American eugenic and sterilization laws inspired German genocide planners

Evidence

When Hans Asperger and other doctors in Germany and Austria began deciding which disabled people would live and which were “unworthy of life,” they were heavily influenced by the United States, where the world’s first eugenics-based law to mandate involuntary sterilization was passed in Indiana in 1907 and soon spread to other states. Through laws like these, the U.S. eugenics movement had already provided a pseudoscientific rationale for the forced sterilization of tens of thousands of would-be parents whose genes were deemed threats to the overall pool—a project riddled with built-in biases about the relative intelligence of those of Anglo and Nordic stock. The Nazis took this precedent and radically expanded it, with an estimated 400,000 people sterilized during their rule, but their innovations in this realm were a matter of scale and speed, not kind. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 882 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American eugenics served as a model for Nazi Germany — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4293; Eugenic sterilization advocacy preceded and was independent of antisemitic ideology; Eugenics enjoyed international prestige before the Nazis adopted it (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• US eugenics law provided the template the Nazis expanded, changing scale not kind. #corroborates (0.95) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 882