The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism

When Hitler published Mein Kampf in 1924, he held up a foreign law as a model for his program of racial purification: The U.S. Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, which prohibited the immigration of those with hereditary illnesses and entire ethnic groups. When the Nazis took power in 1933, they installed a program of eugenics--the attempted "improvement" of the population through forced sterilization and marriage controls--that consciously drew on the U.S. example. By then, many American states had long had compulsory sterilization laws for "defectives," upheld by the Sup. Read more... Contents; Introduction; 1. The "New" Scientific Racism; 2. German-American Relations within the International Eugenics Movement before 1933; 3. The International Context: The Support of Nazi Race Policy through the International Eugenics Movement; 4. From Disciple to Model: Sterilization in Germany and the United States; 5. American Eugenicists in Nazi Germany; 6. Science and Racism: The Influence of Different Concepts of Race on Attitudes toward Nazi Race Policies; 7. The Influence of Nazi Race Policies on the Transformation of Eugenics in the United States. 8. The Reception and Function of American Support in Nazi Germany9. The Temporary End of the Relations between German and American Eugenicists; 10. Conclusion; Notes; References; Index