These Pictures Reveal The True Horrors Of Eugenics!

By Michael Avery in History On 23rd June 2017
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#1

These are terrifying pictures from the prime of the Eugenics movement. The world would rather you forget these images exist.

Long before Nazi atrocities were ever committed, eugenics - the process of weeding out unwanted human genetic traits - was practiced all over the world.

#2

In the years after Charles Darwin wrote 'On the Origin of Species', there was an obsession with eugenics that spread all over the world. Even Britain and the United States were involved.

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#3

Proponents of eugenics made many advances during the early part of the twentieth century while claiming that 'undesirable' genetic traits such as dwarfism or even something as minor as a cleft palate should've been wiped out of the gene pool.

Scientists would measure the human skulls of felons in an effort to eradicate criminality - whilst other eugenic proponents suggested simply cutting out entire groups of people because of the colour of their skin.

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#4

The first sterilization law that forbade people with certain disabilities or defects from having children was passed in Indiana in 1907.

That was 26 years before a similar law was introduced by Nazi Germany in 1933.

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#5

As a matter of fact, in their sterilization propaganda, the Nazis made it a point to point out that America set the precedent.

In one particularly haunting set of images from 1912, children of a British family that were all born with rickets were photographed by the Eugenics Society to show that their condition could be isolated via selective breeding as it was hereditary.

#6

In yet another photo, families from Kansas are shown competing in the 1925 'Fitter Family' contest, which was meant to find and show off the most eugenically perfect family in America. In another image from 1912, a little child with a cleft lip from London, England is displayed with the thought that they should be kept from breeding.

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#7

Darwin's cousin, Sir Francis Galton became obsessed with Origin of Species and created the term 'Eugenics' in 1883.

He felt that society as a whole could be improved by breeding humans with superior mental and physical traits. He wrote that 'Eugenics is the science which deals with all influences which improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with those which develop them to the utmost advantage.'

#8

He was knighted for his scientific contributions and his work played a key role in creating the eugenics movement in Brittain and the US.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4631996/Haunting-photographs-reveal-dark-story-eugenics.html#ixzz4kpiWumIF

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#9

The Eugenics Education Society was founded in 1907 in the UK to campaign for sterilization and marriage restrictions to prevent the degeneration of the Uk's population.

The following year, Sir James Crichton-Brown, suggested to the 1908 Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded that people with learning disabilities and mental illness should be sterilized, an act which Winston Churchill fully supported.

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#10

Later in 1931, Labour MP Archibald Church put forth a bill that recommended the sterilization of certain categories of 'mental patient' in Parliament.

Although the legislation was never actually passed in the UK, it didn't prevent many sterilizations being carried out under various forms of coercion.

#11

Starting in 1907 in the US, men, women, and children who were deemed 'insane, idiotic, imbecile, feebleminded or epileptic' were forced to be sterilized, often without knowing what was being done to them.

By 1938, 33 American states allowed the forced sterilization of women with learning disabilities and 29 states passed compulsory sterilization laws covering people who were thought to have genetic conditions. Laws in the US also restricted the right of certain disabled people to marry.

#12

Sometimes things would go even farther. A mental institution in Illinois deliberately infected it's patients with tuberculosis essentially euthanizing them. They justified this by claiming it was a mercy killing that cut the weak link in the human race.

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#13

Other countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland passed similar sterilization laws in the 1920s and 30s. It wasn't until these kinds of ideas took root in Nazi Germany and led to the Holocaust, that eugenics became seen as a dirty word.

#14

With the truth of the evil that this philosophy presents finally exposed to the world, it became impossible to justify forced sterilization as a tool for the greater good.

Legislation worldwide was eventually repealed in the 1940s while history was subtly rewritten, with eugenics becoming something that the Germans did and from which the rest of the world could wash its hands clean.

#15

Fortunately, as you can see from these photos, for almost 100 years, eugenics was not just a German idea, it was a worldwide phenomenon. Everyone was at fault. There is no hiding from this dark past.

Now that you have been briefed on the history of eugenics around the world, take a look at some more images from this horrible period in world history.

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#16

A poster warns that breeding among the unfit creates an unwanted burden on the rest of society in Philadelphia in 1926.

'Some people are born to be a burden on the rest', the poster reads.'Every 15 seconds $100 of your money goes for the care of persons with bad heredity such as the insane, feeble-minded, criminals and other defectives'

#17

French researcher Alphonse Bertillon demonstrates how to measure a human skull in Paris, France in 1894.

Bertillon was a criminologist who first developed a system for measuring physical body parts - particularly of the head and face - to work out if someone might be a criminal.

#18

Photographs of 'Indian Dwarfism' from the Eugenics Society in 1912. Dwarfism refers to people who are 4 feet 10 inches or under as a result of a genetic or medical condition.

Before the atrocities of Nazi Germany, eugenics - the system of measuring human traits, seeking out the desirable ones and cutting out the undesirable ones - was once practiced the world over.

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#19

A craniologist demonstrates how to measure a human skull in Sweden in 1915.

#20

A woman wears a psychograph, a machine designed to determine someone's mental faculties by measuring their skull in the US in 1931.

Used in the early part of the twentieth century, the psychograph discerns a subject's aptitude by looking at a person's head.

#21

A demonstration of how to measure a criminal's ear, inspired by Bertillon in Paris in 1894. Scientists would measure the human skulls of felons in an effort to eradicate criminality.

The Bertillon system quickly gained acceptance as a reliable way to carry out criminal investigations and in 1884 it was used to capture 241 offenders.

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#22

A convicted criminal named Albert Smit has his head measured in the Netherlands in 1896.

Law enforcement created records of known criminals and their skull measurements as well as full-face photographs, now known as 'mugshots'. The system was introduced into the US in 1887.

#23

An anthropometry class learns about the different types of human noses, inspired by Bertillon.

#24

French weightlifter Alexandre Maspoli poses as an ideal human specimen on the cover of La Culture Physique in France in 1904.

Maspoli was born in Lyon in 1875 and was amateur weightlifting champion for 19 years in a row and was also a successful sculptor.

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#25

A class studies the Bertillon method of criminal identification, based on measuring body parts in Paris between 1910-1915.

In 1907, the Eugenics Education Society was founded in Britain to campaign for sterilization and marriage restrictions for the weak to prevent the degeneration of Britain's population.

#26

A phrenologist demonstrates how to measure a person's head in the United Kingdom in 1937. In 1931, Labour MP Archibald Church proposed a bill for the compulsory sterilization of certain categories of 'mental patient' in Parliament.

Although such legislation was never actually passed in Britain, this did not prevent many sterilizations being carried out under various forms of coercion.

#27

A phrenologist demonstrates how to measure the mental energy inside of a woman's head in London in 1937.

By 1938, 33 American states permitted the forced sterilization of women with learning disabilities and 29 American states had passed compulsory sterilization laws covering people who were thought to have genetic conditions

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#28

A map illustration revealing which states in the United States have laws condoning forced sterilization in New York in 1921.

#29

A photograph of a child with a cleft lip, taken to demonstrate the type of child that should be kept from breeding in London in 1912.

#30

A Eugenics and Health Exhibit teaches the crowd how illiteracy can be controlled through selective breeding in the US.

The first sterilization law - which stopped certain categories of disabled people from having children - was passed in Indiana in 1907. This was twenty-six years before a similar law was introduced by the Nazis in Germany in 1933.

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#31 A Review of the History of Eugenics

In 1907, the Eugenics Education Society was founded in Britain to campaign for sterilization and marriage restrictions for the weak to prevent the degeneration of Britain's population.

In 1931, Labour MP Archibald Church proposed a bill for the compulsory sterilization of certain categories of 'mental patient' in Parliament.

Meanwhile, from 1907 in the United States, men, women, and children who were deemed 'insane, idiotic, imbecile, feebleminded or epileptic' were forcibly sterilized, often without being informed of what was being done to them.

By 1938, 33 American states permitted the forced sterilization of women with learning disabilities and 29 American states had passed compulsory sterilization laws covering people who were thought to have genetic conditions.

All legislation was eventually repealed in the 1940s.