Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service, with me, Ben

Henderson.

Today, I'm taking you back through the archives to Germany in July 1933, when the new

Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, passed the law for the prevention of offspring with hereditary

diseases.

It required that everyone, with what the government classed as physical and mental

disabilities, had to be sterilized, meaning they couldn't have children.

I grew up at my parents' home.

I was a very happy child, until Hitler changed everything and he changed my life.

This is Helga Gross, a deaf woman who grew up in Hamburg.

She was 11 years old at the time.

Eugenics is the aim of improving or purifying the genetic makeup of a society through breeding.

It's been around for thousands of years, but the term was coined by the British scientist

Francis Goulton in the late 19th century.

American lawmakers adopted Eugenics policies in the early 20th century, which inspired German

scientists and politicians to follow suit.

This is a Nazi propaganda film from 1935 called Das Erber, meaning The Inheritance.

In the film, we see a young scientist watching two stag beetles fighting with the stronger

one winning.

She asks her professor what's going on, and suddenly she gets it.

Animals have their own racial politics too, she says.

The propaganda is clear.

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