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Why was a ship with German Jews
sent back to Nazi Germany from the U.S.A.?
[article in the Public Domain]

In The Science and Politics of Racial Research (pp. 126-127), Rutger's psychology professor William H. Tucker informs us:

The American eugenicists [such as Margaret Sanger] even made their own modest contribution to the plight of Jews in the Reich. In the late 1930s there were last-ditch attempts to waive some of the restrictions in the 1924 Immigration Act in order to grant asylum to a few eventual victims of the Holocaust. These efforts were vigorously opposed by eugenicists, especially by [Harry Hamilton] Laughlin, who submitted a new report, Immigration and Conquest, reiterating the biological warnings against the "human dross" that would produce a "breakdown in race purity of the ...superior stocks." While almost one thousand German Jews seeking to immigrate waited hopefully in a ship off the coast of Florida, Laughlin's report singled them out as a group "slow to assimilate to the American pattern of life," and he recommended a 60 percent reduction in quotas, together with procedures to denationalize and deport some immigrants who had already attained citizenship. For the eugenicists, Nordic purity was as important in the United States as it was in Germany. The ship was sent back to Germany.


What is Eugenics?
Professor Tucker's book is certainly an excellent primer on the history of eugenics. Eugenics postulates that that (sic) both physical and mental problems are primarly caused by inferior or defective 'inheritance' (what we would now call genes) and that people with good genes should be encouraged to reproduce; people with bad genes should be discouraged from reproducing. Believers in eugenics even believed that poverty was cause[d] by poor 'biological inheritance' (ie. genes).

Who is Margaret Sanger?
Life Magazine has ranked Sanger as one of the most important persons of this century. She is the founder of Planned Parenthood and an 'outstanding' proponent of eugenics: "to give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation [concentration camps] or sterilization", advocated the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger in April 1932 ("A Plan For Peace," Birth Control Review; see 'appendix' for this full unabridged seminal article).

'Dysgenic' was Sanger's term for people with 'bad' genes. Which country pioneered forced sterilization in the 20th century, Germany, Sweden, or the U.S.A.? The Swedish sterilization was in place by 1935.

The German program began in January 1934, but the U.S. state of Indiana passed a forced sterilization law (for mental defectives) in 1907 (when Adolf Hitler was 18 years old). Before the German program began, at least seventeen U.S. states (including California) had 'forced sterilization' laws. Before 1930 there were 200-600 forced sterilizations per year (in the U.S.A.) but in the 1930s the rate jumped to 2,000-4,000 per year. (1)

Who 'Inspired' the architects of the German Sterilization law?
"The leaders in the German sterilization movement state repeatedly that their legislation was formulated after careful study of the California experiment as reported by Mr. Gosney and Dr. [Paul] Popenoe. It would have been impossible, they say, to understake such a venture involving some 1 million people without drawing heavily upon previous experience elsewhere." (2)

Who is Dr. Paul Popenoe?
He was a leader in the U.S. eugenics movement and wrote (1933) the article 'Eugenic Sterilization' in the journal (BCR) that Margaret Sanger started. How many Americans did Dr. Popenoe estimate should be subjected to sterilization? Between five million and ten million Americans. "The situation [in the U.S.A] will grow worse instead of better if steps are not taken to control the reproduction of mentally handicapped. Eugenic sterilization represents one such step that is practicable, humanitarian, and certain in its results." (3)

Who is Ernst Rudin?
Ernst Rudin was director of the foremost German eugenics research institute (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Genealogy, in Munich, Germany). "On June 2, 1933, [German] Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick announced the formation of an Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy .... to plan the course of Nazi racial policy. The committee brought together the elite of Nazi racial theory: Alfred Ploetz, ..... Ernst Rudin, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Genealogy in Munich;...." (4) On July 14, 1933 this committee's recommendations were made law, the sterilization law ("Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring"); the start date for exercising the law was 1 Jan 1934.

What was Ernst Rudin's opinion of Adolf Hitler and eugenics ('racial hygiene')?:

Academic William H. Tucker (The Science and Politics of Racial Research, 1994, University of Illinois Press) tells us about Ernst Rudin (p. 121):

Who is author William H. Tucker?
He is an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey. Tucker is apparently somewhat left of center politically, since he complains about the 'Reagan slash and burn spending cuts.'

How many Germans were 'force sterilized'?
Most estimates are in the range of 250,000-500,000. The Germans started twenty-seven years later that (sic) the U.S. but within a few years they greatly outpaced them.

Did Ernst Rudin advocate sterilization of Americans?
Three months before the German 'sterilization law' was passed, Rudin's "Eugenic Sterilization: An Urgent Need" article was published in the journal (BCR) Margaret Sanger started and continued to influence until its demise in 1940.

In addressing an American audience Rudin is much more circumspect with his choice of words: "The following essay is concerned only with sterilization as a a voluntary practice, that is, when undertaken with the consent of the patient himself or his statutory guardians......" But as the essay wears on, the mask begins to slip: "My experience has led me to the conclusion that systematic and careful propaganda should be undertaken where sterilization is advisable. Such propaganda should, of course, be gradual and and should be directed in the first instance at the medical directors in institutions and schools, medical officers of health, and finally at private practitioners....."

Margaret Sanger corresponded with Ernst Rudin and never once renounced his eugenic views.

The Planned Parenthood connection - Who is Lothrop Stoddard?
Margaret Sanger appointed Lothrop Stoddard as a board member of the Birth Control League (the forerunner of Planned Parenthood).

What did Stoddard think about Nazi eugenics?
Author Stefan Kuhl writes (5): "When the Nazis came to power, argued Stoddard, they started to increase "both the size and the quality of the population." They coupled initiatives designed to encourage "sound" citizens to reproduce with a "drastic curb of the defective elements." (7) Stoddard personally witnessed how the Nazis were "weeding out the worst strains in the Germanic stock in a scientific and truly humanitarian way."

Lothrop Stoddard and the "Jews Problem" - It is no secret that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis favored Jews be more subject to induced abortion and sterilization than other groups. Stefan Kuhl writes (pp. 61-62):

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, made Lothrop Stoddard a board member of the forerunner to PP (the Birth Control League). Why was the Birth Control League reconstituted as Planned Parenthood? The 'Nazi smell' of BCL was so bad, that some 'cosmetics' were required.

High Praise from Adolf Hitler
Margaret Sanger was a prominent proponent of eugenics and forced sterilization. Stefan Kuhl writes:

Sanger's Siren Song of Sterilization
This article started with a Sanger quote, "to give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization." To assure yourself that this is NOT an 'out of context quote', read the full article (A Plan For Peace) in the 'appendix'. Although Margaret Sanger may have been unaware of it, one possible side-effect of an induced abortion is sterility. If only 4% of women undergoing an induced abortion suffer sterility as a side-effect, then the U.S. has had over one million sterilizations (from induced abortion alone), easily topping the Nazi 'record'.


(1) The Surgical Solution, Philip R. Reilly
(2) Legal and Medical Aspects of Eugenic Sterilization
. . in Germany, American Sociological Review, Marie E.
. . Kopp, 1936:763
(3) Eugenic Sterilization, Birth Control Review, Dr.
. . Paul Popenoe, April 1933
(4) Racial Hygiene, Robert N. Proctor, p. 95
(5) The Nazi Connection (Eugenics, American Racism, And
. . German National Socialism), Stefan Kuhl, Oxford
. . University Press, 1994, p... 62
(6) The Nazi Connection, p. 85
(7) Into The Darkness: Nazi Germany Today, Lothrop
. . Stoddard, 1940, pp. 190-191
(8) Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent,
. . William L. Shire (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1941):257


'Appendix'

A. Dr. Paul Popenoe

Author William H. Tucker also identifies Paul Popenoe as a researcher favored eugenics. Says Tucker:

In the April 1933 BCR Paul Popenoe tells us:

All emphasis added.



This article has been reproduced here by John Ray as it seems to have vanished recently from a number of sites where it was previously found. Censorship?

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