Bad Blood - 4. Rassenhygiene

Seriously...

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.1 • 885 Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the name of eugenics, the Nazi state sterilised hundreds of thousands against their will, murdered disabled children and embarked on a programme of genocide.

Why?

We like to believe that Nazi atrocities were a unique aberration, a grotesque historical outlier. But it turns out that leading American eugenicists and lawmakers like Madison Grant and Harry Laughlin inspired many of the Nazi programmes, from the mass sterilisation of those deemed ‘unfit’ to the Nuremberg laws preventing the marriage of Jews and non-Jews. Indeed, before WW2, many eugenicists across the world regarded the Nazi regime with envious admiration.

The Nazis went further, faster than anyone before them. But ultimately, the story of Nazi eugenics is one of international connection and continuity.

Contributors: Professor Stefan Kühl from the University of Bielefield, Professor Amy Carney from Penn State Behrend, Dr Jonathan Spiro from Castleton University, Professor Sheila Weiss from Clarkson University and Dr Barbara Warnock from the Wiener Holocaust Library

Music and Sound Design by Jon Nicholls Presented by Adam Rutherford Produced by IIan Goodman

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.
0:05.0	The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.
0:09.0	And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.0	The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.5	The IRA inmates who found a way.
0:14.5	I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path
0:19.5	through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.
0:25.0	The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.
0:28.5	Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:39.0	Hello, I'm Adam Rutherford and you're listening to you seriously from BBC Radio 4. You're about to hear
0:44.7	Rassen Hygina, the fourth episode of Bad Blood. The Nazis build a eugenic state. State.
0:58.0	From its origins in Victorian Britain to the gates of Auschwitz, this is the story of an idea which runs through the worst atrocities of the 20th century, an idea that echoes
1:05.2	through the decades and resonates today. This is the story of eugenics. In this series so far we've explored the emergence of eugenics in Victorian Britain and how this new
1:25.2	sciencified movement turbocharged political ideologies of the day, white supremacy,
1:31.4	ableism, racism.
1:34.0	We've explored how the idea was embraced in Jazz Age America
1:37.8	and how it framed huge political issues such as immigration and birth control. But inevitably when discussing eugenics you end up in
1:46.7	Nazi Germany. And that's where we will land in this episode. But we're not going to start in Germany or even in Europe. We begin in America
1:56.1	with a book. It's a book that was written while Europe was still engulfed in the Great War
2:01.8	between 1914 and 1918. The author was a high society
2:06.2	American of the old stock, a man called Madison Grant. Here's Professor Jonathan Spiro from Caston University in Vermont.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -829 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.