Exploring Deadly Medicine and Eugenics

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Hitler and his henchmen victimized an entire continent and exterminated millions in his quest for a co-called “Master Race;” but the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn’t originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States and cultivated in California decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little known, role in the American eugenics movement’s campaign for ethnic cleansing; and here in North Carolina, eugenicists followed suit and conducted their own forced sterilization program that lasted for fifty years.

This program will explore the Holocaust’s roots in then-contemporary scientific and pseudo-scientific thought; at the same time, teachers will examine the complex ethical issues faced today, such as how societies acquire and use scientific knowledge and how they balance the rights of the individual with the needs of the larger community. The workshop will allow participants to explore instructional strategies designed to support difficult topics in not only history and English classes, but health science classes as well. This session will be interactive, reflective, and collaborative, while building teacher capacity to create and sustain learning environments that develop and promote a more humane and informed group of citizens.

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Flier-Deadly Medicine Program

Before you attend this program on March 9, you may enroll in a Canvas pre-workshop program to introduce you to this topic. You will need to contact Karen Klaich at holocaustnceast@gmail to do this. In addition to receving a certificate for .6 CEUs for attending the program, you may also receive .4 CEUs for completing the online course.

If you are unable to complete the online course, we ask that you please read/listen to the following before attending the workshop:

Please download, print, and bring the following eleven handouts for the Deadly Medicine workshop:

******The following images will be used for the USHMM’s Deconstructing the Familiar activity (#s 3/4 from the list above). You do NOT have to print these images for this workshop. You will pull them up to look at and analyze them during the activity.