Eugenics: The Well-Born Science · Episode 8 of 9 · 41 min
America's Eugenics Blueprint for Nazi Germany
American eugenics was a model the Nazis studied. Rockefeller money helped fund German racial-hygiene science, Germany's 1933 sterilization law borrowed from Harry Laughlin's template, Heidelberg gave him an honorary degree in 1936, and Buck v. Bell was cited by defense lawyers at Nuremberg. The influence is documented, but the episode is explicit that America did not cause the Holocaust.
Who's who
- Harry H. Laughlin+4 more episodesAuthor of the model sterilization law; received a Heidelberg honorary degree
- Ernst RüdinGerman psychiatrist and racial-hygiene leader who co-authored the 1933 law
- Madison Grant+3 more episodesAuthor whose book Hitler reportedly admired
- Adolf HitlerNazi leader whose state adopted sterilization and the Nuremberg Laws
- Otmar von VerschuerMentor at a Rockefeller-funded institute
- Josef MengeleTrained under Verschuer before Auschwitz
Where it happens
- Heidelberg, GermanyUniversity that gave Laughlin an honorary degree in 1936
- Nuremberg, GermanySite of the postwar trials where Buck v. Bell was cited
Timeline
- 1922Laughlin publishes Eugenical Sterilization in the United States
- 1927Buck v. Bell gives U.S. sterilization constitutional cover
- July 14, 1933Germany's compulsory sterilization law enacted
- 1935Nuremberg Laws codify racial citizenship
- 1936Laughlin receives honorary degree from Heidelberg
- 1945-1949Nuremberg defendants cite Buck v. Bell and Laughlin's law
Still debated
Hitler's reported praise of Madison Grant's book rests on secondary reporting. Scholars debate how decisive American models were compared with German racial thought, how culpable the Rockefeller Foundation was, and how much the Nuremberg citations mattered.
← Previous1924: How Eugenics Wrote America's Immigration & Anti-Marriage LawsNext →The Secret Rebranding of Eugenics: Sterilization into the 1970s
