Why did the Germans Kill People-- from WAY's Online Special on the Holocaust

Special Online issue

Deaf People Trapped in Hitler's Holocaust

Why Did the Germans Kill People?

What the Nazis Believed

The Nazis believed that some people are better than other people. They believed that the best people were "Aryan" Germans; they believed that other people should serve, be killed or made slaves.

Scientists say that the Nazi belief about "Aryan" Germans was not correct. Scientists say: The Aryans were a group of people who settled in India and Iran, not in Germany; It can't be proved that any nation, group, or race of people is "better" than any other nation, group, or race of people.

But the Nazis-believing some Germans were part of the Aryan race-wanted to improve the race by breeding. Through breeding, the children of each generation of Aryans would get better.

When humans are bred to improve the species, it is called "eugenics." Eugenics means breeding "good parts" into humans and "bad parts" out of humans. The "good parts" and "bad parts" of humans have been defined differently by different people at different times.

History

The first people to be interested in eugenics were the Americans. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, many people talked about it. They talked about keeping people with too many "bad parts" from having children.

In the early 1900's, some people considered deafness a "bad part" of deaf people.

Alexander Graham Bell said that deaf girls and boys should go to separate schools and play in separate groups so that they would not marry each other and become parents together; Edward Miner Gallaudet said that deaf people should be able to marry each other, but he urged them not to have children.

In 1907, Indiana passed a law to sterilize criminals, idiots, and rapists. Later, Harry Laughlin, a U.S. government worker, wrote that everyone should be sterilized who was stupid, insane, criminal, epileptic, drunk, diseased, blind, or deaf.

The U.S. government never used Laughlin's plan. But the Germans did. The Nazis used it as a model for their own "eugenics" program. They called it the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring."

The Nazis passed the "eugenics" law in 1933. It was the first and only time in history that a government tried to put a plan for eugenics to work.

The Nazis carried out their plan for eight years. The results were the death of over six million people-Jewish people, handicapped people, and people who did not agree with the Nazis.

The world called the experiment "The Holocaust."

General comments may be sent to: Cathryn.Carroll@gallaudet.edu