It is believed that for the first time eugenics began to be widely practiced by the German fascists, sterilizing and killing representatives of the "lower races", as well as madmen and homosexuals - in short, everyone who could spoil the gene pool of the Aryans. But it turns out that selection of people was widely carried out much earlier and in completely democratic countries, where sterilization of "genetically inferior" people was carried out often even without their consent.
Pictured is Bruno Berger, a German anthropologist who worked for the Annenerbe organization, which studied the origins of the Aryan race. In the picture, he measures the parameters of a Tibetan woman's face to prove that she belongs to the "inferior race." But, alas, the Germans were not the first to divide people into "higher" and "lower" according to genetic data. The first law to sterilize people with congenital disabilities was passed in the United States in 1907. And in 1931, a law was introduced to the British parliament on the sterilization of the mentally ill. There was only one goal - to improve the gene pool of the nation and get rid of "genetic waste".
At the beginning of the twentieth century, with the popularization of Charles Darwin's teaching on natural selection, there were more and more scientists who wanted to organize directed artificial selection in order to improve the human population. According to supporters of eugenics, preventing the carriers of genetic defects from multiplying, it would be possible to save humanity from dwarfism, deafness, "cleft palate" and many other diseases. It was even believed that eugenics was able to save humanity from crime, since at that time the propensity to delinquency was considered a genetically transmitted trait.
The first eugenic law prohibiting people with certain birth defects from having children was passed in the United States, in Indiana, in 1907 - 23 years before a similar law was passed in Nazi Germany. Previously, this page of the country's history was hushed up - only recently, the Library of Congress published a series of photographs describing the development of eugenics in the United States.
This photo of Indian dwarfs and a giant was taken in 1912 by a member of the Eugenics Society as part of a study on the possibilities of regulating human growth using eugenic methods.
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In a photo of the early twentieth century, a New York policeman takes anthropometric measurements of a criminal. Subsequently, the results of such measurements were actively used in research on eugenics - scientists considered the propensity to unlawful acts to be a kind of insanity, and proposed to deprive carriers of "bad genes" of the opportunity to reproduce.
An eugenic scientist demonstrates a technique for measuring the head of a criminal. According to supporters of eugenics, anthropometry could help not only in identifying a criminal, but also in finding carriers of "bad genes." Since 1907 in Indiana, USA, the carriers of these genes - "madmen, imbeciles, idiots, imbeciles, epileptics" - have been forcibly sterilized.
1885 year. The birth of eugenics: scientists from the National Academy of Sciences (USA) measure the volume of skulls by pouring water into them. The aim of the study is to find out the differences in the volume of the skulls. It takes place only two years after the work of Sir Francis Galton's "Eugenics" was born. Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, was so caught up in the theory of the origin of species that he fired up the idea of learning from evolution and, by speeding up the process, to improve human nature. He sought to breed a breed of people with outstanding mental and physical data for the benefit of all mankind. "Eugenics enhances the inherent qualities of a race, culminating in the development of the best of them."
End of the 19th century. A specimen of a perfect skull. The competition was held not only among the skulls: for example, in 1925 in Kansas the “Ideal Family” competition was held, where the most “thoroughbred” winners were selected. And even earlier, in 1912, a work about children with a "cleft lip" was published, which argued that such representatives of the human breed should not reproduce.
The fashion for eugenics at the beginning of the twentieth century swept over many countries. This poster was printed in France in 1914 and depicts types of criminals skulls - "genetically defective" members of the human race.
This is Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, 1932. The baby's skull is measured to determine the “quality of the genetic material”. But the Germans by that time were far behind both the Americans and the British. So, in 1907, the Society for the Study of Eugenics in Britain organized a campaign for sterilization and restriction on marriage for certain categories of the population in order to "prevent the degeneration of the population." A year later, Sir John Crichton-Brown proposed the mandatory sterilization of the weak-minded, and Winston Churchill supported him. And in 1931, this proposal was submitted to the country's parliament in the form of a bill.
1931, Washington, "Best Baby" competition, in which pediatricians selected the most perfect babies aged 6 months to 2 years.
The Ideal Family Competition in Topeka, Kansas, 1925. Such contests were popular in the United States at the time and served as one of the ways to popularize eugenics. Less ideal citizens had much worse. The state of Indiana was the first to agree to the forcible sterilization of mentally disabled citizens in 1907, and by 1938, mentally disabled women were forcibly sterilized in 33 American states, and in 29 - people with certain congenital genetic defects. Often, patients were not even told what kind of surgery was being performed on them. In the 1920s and 1930s, laws on sterilization were also adopted by other countries - Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland.
There have been more egregious cases. Thus, in several medical institutions, mentally ill patients were actually killed, deliberately infecting them with tuberculosis. The authors of the experiments claimed that they were doing a good deed for humanity, ridding it of genetic waste.
Pictured is Dr. Bruno Berger measuring the skulls of Tibetans in 1938. The goal of the massive lesser racial skull measurement project is to help the SS to expose Jews with scientific accuracy by the shape of their skulls.
The poster indicates the features of the skulls of the "lower people" - Africans, Australian aborigines, Neanderthals.
Such posters were widely distributed in Philadelphia in 1926. “Some people were born only to be a burden to others,” he says. "Every 15 seconds, your $ 100 is spent on supporting people with genetic defects - madmen, imbeciles, criminals."
1894, Paris. Forensic scientist Alphonse Bertillon measures the skull of a criminal. The system of anthropometry he invented was not only a way to identify a criminal. Bertillon believed that by the shape of the skull, he could guess in advance the criminal inclinations of an individual.
A poster of the types of Indian dwarfs issued by the Eugenics Research Society.
Skull Measurement Lesson in Sweden, 1915.
USA, 1931. On the woman's head is the helmet of a psychograph, a device designed to determine the intellectual abilities of an individual by the shape of the skull.
1894, Paris. Alphonse Bertillon demonstrates the technique of measuring the ears of a criminal.
Alphonse Bertillon is teaching anthropometrists to study the various shapes of human noses. Paris, 1890s
The cover of the French magazine La Culture Physique featuring a portrait of Alexandro Maspoli, recognized as "the ideal representative of the human race."
Bertillon's system has gone far beyond the boundaries of forensic science, becoming the basis for research eugenics, who called for the deprivation of the right to procreate "defective" representatives of the human race. Defectiveness, not least, was supposed to be determined by the shape of the skull.
Photo of a dwarf woman taken by members of the Society for the Study of Eugenics as part of a study designed to find a way to eliminate defective hereditary properties from society.
The main goal of the British Society for the Study of Eugenics was to convince the public that people with genetic defects should not be allowed to reproduce.
The photo shows a family of dwarfs. The authors of the study speak with indignation about people who are not stopped by the birth of the first "defective" child from the subsequent childbirth.
British phrenologists demonstrate the process of measuring skulls. This is not Germany, but Britain in 1937.
London, 1937. The phrenologist teaches students how the shape of the skull can diagnose a person's mental disability.
A 1921 map of the United States showing states that at that time practiced the forced sterilization of women with certain genetic defects. New York is one of them.
This girl with a "hare lip" in 1912 became the heroine of a poster calling not to let people like her breed.
Exhibition "Eugenics and Health" in the USA. The audience is shown a presentation showing how illiteracy can be tackled through human selection.
Illustration for a lecture on eugenics in 1912. The lecturer believes that the mission of eugenics is to prevent the spread of such genes in the human race.