The Holocaust

The idea of Utopia in some peoples perspective can be that of Dystopia for others an example of this being Hitler's radical ideas to create a super race and society, his key influence with going through with this was with Charles Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest" in mind. Hitler wanted to eradicate all Jews as he believed that "Jews were a disease and needed to be destroyed" also to create this super race (Aryan race) anyone with any physical or mental disabilities were either sterilised or killed, this mass extermination was known as The Holocaust.

During Hitler's time in power he ordered the killing of over 170,000 mentally and physically disabled citizens, he had a range of techniques for singling out the ones he viewed as imperfect that he felt were not fit to be a part of his Aryan race. He had a team of researchers who believed that were race scientist who followed the pseudoscientific ideas popular in the 19th Century, the aim was to improve/perfect the human race. A range of characteristics were recorded such as skull shapes, eye and hair colour, height, bone structure to work out the racial composition of the German population and to identify influences considered harmful and how to go through with eliminating these acknowledged issues correctly.

Hitler used varying techniques to eliminate the imperfect and jews. Initially he started with mass shootings carried out by his German officials, this later proved not beneficial with the amount of strain being caused on the shooters themselves and the amount of time taken to carry out this method. Then more rapid techniques were then recognised such as the the gassing of the victims in the chambers and mobile gas vans in which they used the fumes of the vehicle to irradiate the inadequate. This mass extermination was named by Hitler as "Programme T4" (Mercy killings).

To convince the German people that Jews and the disabled were not worthy he would use propaganda to  persuade them, posters and videos were made to make clear Hitler's ideas. (See photos from Imperial War Museum below).