterilized.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/eugenics#eu...
What concerns me is that Eugenics is still being followed right here in the USA.
Modern Psychiatry alleges with out any evidence that the source of mental illness is genetical.
“Compelling evidence exists that disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar
disorder, and autism to name a few have a strong genetic component.”
http://www.psych.org/news_room/press_rel...
Just as German Psychiatrists told Nazi Germany that it was a scientific fact that he German race was a superior race; Americans are being told that the source of depression is a chemical imbalance with out any scientific proof. This theory is being challenge by many in the scientific community as being pseudo-science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtqjsfmp...
My concern is that once more modern day pseudo-sciences will destroy morality in society in the name of science?


you lost me.

Answer 3

That was hella long and I didn't read it. From a policitcal standpoint, the US did have some blame in the Holocaust. No, we didn't actually particpate in it but, Roosevelt knew it was going on and didn't care to be involved until Japan attacked Pearl Habor. Lots of countries turned a blind eye to what Hitler & the Germans were doing. It wasn't right but, we did it.

Maybe it was motivated by hate for the Jews or maybe some countries didn't want to get involved in a huge war. Hard to say.

Answer 4

Not only did americans develop the idea of eugenics, there were some, including members of the bush family, who invested in nazi germany and the companies that helped build the death camps.

Answer 5

The US bears only slight responsibility for the Holocaust, and that only because it denied admission to refugees who should have been admitted. There is indeed risk that pseudo=science will have adverse effects, but sound science creates morality rather than destroying it. Ultimately, moral codes must derive from evolution, which applies to societies as well as species: a society which follows a sound moral code will survive preferably to one that does not.

Answer 6

We were NOT responsible for the Holocaust. Blame Hitler and the Nazis.

Answer 7

You are correct, however, its application was not designed to commit wholesale slaughter of innocent victims. Eugenics was a controversial concept even shortly after its creation. The first major challenge to eugenics was made in 1915 by Thomas Hunt Morgan, who demonstrated the event of genetic mutation occurring outside of inheritance involving the discovery of the birth of a fruit fly with white eyes from a family and ancestry of the red-eyed Drosophila melanogaster species of fruit fly.[8] Morgan claimed that this demonstrated that major genetic changes occurred outside of inheritance and that the concept of eugenics based upon genetic inheritance was severely flawed. Historically, many of the practitioners of eugenics viewed eugenics as a science, not necessarily restricted to human populations; this embraced the views of Darwinism and Social Darwinism. But by the mid-20th century eugenics had fallen into disfavor, having become associated with Nazi Germany. Today it is widely regarded as a brutal movement which inflicted massive human rights violations on millions of people.[The "interventions" advocated and practiced by eugenicists involved prominently the identification and classification of individuals and their families, including the poor, mentally ill, blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, promiscuous women, homosexuals and entire racial groups — such as the Roma and Jews — as "degenerate" or "unfit"; the segregation or institutionalisation of such individuals and groups, their sterilization, euthanasia, and in the extreme case of Nazi Germany, their mass extermination. The practices engaged in by eugenicists involving violations of privacy, attacks on reputation, violations of the right to life, to found a family, to freedom from discrimination are all today classified as violations of human rights. The practice of negative racial aspects of eugenics, after World War II, fell within the definition of the new international crime of genocide, set out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. gatita Degree in History (focus Jewish studies) and Spanish, New Mexico State U. 1990

Answer 8

you make it sound like it had nothing to do with the centuries of hatred of the jews spewed by the catholic and protestant churches in germany.

bottomline: the most christian nation in europe perpetrated this act. why was that?

Answer 9

The short version is: more than they are willing to admit.

Answer 10

Whoa...