Among the main features of Nazism , his conception of a “superior race” stood out, a label that belonged to the Aryan race , that is, the white and perfect race that would have been perpetuated in the bloodline of the Germanic peoples that gave rise to the German State. Well, associated with this racist conception, which caused the genocide of the Jews , there is an idea that was also fundamental to the Nazis:eugenics, that is, the project of eliminating from society any type of person who presented any kind of mental or physical disability, as well as genetically perfecting a perfect generation of men and women, suitable for the Aryan race.
The eugenics (a term that comes from the Greek and means “good origin”) was not an original idea of Nazism, given that it was already circulating in Europe among scientists in the 19th century. But Hitler, aided by one of his top officers, Heirich Himmler , and by a group of doctors and other scientists who supported the Reich , carried out a project that aimed to “purify” Germanic society of “undesirable beings”. Among these undesirable beings were those who lived confined in hospices and asylums. In addition, children with serious health problems and physical disabilities were also included in this list of “undesirables”.
The historian Philippe Burrin described in his book “Hitler and the Jews” how, even before World War II beginning and concentration camps promoting death on a large scale, Hitler and his “eugenicist elite” were experimenting with their “final solution”. Burrin says:
“[...] Asked by a couple asking him to authorize the death of their incurable son, Hitler responded favorably. He then decided that the same fate would be imposed without appeal on all deformed or abnormal newborns. On August 18, 1939, a circular from the Ministry of the Interior required doctors and midwives in the Reich to declare children suffering from a deformity. Gathered in special sections, they were killed by drug injection or starvation.”
In another part of the book, Burrin highlights the decision to apply the eugenics method, which was cynically treated by the Nazis as “euthanasia”, to the mentally ill. Describes the author:
“In the early autumn of 1939, Hitler also decided to put an end to the 'unworthy existence of the mentally ill'. A corresponding order was initially given verbally, then, during the month of October, by means of a letter whose date was brought forward to September 1, 1939. Hitler did not trust the direction of this operation, improperly described as “euthanasia”. , to Himmler, but to one of his secretaries, the Führer's chancellery, whose task was, in principle, to receive private requests.”
Hitler's Chancellery began to develop secret mechanisms for the application of eugenics, from the elaboration of lists of schizophrenic, epileptic, paralytic and psychopathic patients to the creation of a company destined to transport the people from hospitals to euthanasia centers, where they would be killed by toxic gas. Burrin continues:
“[...] After some experimentation, a uniform procedure was established, which consisted of ordering victims to undress or undress them and take them to a room with fake showers where they would be asphyxiated by carbon monoxide. The corpses were burned in a crematory oven, after all their golden teeth had been pulled out. A death certificate was sent to the families after a complicated camouflage process, in order to avoid the simultaneous announcement of numerous deaths in the same location. In just under two years, the company claimed more than 70,000 victims. ”
At the same time as these atrocities were being carried out, Hitler and his high-ranking officers were also preparing the isolation and extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other types of people they considered inferior or , somehow harmful. By the end of the war in 1945, six million people had been killed in concentration camps.
NOTES
[1] BURRIN, Philippe. Hitler and the Jews – Genesis of a Genocide . (trans. Ana Maria Capovilla). Porto Alegre, L&PM, 1990. p. 68.
[2] Idem. pp. 68-69.
[3] Idem. P. 69.