page_title: Nazi eugenics
section_title: Identification
hierarchical_section_title: Nazi eugenics / Nazi eugenics program / Identification
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Philipp Bouhler Reichsleiter der NSDAP Abgebildete Personen: Bouhler, Philipp: Reichsleiter, Beauftragter für das Euthanasie-Programm, Deutschland (GND 11627266x)
context_page_description: Nazi eugenics refers to the social policies of eugenics in Nazi Germany. The racial ideology of Nazism
  placed the biological improvement of the German people by selective
  breeding of "Nordic" or "Aryan" traits
  at its center.
  Eugenics research in Germany before and during the Nazi period was similar to that in the United States, by which it had been heavily inspired. However, its prominence rose sharply under Adolf Hitler's leadership when wealthy Nazi supporters started heavily investing in it. The programs were subsequently shaped to complement Nazi racial policies.
  Those targeted for destruction under Nazi eugenics policies were largely living in private and state-operated institutions, identified as "life unworthy of life", including prisoners, degenerates, dissidents, people with congenital cognitive and physical disabilities including people who were feeble-minded, epileptic, schizophrenic, manic-depressive, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, deaf, blind, homosexual, idle, insane, and the weak, for elimination from the chain of heredity. More than 400,000 people were sterilized against their will, while up to 300,000 were killed under Action T4, a mass murder program.
context_section_description: The Law for Simplification of the Health System of July 1934 created Information Centers for Genetic and Racial Hygiene, as well as Health Offices. The law also described procedures for 'denunciation' and 'evaluation' of persons, who were then sent to a Genetic Health Court where sterilization was decided.
  Information to determine who was considered 'genetically sick' was gathered from routine information supplied by people to doctor's offices and welfare departments. Standardized questionnaires had been designed by Nazi officials with the help of Dehomag (a subsidiary of IBM in the 1930s), so that the information could be encoded easily onto Hollerith punch cards for fast sorting and counting.
  In Hamburg, doctors gave information into a Central Health Passport Archive (circa 1934), under something called the 'Health-Related Total Observation of Life'. This file was to contain reports from doctors, but also courts, insurance companies, sports clubs, the Hitler Youth, the military, the labor service, colleges, etc. Any institution that gave information would get information back in return. In 1940, the Reich Interior Ministry tried to impose a Hamburg-style system on the whole Reich.
caption: Philipp Bouhler, head of the T4 programme
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