WWII_Ch6_info

=**Assessment and Aftermath Background Information**=

The study of race and the possibility of improving the human race and human genes is eugenics. Those who believed in eugenics believed that some people were superior and inferior to others and the reas was genetic and the result of parents being superior or inferior. Basically, immoral behavior was a result of immoral parents and the sam with success. Ideas on eugenics had roots in America. Numerous books were written on the subject by doctors and scientists with the goal of helping future parents make the right decisions on who to marry. The fictional Kallikak family was used to show how it works stating that when "normal" parents reproduce, their offspring will be "normal." When either two "feeble-minded" parents or one "normal" and one "feeble-minded" parent reproduce, the offspring will most likely be "feeble-minded." Sir Francis Galton in Britain developed his views on British class structure, which would be the basis for eugenics. Charles Davenport was an American biologist and professor at Harvard. He wrote //Heredity in Relation to Eugenics// was used as a textbook for several years. Today, it (along with eugenics) has been discredited. The government had a Eugenics Records Office with Harry Laughlin as director who favored sterilization laws. Germany would pass similar laws in 1933. There were numerous Americans who valued eugenics. Margaret Sanger was famous for her development of birth control. However, the real reason she wanted to develop it was to keep certain types of people from reproducing. She was a racist and didn't want blacks to reproduce. She had even spoke at a KKK meeting. Her group eventually developed into Planned Parenthood, which exists today and often receives criticism due to a high percentage of abortions. Aborftion is pushed by Progressives today and was also pushed by those who believed in eugenics. Eugenics was supported by a new group in America at the turn of the 20th century, the Progressives. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were both supporters of eugenics. Wilson was a racist (he praised the movie //Birth of a Nation// and showed it at the White House, which was a movie that glorified the KKK, he re-segregated the military, and he segregated government offices). Some communities had Better Baby Contests and Fitter Family Competitions. Volutmes were written on the topic and the science journal //Eugenics Quarterly// didn't change its name to //Social Biology// until 1969. The Nazis read the American books on the topic and tried to put the idea of a master race into action. It was the Nazi Holocaust that would heavily discredited eugenics. Hitler sought to exterminate all non-Aryans and even set up homes and recruited Aryan women to reproduce with Aryan men to quickly create his Aryan master race.
 * __Eugenics__:**

There has been a long history of prejudice against the Jews, called Anti-Semitism, both in Europe and the world. Jews were persecuted in ancient times, the Roman Empire, in the Crusades (when Christians were sent to fight the Muslims in the holy land the also attacked Jews, and also in the 13th century there would be etchings on Cathedrals that dehumanized Jews. Martin Luther is famous for starting the Protestant Reformation when he nailed the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg Church door protesting some of the customs of the Church. He expected the Jews to convert to this new way and when they didn't he ordered the synagogues to be burned. There are several reasons for the stereotype of Jews making a lot of money and being bankers. There are reasons for this stereotype. Jews were forbidden to own property. Therefore, many Jews got into banking and lending money and charging interest on the loans. Jobs of intellect became part of Jewish culture. Anti-semites through time portrayed Jews as greedy and the Jews would become scapegoats for economic problems. Wilhelm Marr is the one who came up with the term anti-semitism and was one who studies the idea of Social Darwinism, or the belief that the fittest will survive. Adolf Stoecker was a minister and politician who blamed Germany's cultural change on Jewish capitalists. He helped to begin a socialist party in Germany with anti-semitic views, which was the first political party in Germany that was against the Jews, formed over 10 years before the birth of Hitler. When Adolf Hitler was rising to power, he blamed everything that was wrong or that he didn't like on the Jews. He said that 75% of all communists were Jews. He wrote about the Jews being the problem with society in his book //Mein Kampf//. The anti-semitic views of the Nazis was also evident in the 25 Points of the NSDAP (Nazi Party). After World War II, the United Nations agreed to give the Jews a homeland and re-formed Israel in the Middle East in 1948. Arab nations attacked Israel and there has been instability every since in that region. Even today, groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas have power in nations surrounding Israel and along with Iran have called for the elimination of Israel.
 * __History of Anti-Semitism__:**

The Holocaust was the systematic and bureaucratic execution of over 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime carried out by the SS, Gestapo, and the Hitler Youth. The Nazis instituted the Nuremberg Laws that stripped the Jews of their citizenship and civil rights. Jews were not allowed to marry Aryans and existing marriages were annulled. The first major action taken by the Nazis against the Jews was called Kristallnacht, which took place on November 7, 1938. Jewish businesses were destroyed and Jews were even killed in the first pogram, or riot and mob killings. The Nazi government discussed the "final solution to the Jewish question," or what to do about the Jews, which the Nazis deemed inferior. The answer and goal became that of extermination of the Jews and the creation of a master Aryan race based on the study of eugenics. The Madagascar Plan was suggested, whcih would have moved the Jews to the island of Madagascar, but it was never implemented. The Einsatzgruppen was the name of the mobile killing squads that carrying out the mass executions at the death camps. Prisoners were "selected" with those put on the right would be subjected to slave labor and those on the left sent to the gas chambers. Concentration camps were the facilities set up to hold Jews as well as other political opponents of the Nazis, gypsies, homosexuals, communists, mentally and physically handicap people. Ghettos were the areas of a city where the Jews were confined. Extermination camps were similar to concentration camps but were where the executions would take place. These facilities had gas chambers, crematoriums, and mass graves. Live medical experiments were often conducted on prisoners. The most notorious physician was Dr. Josef Mengele, who worked at Auschwitz extermination camp. His experiments included placing subjects in pressure chambers, testing drugs on them, freezing them, attempting to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes and various amputations as well as other brutal surgeries. Some of the German Jews attempted to leave Nazi Germany. One tragic story is of the //S.S. St. Louis//, which had Jewish refugees but were denied entry into Cuba. They were also denied entry into the U.S. and Canada. American officials didn't want to bring in more refugees during the Great Depression. The ship was returned to Germany and the Jews on board were sent to concentration camps and/or extermination camps. Oskar Schindler saved numerous Jews. He owned a factory that made war goods and needed cheap labor...the Jews. He made a list of Jews he needed for his factory, which was allowed by the Nazi government (Schindler's List). The //Diary of Anne Frank// is a story of a young Jewish girl hiding and being found by the Nazis in the Holocaust. The Allies liberated the camps as they pushed toward Berlin. General Eisenhower ordered the liberation of the camps to be filmed so that there was evidence of what the Nazis had done and there would be no denying what took place.
 * __Holocaust__:**

The trials of Nazi war criminals would be held in Nuremberg in the building ironically called the Palace of Justice. Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson was named chief prosecutor for the trials. There were four categories for crimes: (1) Crimes against peace by planning war, (2) Crimes against peace by waging war, (3) War crimes (enslavement or murder of civilians), and (4) Crimes against humanity (murder of civilians due to race, religion, or political beliefs). The Tribunal would decide the fate of those on trial and was a panel of four members: one from the U.S., Britain, France, and the USSR. The American judge on the Tribunal was Francis Biddle. The goal of the trials was to set a precedent in international law to make sure that what the Nazis did in terms of the Holocaust would never happen again. Hermann Goering was the most promient Nazi on trial and tried to defend the actions of the Nazis. Albert Speer led others who were willing to accept responsibility.
 * __Nuremberg Trials__:**

The Soviet Union suffered more military deaths that any of the Allies and for the Axis, Germany suffered the most in terms of military losses. After WWII, there would be a rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The rivalry was based on democracy and capitalism against communism and socialism. Stalin looked to spread communism in Eastern Europe, while the U.S. maintained the agreement at Yalta should be followed. At Yalta, the Allies agreed on the Declaration on Liberated Europe to restore order, relieve distress, and form governments broadly represented by democratic principles, which was being ignored by Stalin. George Marshall suggested economic aid for Europe to help rebuild, which would become known as the Marshall Plan. Germany would be divided into four sections controlled by the U.S., Britain, France, and the USSR. West Germany eventually formed as a capitalist democracy, while the Soviet zone became East Germany, which was communist with a socialist economy. In China, civil war would continue between the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists led by Mao Tse-tung. In 1949, Chiang was forced to flee to Taiwan and Mao set up the communist nation Peoples Republic of China, or Red China. The U.S. promised to protect Taiwan and Chiang still got China's vote on the U.N. Security Council. Postwar Japan would be controlled by the U.S. with General Douglas MacArthur in charge of reconstruction.
 * __Aftermath__:**

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