The Origins of Nazi Genocide - Book Report/Review Example

While the findings of eugenic scientists were flawed, the science itself followed all the rules of the scientific method. Eugenics was considered the cutting edge of science. Unfortunately, the scientists failed to recognize how their own prejudices were harming the results of their experiments. Most scientists, philosophers and even common men believed in the inequality of man. It was believed that certain people were "unworthy of life". The person's worth was based not just on his "worth to himself but also on his worth to the society".

The handicapped and the mentally When Hitler came to power in 1933, he had a dream of building a utopian German society. Obviously, such a utopian society could not include the handicapped and the "feeble-minded people". Hitler and the Nazis were even more radical than the eugenic scientists, in that they did not just stop at the handicapped and the feeble-minded but believed that the Gypsies and the Jews also polluted the society. Soon the scientists and the politicians were synchronized as those who opposed were fired.

Hitler systematically implemented a policy of exclusion to exclude the handicapped, the Gypsies and the Jews. At first, a series of legislations and laws were passed by the Nazi government to marginalize these people in society. The Blood Protection law was passed to exclude the Gypsies and the Jews. Next, a campaign was carried out to sterilize the handicapped and the feeble-minded. The first step towards the final solution began with Euthanasia or mercy killing of handicapped children. It seems that the first Euthanasia was carried out at the behest of an infant's father, who had been born with a severe handicap.

This first euthanasia opened the flood gates of further killings. Soon it moved from killing children to the adults. By 1939 the sterilizations had ended and the killings had started. Friedlander carefully documents the work carried out by the physicians in the T4 Operation, which proved that the killings were sponsored by the Reich. When it became difficult to kill using the Narcotics, Nazi Germany invented the "gas chambers".In 1941, owing to public outcry, Hitler was forced to end adult euthanasia.

However, his orders did not actually end the killings. In hospitals, doctors continued to carry out "racial hygiene". And when the German Army crossed the borders of Poland, the T4 physicians were called to "process" the people at the concentration camps.Friedlander has done some careful research and shows how the holocaust was not just about the Jews but also included the Gypsies and the handicapped. He successfully shows that it was not anti-Semitism or personal hatred by the underlying principle of eugenics which led to the holocaust.