Nazi policy in everyday practice

As well as different races and reli-

gions, the Nazis also wanted to

‘eliminate’ deviant artists, trade

unionists, gypsies, homosexuals and

the disabled — all in order to make

German society ‘healthy’. Therefore,

Hitler planned to take up the ancient

notion of breeding better people.

His nasty, ‘ideal state’ not only out-

lawed contraception but also for-

bade procreation for anyone on his

list of undesirables. In fact, he ruled

out children for most of the citizens

under one or other prejudice!

Some arguments in Critical Thinking

books, like The Times Cryptic

Crossword or a Suduko puzzle, can

seem too artificial to be worth sort-

ing out, but there are plenty of real

arguments that do matter. Here’s just

one example of what this particular

policy meant.

Liselotte Katscher was a nurse

and she writes about doctors in a

hospital — I expect not very different

and no better or worse than anyone

else — who propelled by the force of

Hitler’s argument, participated in the

forced sterilisation of a 16‐year‐old

girl called Henny:

 Henny was examined by a

doctor who diagnosed a slight

feeble‐mindedness — in my opin-

ion it was only a slight feeble‐

mindedness, and they decided

that she should be sterilized.

I thought about it a great deal at

the time, and I felt sorry for the

girl, but it was the law, and the

doctors had decided. I person-

ally took her to the maternity

ward in the hospital where it

took place. But I never got rid

of the doubt in my mind that

the decision was too harsh. . . .

The tragedy was that she was

released very soon after this,

then got a job and met a nice

young man, and was now not

allowed to marry him because of

her sterilisation.

Note the point in bold — how many

people have the courage to oppose

‘the law’ and expert opinion? Indeed,

most of the time, they’d be wrong to

do so!