Symbiosis: The Relationship That Led To Euthanasia Aktion T4because God intended him to be there "...and thus appeared to many European and American scholars a rational solution to various societal dilemmas of the day.
The awesome popularity of Darwin's theory may in part be attributed to its flexibility; like one grand evolutionary framework, governments could interpret and apply it to policy in whatever fashion they saw fit. However, Darwinism's flexible interpretation was not only an element of its appeal, but an element of its demise - numerous discrepancies arose as to how exactly Darwin's theory should be applied to ethics and society. In the United States, for instance, Darwinism was seen as a reinforcement of capitalism. According to the theory, major industrialists dominated the economy not because of their corrupt business practices, but because they were the most fit. In the classic entrepreneurial spirit, John D. Rockefeller spoke of the success of corporations as "merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God." Such conflicts consequently dichotomized the Western world into supporters and opponents of Darwin as countless reactionary movements took hold throughout Europe and North America.
It was elitist philosopher Herbert Spencer, however, who actually extended Darwinian biology to social ethics, as mentioned above, in the 1890s. In turn, a pseudoscience was birthed that would come to be known as social Darwinism, a discipline closely linked to eugenics. In fact, he, not Darwin, coined the notorious phrase "survival of the fittest" nearly a decade before Origins was ever published. Spencer argued that because by nature's design the survival of the fittest led to human progress, government aid to the weakest members of society, such as the abject poor and mentally ill, was futile because it disrupted the inherent, natural, and good process of evolution. Furthermore, he asserted that liberal and socialist political agendas posed a great threat to society because they generally supported similar aid to the genetically inferior. This contention resonated not only with the economic and political interests of the bourgeoisie, but with a variety of religious groups. In many circumstances, the popular Christian doctrine of selflessness and charity was replaced with ideals of apathy; for instance, it was morally acceptable to leave the helpless drunk in the gutter because God, in sync with the laws of nature, intended him to be there.
Like Gobineau, Spencer's pseudoscientific theory made painfully apparent his political views. By applying evolutionary thought to society, he claimed that the fittest elements of society rose to the top, and that the overall fittest societies rose to the top of the world. In spite of the controversy surrounding social Darwinism, however, eugenic policies would soon be initiated throughout Europe and North America. Between 1907 and 1913 for instance, the United States would adopt sterilization legislation in eleven states. Furthermore, Geza von Hoffmann of the International Society for Racial Hygiene quoted American eugenicist Charles Woodruff as stating, "It is clear that the types of human beings from northwest Europe are our best citizens and have, therefore, to be conserved." Examples such as these affirm that social Darwinism was used to justify racism and the socioeconomic status quo - the inequitable massive wealth of the robber barons, like Andrew Carnegie, who denied employees a living wage, imperialism and the superiority of the 'European race'..."
And Medical Experimentation On Human Subjects (pdf)
Hilary Kay Jonczak, Florida State University August 2005
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Roma Children in Belzec [Belsen Forced Labor Camp] (detail)
US Holocaust Museum Mosaic of Victims
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Belsec
Aktion Reinhard Camps
also:
Escapes from Belzec Transports, especially "Excerpt from the memoirs of Ruta Wermuth"
"Cries, stench, and the acrid odour of chlorine...Through the screams and the drumming of the wheels..."-
T-4 Euthanasia Program Wikipedia
