Gertrude Bell, who helped shape modern Iraq, was born on this day in 1868. / On this day in 1933, Nazi Germany passed the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode, one from me and one
from Tracy V. Wilson. They're both good, if I do
say so myself. On with the show. Hello, and welcome
to this day in History class. Today is July four.
(00:22):
Gertrude Bell was born on this day in eighteen sixty
eight in the English town of Washington. Gertrude Bell was
a real person, but she really seems like the hero
of a novel that I would love. She was a
Victorian lady adventurer, and a poet and a diplomat. Basically
a daring, brilliant, eloquent archaeologist who was the first woman
(00:45):
to earn a first class degree in modern history at Oxford.
At the time, most Oxford universities did not offer enrollment
to women at all. She went to Lady Margaret Hall,
which is one of the few Oxford constituent universities that
did not. Only is she completely not a fictional character,
her diplomatic work really helped shape the Middle East. Her
(01:07):
uncle was a British ambassador in Iran, and Bell traveled
there in eighteen nine two. By that point, she had
already taught herself how to speak Persian, which was one
of many languages that she knew. This visit to her
uncle really sparked a lifelong passion for the Middle East,
but she didn't stay there for very long. She traveled
(01:27):
the world until the start of World War One, exploring
mountaineering and working as an archaeologist. Once the war started,
she wound up working for the Arab Bureau and Cairo.
Along with T. E. Lawrence also known as Lawrence of Arabia,
she was the only woman who was working for the
British government in the Middle East. She later on became
the secretary to the British High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox.
(01:51):
The work she did involved working with the local people
to convince them to join sides with Britain to fight
against the Ottoman Empire. She became convinced during all of
this that Iraq needed to be an independent nation and
it needed to have an Arab leader simultaneously. She was
kind of a colonialist. She had a lot of the
(02:13):
same mindset as a lot of other hardcore colonialists at
the time, but she was also really dedicated to the
people who were living in what would become Iraq. So
in nineteen nineteen she wrote Self Determination in Mesopotamia and
that wound up earning her a spot at the nineteen
nineteen Peace Conference in Paris. In nineteen twenties, she wrote
(02:34):
Review of the Civil Administration of Mesopotamia. In nineteen twenty one,
there was a conference in Cairo that established the modern
borders of Iraq, and she was there. And she also
helped Fassa You, the first the King of Syria. When
popular support in Iraq, he became its first king on
August three, nineteen one. After all of this, Gertrude Bell
(02:57):
became the honorary director of the depart Bit of Antiquities
in Mesopotamia. She helped establish the Iraq Museum. She was
also the person who found a bigger location for it
in ninety six, but she died suddenly on July twelfth
of that year of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills.
That was just less than a month after the museum opened.
(03:17):
It was just shy of her fifty eighth birthday, and
the monarchy that she helped establish in Iraq lasted for
thirty seven years through three kings, ending with the July
Revolution on July fourteenth. Thanks to eve's Jeff Cote for
her research work on today's episode and Tatari Harrison for
her audio work on all of these episodes. You can
(03:40):
learn more about Gertrude Bell on the November nineteenth and
twenty six episodes of Stuff You Missed in History Class,
and you can subscribe to This Day in History Class
on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and whatever else you get
your podcasts. Tune in tomorrow for the end of a
tribunal that lasted almost four hundred years, but today's often
are associated with some sketch comedy. A quick content warning
(04:10):
before we start the show. This episode contains mentioned of
Nazi eugenics, so if there are children around or you
are sensitive to this kind of topic, you might want
to skip it. Hi Um Eves, Welcome to This Day
in History Class, a show that reveals a little bit
more about history day by day. The day was July four,
(04:39):
ninety three. Nazi Germany passed the Law for the Prevention
of Genetically Diseased Offspring. The law mandated the forced sterilization
of people with disabilities and further the goals of Nazi eugenics.
Sterilization is the process of making a person unable to reproduce.
Hitler's deputy, Rudolph Hess said Nazism was applied biology and
(05:04):
not see ideology. The Nordic or Aryan race was biologically
superior to all others. Through their racial policies, they aimed
to eliminate any biological threats to a so called healthy Germany. Eugenics,
or the practice of attempting to improve the genetics of
a population by increasing the occurrence of hereditary characteristics deemed
(05:26):
desirable and reducing the occurrence of those deemed undesirable, was
popular in the United States, Brazil, Canada, and many European countries.
Forced sterilization and the encouragement of reproduction in people who
were determined to be fit to do so were common
in those eugenics movements. Not see Eugenics and the Law
(05:47):
for the Prevention of genetically Diseased Offspring grew out of
existing eugenics policies. German physicians and scientists who supported so
called racial hygiene before the law was passed continue to
support Nazi policies that ordered mass sterilizations based on scientific
racism and false ideas of genetic fitness. With the backing
(06:10):
of medical and scientific professionals. The Nazi regime carried out
a program of hundreds of thousands of forced sterilizations and
euthanasia deaths. The law was based on a voluntary sterilization
law created by Prussian health officials in nineteen thirty two.
It was co authored by lawyer Falk Rutka, director of
(06:30):
Public health Affairs are tour Good, and psychiatrists at Ruden.
According to the law, people who were likely to have
a child with quote serious physical or mental defects of
a hereditary nature should be sterilized. People who were subject
to sterilization under the law included people with, in the
law's words, congenital mental deficiency, schizophrenia, manic depression, hereditary epilepsy,
(06:56):
hereditary saint bidases, dance also known as Huntington's care a,
hereditary blindness, hereditary deafness, and serious hereditary physical deformity. People
with chronic alcoholism were also subject to sterilization. The person
is subject to sterilization could apply for sterilization. The state
physician or the head of a hospital, nursing home, or
(07:20):
penal institution could also request sterilization for a person. Applications
would be made to the office of the Eugenics Court,
which was attached to a district court. Once the court
decided a person should be sterilized, the operation had to
be done even if it was against the person's will.
If necessary, direct force could be used. The law came
(07:44):
into effect on January first, ninety four. Though there were courts,
the decision to sterilize was often based just on the
petition and some testimonies, and the patient was not always present.
The three member panel that reviewed titians consisted of two
doctors and a judge. Most of the petitions ended with
(08:04):
approval of the sterilization. The sterilization method was typically either
vasectomy or tubal litigation, and invasive procedure that caused many deaths.
Many of the people sterilized were in asylums, but the
main targets of the program were people who were not
isolated from society and who were of the age to
be able to reproduce. The application process courts and physicians
(08:28):
and scientists gave the program an air of legitimacy, but
in reality, the decision to sterilize just came down to
who the Nazis thought would contaminate the gene pool and
weaken the national body. They even sterilized people for their
anti Nazi beliefs around the world. Some supporters of eugenics
(08:50):
praised the policy, and people outside of eugenics movements also
thought the policy was a good service for public health.
Other people denounced the policy and fear the mass persecution
it could cause. The Nazis went on to experiment with
ways to sterilize people that didn't require as long of
a recovery period. The sterilization of people based on hereditary
(09:14):
illness and ambiguous categories of disease morphed into the murder
of millions of people in the Holocaust. The sterilization program
was largely suspended by nine but by the end of
World War Two, the eugenics courts had ordered the sterilization
of an estimated four hundred thousand people. I'm Eve Jeff Code,
(09:37):
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If there's something that I missed
in an episode, you can share it with everybody else
on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at t D I h
C podcast m HM. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
(10:03):
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows,
Hello, everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode, one from me and one
from Tracy V. Wilson. They're both good, if I do
say so myself. On with the show. Hello, and welcome
to this day in History class. Today is July four.
(00:22):
Gertrude Bell was born on this day in eighteen sixty
eight in the English town of Washington. Gertrude Bell was
a real person, but she really seems like the hero
of a novel that I would love. She was a
Victorian lady adventurer, and a poet and a diplomat. Basically
a daring, brilliant, eloquent archaeologist who was the first woman
(00:45):
to earn a first class degree in modern history at Oxford.
At the time, most Oxford universities did not offer enrollment
to women at all. She went to Lady Margaret Hall,
which is one of the few Oxford constituent universities that
did not. Only is she completely not a fictional character,
her diplomatic work really helped shape the Middle East. Her
(01:07):
uncle was a British ambassador in Iran, and Bell traveled
there in eighteen nine two. By that point, she had
already taught herself how to speak Persian, which was one
of many languages that she knew. This visit to her
uncle really sparked a lifelong passion for the Middle East,
but she didn't stay there for very long. She traveled
(01:27):
the world until the start of World War One, exploring
mountaineering and working as an archaeologist. Once the war started,
she wound up working for the Arab Bureau and Cairo.
Along with T. E. Lawrence also known as Lawrence of Arabia,
she was the only woman who was working for the
British government in the Middle East. She later on became
the secretary to the British High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox.
(01:51):
The work she did involved working with the local people
to convince them to join sides with Britain to fight
against the Ottoman Empire. She became convinced during all of
this that Iraq needed to be an independent nation and
it needed to have an Arab leader simultaneously. She was
kind of a colonialist. She had a lot of the
(02:13):
same mindset as a lot of other hardcore colonialists at
the time, but she was also really dedicated to the
people who were living in what would become Iraq. So
in nineteen nineteen she wrote Self Determination in Mesopotamia and
that wound up earning her a spot at the nineteen
nineteen Peace Conference in Paris. In nineteen twenties, she wrote
(02:34):
Review of the Civil Administration of Mesopotamia. In nineteen twenty one,
there was a conference in Cairo that established the modern
borders of Iraq, and she was there. And she also
helped Fassa You, the first the King of Syria. When
popular support in Iraq, he became its first king on
August three, nineteen one. After all of this, Gertrude Bell
(02:57):
became the honorary director of the depart Bit of Antiquities
in Mesopotamia. She helped establish the Iraq Museum. She was
also the person who found a bigger location for it
in ninety six, but she died suddenly on July twelfth
of that year of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills.
That was just less than a month after the museum opened.
(03:17):
It was just shy of her fifty eighth birthday, and
the monarchy that she helped establish in Iraq lasted for
thirty seven years through three kings, ending with the July
Revolution on July fourteenth. Thanks to eve's Jeff Cote for
her research work on today's episode and Tatari Harrison for
her audio work on all of these episodes. You can
(03:40):
learn more about Gertrude Bell on the November nineteenth and
twenty six episodes of Stuff You Missed in History Class,
and you can subscribe to This Day in History Class
on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and whatever else you get
your podcasts. Tune in tomorrow for the end of a
tribunal that lasted almost four hundred years, but today's often
are associated with some sketch comedy. A quick content warning
(04:10):
before we start the show. This episode contains mentioned of
Nazi eugenics, so if there are children around or you
are sensitive to this kind of topic, you might want
to skip it. Hi Um Eves, Welcome to This Day
in History Class, a show that reveals a little bit
more about history day by day. The day was July four,
(04:39):
ninety three. Nazi Germany passed the Law for the Prevention
of Genetically Diseased Offspring. The law mandated the forced sterilization
of people with disabilities and further the goals of Nazi eugenics.
Sterilization is the process of making a person unable to reproduce.
Hitler's deputy, Rudolph Hess said Nazism was applied biology and
(05:04):
not see ideology. The Nordic or Aryan race was biologically
superior to all others. Through their racial policies, they aimed
to eliminate any biological threats to a so called healthy Germany. Eugenics,
or the practice of attempting to improve the genetics of
a population by increasing the occurrence of hereditary characteristics deemed
(05:26):
desirable and reducing the occurrence of those deemed undesirable, was
popular in the United States, Brazil, Canada, and many European countries.
Forced sterilization and the encouragement of reproduction in people who
were determined to be fit to do so were common
in those eugenics movements. Not see Eugenics and the Law
(05:47):
for the Prevention of genetically Diseased Offspring grew out of
existing eugenics policies. German physicians and scientists who supported so
called racial hygiene before the law was passed continue to
support Nazi policies that ordered mass sterilizations based on scientific
racism and false ideas of genetic fitness. With the backing
(06:10):
of medical and scientific professionals. The Nazi regime carried out
a program of hundreds of thousands of forced sterilizations and
euthanasia deaths. The law was based on a voluntary sterilization
law created by Prussian health officials in nineteen thirty two.
It was co authored by lawyer Falk Rutka, director of
(06:30):
Public health Affairs are tour Good, and psychiatrists at Ruden.
According to the law, people who were likely to have
a child with quote serious physical or mental defects of
a hereditary nature should be sterilized. People who were subject
to sterilization under the law included people with, in the
law's words, congenital mental deficiency, schizophrenia, manic depression, hereditary epilepsy,
(06:56):
hereditary saint bidases, dance also known as Huntington's care a,
hereditary blindness, hereditary deafness, and serious hereditary physical deformity. People
with chronic alcoholism were also subject to sterilization. The person
is subject to sterilization could apply for sterilization. The state
physician or the head of a hospital, nursing home, or
(07:20):
penal institution could also request sterilization for a person. Applications
would be made to the office of the Eugenics Court,
which was attached to a district court. Once the court
decided a person should be sterilized, the operation had to
be done even if it was against the person's will.
If necessary, direct force could be used. The law came
(07:44):
into effect on January first, ninety four. Though there were courts,
the decision to sterilize was often based just on the
petition and some testimonies, and the patient was not always present.
The three member panel that reviewed titians consisted of two
doctors and a judge. Most of the petitions ended with
(08:04):
approval of the sterilization. The sterilization method was typically either
vasectomy or tubal litigation, and invasive procedure that caused many deaths.
Many of the people sterilized were in asylums, but the
main targets of the program were people who were not
isolated from society and who were of the age to
be able to reproduce. The application process courts and physicians
(08:28):
and scientists gave the program an air of legitimacy, but
in reality, the decision to sterilize just came down to
who the Nazis thought would contaminate the gene pool and
weaken the national body. They even sterilized people for their
anti Nazi beliefs around the world. Some supporters of eugenics
(08:50):
praised the policy, and people outside of eugenics movements also
thought the policy was a good service for public health.
Other people denounced the policy and fear the mass persecution
it could cause. The Nazis went on to experiment with
ways to sterilize people that didn't require as long of
a recovery period. The sterilization of people based on hereditary
(09:14):
illness and ambiguous categories of disease morphed into the murder
of millions of people in the Holocaust. The sterilization program
was largely suspended by nine but by the end of
World War Two, the eugenics courts had ordered the sterilization
of an estimated four hundred thousand people. I'm Eve Jeff Code,
(09:37):
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If there's something that I missed
in an episode, you can share it with everybody else
on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at t D I h
C podcast m HM. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
(10:03):
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows,
This Day in History Class News
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