Nazi Eugenics

This is the information that I plan to include in the section of my paper that discusses how the Nazis took advantage of societal beauty to destroy other races. The sentences found under each category are quoted from an article about Nazi Medicine.

Analysis of Nazi Aesthetics:
A. Transition from physigonomy
-show how it bloomed from physiognomy (p--> social darwinism--> eugenics)
one can trace the intellectual origins of Nazi racial hygiene to the theory of Social

Darwinism

-define eugenics
-foreboding final sentence

(Nikolas Rose and Robert Proctor suggest that the ‘enhancement’ of the German race

implied that both positive eugenic measures had to be taken to strengthen the quality of

the ‘germplasm’ and negative eugenic measures to eliminate the procreation of ‘unfit’

individuals.)

-in 1895...Alfred Ploetz warned of the degeneration of the German race. Providing medical care to the ‘weak’ was ‘counter-selecting’ the ‘unfit’ elements in the race and was thus causing the weak to multiply at faster rates than the talented and the gifted. Other mechanisms of counter-selection included wars and revolutions, which resulted in the death or injury of the young and able-bodied, while the provision of welfare to the misfits and the poor further impoverished the genetic stock of the race.

--->intelligent racial hygiene might eliminate the need for a struggle for existence altogether)

-trying to stay that the only way to achieve eugenics was to dispose of other

inferior races.

B. The Birth of Eugenics from Aesthetics
-Pose question- how was such a manipulated form of aesthetic beauty able to take root

in German culture and result in such dire results?

-almost half of the nazi government were professional or aspiring artists

-Nazi propaganda consistently blurred the lines between the ‘beautiful’ and the

‘good’

-depict precise arrangements of disciplined, masculine bodies in synchronic

motion, taking their positions around the Fuhrer. Their faces are shaved, their hair

cut, their uniforms clean

-The Nazi spectacle aimed to recruit German aesthetic judgment on the side of

Nazi rhetoric...The beauty inherent in the biological purity of the German race was

first sensed...and thus presented as a goal: an ideal that could be sought by

means of racial purification.

C. Death in the Name of Beauty

-Now that Aryanism is established as beautiful, Germany takes more intense actions

-Nazi policy on racial hygiene progressed from the sterilization of supposed

‘homozygous’ carriers of genetic diseases...to preventing ‘inter-racial’ marriage

between Jews and non-Jews, to the extermination of mentally ill patients starting

in August 1939...and the ‘Final Solution’ to exterminate all Jews at the start of 1941...to destroy all concentration camp inmates not willing or able to work

-In the case of the Nazis, the metaphor of the Body of the Volk, given in holistic terms, allowed an ontological definition of disease to be mobilized. Disease was thought to be caused by some ‘germ’: the Jew, the insane, the homosexual, the Gypsy. This ‘optimistic’ conception of disease meant that Nazi agents could get rid of the ‘parasites’ that had invaded the body of the Volk.

Paper Outline

I finalized the main idea of my paper idea and it is very different from my previous blog posts (just a warning).

Ok so here's my thesis idea:
In my paper I hope to make my readers aware of the dangers beauty can bring upon humanity. As a result of the focus on the physical beauty instead of the spiritual one, society has forced us into a corner where beauty can only be defined and appreciated in one way. In different eras throughout history and even in modern times, this one-sided view of beauty has crippled man-kind and is behind many of the issues faced then and now.

Here is how I hope to divide up my paper:

A) I want to begin with the dual definition of beauty that I mentioned in earlier blogs, for I believe the focus on one as opposed to the others is the cause of the issues that I will bring up. I also want to establish precedence, i.e. explain that beauty has been a dominant aspect of cultures since biblical times.

(The above is really an introduction to my top. Topics B-G are the proofs to the thesis written above.)

B) The bible quotes the laws of an Eishet Yefat Toar, a beautiful captured woman who has claimed favor in the eyes of one of the soldiers in the conquering army. These laws focus around making this woman as un-beautiful as possible. But why is beauty so dangerous?

C) Proof to the dangers of beauty are evident in the mythological story of Helen of Troy. Helen is described as the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Entranced by her beauty, Paris prince of Troy took her from the Spartan king back to his homeland. The result of his indulgent actions are known as the Trojan War.

D) Physiognomy is the pseudo-scientific belief that people's external qualities show their innate qualities and tendencies (their personalities are determined by their beauty). An idea particularly popular during the 17th century, its ideals are recorded in Shakespeare's sonnets. Sonnet 127 is a prime example of Shakespeare's disillusionment towards those with black or dark features. Originally entranced by a Dark Beauty, Shakespeare ignored the warning signs (i.e. her dark hair and eyes). When he is ultimately betrayed by her, he mentally slaps himself for not realizing sooner the evil that lived within her and expresses his physiognomic beliefs in this sonnet.

E) But what is so dangerous about physiognomy? The answer is found in the propaganda spread by the Nazis during World War II. The Nazis believed, as determined by physiognomy, that the Aryan race was supreme to all others. Their blond hair and blue eyes placed them at a status above all others. Those who were not of Aryan appearance were harmful to this world and deserved to be exterminated. It is with this logic that the Nazis successfully massacred eleven million people, six million of which were European Jews.

F) And now for the modern aspect. Today, the Dove Real Beauty Campaign is a driving force for women everywhere to love their curves and be individuals when it comes to their physical appearances. In Israel, models are viewed as role models as well, and there is a law that prevents any woman from modeling unless she has a certain percent of body fat.

G) Why, you may ask? Why are today's female population counting calories like they're life or death? Because modern society has objectified women. Victoria's Secret Love Your Body Campaign, and their models, are prime examples of the source of self-consciousness today. I still need to do research on this particular aspect but Anorexia and Bulimia are very common issues in teenage girls today. Hopefully I'll find some more modern proofs to back this up as well.