The Submerged Tenth
reproductive capabilities of the “submerged tenth,” Nazi leadership and their supporters used eugenic principles to justify the physical elimination of the unfit themselves. Attention also needs to be drawn to the distinction between the rhetoric of the American eugenics movement and the reality of what was actually unfolding on the ground. If one were to simply read the writings of eugenic leaders such as Davenport, Laughlin, or even of other prominent figures such as Justice Oliver Holmes, one receives the picture of an all-out assault that spared no expense in quelling the procreation of the biologically undesirable. However, despite the wishes of the movement’s leaders, eugenic policies never became as far reaching as originally intended. True, over half of the states in America forced sterilization laws, but not all of those states strictly enforced or defended such laws; in fewer still—namely California and a handful of Southern states—did doctors actively pursue the sterilization of asylum and institution of patients. This distinction between rhetoric and reality is important not only in constructing an accurate picture of the American eugenics movement, but also in establishing the difference in the extent to which eugenic practices were carried out in the United States and Nazi Germany. Though American and Nazi policies differ significantly, there are similarities in their ideological origins. The ideological and financial connections between American eugenics and German racial hygiene cannot be overlooked or glossed over. More importantly, these connections allow us to realize that what happened under Nazi rule was neither a sudden “outbreak of barbarism,” nor simply the manifestations of Hitler’s delusions.91 By acknowledging that legislation meant to halt the reproduction of inferior races existed first in the United Sates, we are able to place what happened in Nazi Germany into a larger historical context, and thus perhaps gain more understanding of how something such as the Holocaust could have happened in a country that had been hailed as one of the most cultured and civilized in the Western world. In the United States, the eugenics movement began under the notion of social improvement through the use of cutting-edge science. Unfortunately, over 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized, and an unknowable multitude were refused the right to marry before war and genocide stripped the credibility of the eugenics movement and put a halt to America’s crusade to forge a master race.
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