MOST CHILLING. War Against the Weak is filled with tale after tale of arrogance, ignorance, and cruelty—accounts that Black wisely allows the eugenicists to relate in their own words … Perhaps most chilling, though, were the ways in which American eugenicists influenced their German counterparts. Carl Zimmer, Discovery HAIR-RAISER AND EYE-OPENER. A hair-raiser and an eye-opener … contains details so vivid and horrid that one can hardly believe them or bear to read them … This is an important book, filled with little- known facts about how some of our most esteemed institutions and professionals funded and practiced very bad science, if it was science at all, and how this pseudoscience permeated much of the world’s thinking and led to the atrocities of a world war. Nancy Schapiro, St. Louis Post-Dispatch SENSATIONAL. At the beginning of the last century, American scientists, politicians, and livestock breeders decided to “create a superior Nordic race.” Sixty thousand men and women, most of them poor or of color, underwent compulsory sterilization—an idea that stimulated the Nazi’s eugenics program. The full extent of this medical crime has been described by Black in this sensational book. Paul Ranier, Der Spiegel FIERCE. A PRODIGIOUS FEAT OF REPORTING . War Against the Weak offers a fierce, compelling, account of how American ideas helped inspire—if that’s the right word—Hitler’s Reich … War Against the Weak is well told and extraordinarily sad. It represents a prodigious feat of reporting, as Black has trolled every archive and read every letter. A very persuasive book. David Plotz, Mother Jones Magazine SHOCKING AND GRIPPING. An impressive job and the resulting story is at once shocking and gripping. Publishers Weekly in a Starred Review IMPRESSIVE. Impressive, probably the history of eugenics for the foreseeable future. Ray Olson, Booklist WELL-DOCUMENTED. COMPREHENSIVE. An important, well- documented, comprehensive story, not known to most Americans, about a perversion of the pursuit of knowledge in the interest of race and social superiority. Steve Courtney, Hartford Courant CHILLING AND THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED. Chilling and thoroughly researched … it is a book whose message must be made known … for those who say “It can’t happen here.” Mark Lewis, Tampa Tribune The Books of Edwin Black www.edwinblack.com British Petroleum and Banking on Baghdad The Redline Agreement Inside Iraq’s 7,000 Year History of The West’s Secret Pact to Get War, Profit, and Conflict Mideast Oil www.bankingonbaghdad.com www.redlineagreement.com 2004 2011 The Farhud War Against the Weak Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance Eugenics and America’s Campaign to in the Holocaust Create a Master Race www.farhudbook.com www.waragainsttheweak.com 2010 2003, 2012 IBM and the Holocaust Nazi Nexus The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi America’s Corporate Connections Germany To Hitler’s Holocaust and America’s Most Powerful www.nazinexus.com Corporation 2009 www.ibmandtheholocaust.com 2001, 2012 The Plan The Transfer Agreement How to Rescue Society When the The Dramatic Story of the Pact Oil Between Stops—or the Day Before the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine www.planforoilcrisis.com www.transferagreement.com 2008 1984, 2001, and 2009 Internal Combustion How Corporations and Format C: Governments A Novel Addicted the World to Oil and www.formatnovel.com Derailed the Alternatives 1999 www.internalcombustionbook.com 2006 Illustrations Title page. Nazi eugenicist Ernst Rüdin, president of the International Federation of Eugenic Organizations and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics. Dedication. Nazi eugenicist Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer examining the eyes of twins. His assistant, Josef Mengele, continued the experiments at Auschwitz. Opposite Table of Contents. Nazi eugenicist Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer examining twins for height. Part One. First Race Betterment Conference Banquet, held in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1914. Part Two. Imprisoned children following eugenic experiments at Auschwitz. Part Three. Eugenics Record Office files. Copyright © 2003, 2012 Edwin Black Second paperback edition 2012 Printed and published in the United States Dialog Press, Washington, DC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a database, or other retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Cover art: Tallgrass Studios, Nancy Percich and Marcia Escobosa Modern book text is produced using a variety of collaborative software, including spellcheckers and text revision tools. It is possible for such software to create typographical errors or other textual changes beyond the control of the author, editors, or publisher. Any changes, corrections, or additions to this book should be reported to, and/or can be found at: http://www.waragainsttheweak.com. Web site addresses (URLs) were accurate as of press time. Neither the author nor the publisher is responsible for URLs that have expired or moved since the manuscript was prepared. The Library of Congress cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Black, Edwin War against the weak : eugenics and America’s campaign to create a master race / by Edwin Black. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 1-56858-258-7 (hardcover) 1. Eugenics—United States—History 2. Sterilization (Birth Control)— United States. 3. Human reproduction—government policy—United States. 4. United States—Social policy. 5. United States—Moral conditions. I. Title. HQ755.5.U5B53 2003 363.9’7—dc21 2003048857 ISBN 978-0-914153-29-0 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-914153-30-6 (ebook) 16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1