The theory of eugenics can be described as a battle of survival of the fittest between human beings. It’s origins are Darwinist in nature, and they came to fruition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It took the first world war to make many of the leading intellectuals in both Western Europe and USA believe in such a ideal. With the loss of population after world war one it was theorized that the only way to develop into a strong powerful country would be by artificially modifying a certain population to make sure that it was as strong and healthy as possible. Also at this time many nationalistic parties such as the Nazis sought to use eugenics so they could build a super human race that would eliminate “undesirables” from the population.

As a result of eugenics connection to both racism and nationalism many peoples including jews felt the desire to “assimilate” into the culture of which they were living in. In the selected readings of Leora Auslanders we read of the attempted assimilation of both french and german jews. There desire for acceptance by their “native” peers caused the jews to throw away there collective heritage in a desire to become the “perfect” german or frenchman. This desire for assimilation can be directly related to eugenics. Many jews wanted to gain employment in both the government and private sector, and to do this they had to look like they were part of the larger machine, not as a interloper in society. This is why many of them became more german then a typical german, and with that he lost some of his personality. Eugenics and all the theories connected to it take away a mans freedom and individually. It then replace it will a idea for only furthering the “common” goal at all costs. This practice had a rather adverse effect on the history of the world.