ABSTRACT
The Nazi regime was totally committed to the pursuit of a racial policy of Aryanism, or the projection of the German people as the master race. This involved the concept of Social Darwinism, or the survival of the fittest. Analysis (1) shows the origins and importance of this, along with the implications for those who were genetically ‘impaired’ in any way. Compulsory sterilisation was introduced for the latter in 1933, the scope eventually being extended to include ‘community aliens’ such as tramps, homosexuals and gypsies. From 1939 the regime went further still with a ‘euthanasia’ programme to destroy Germany’s mentally ill patients.
