Saw on the news about a US program started in the 30's to sterilize unfit people. About 60,000 were sterilized. California's doctors were visited by Nazi DR's to learn about their methods.
California's dark legacy of forced sterilizations - CNN Unfortunately, the eugenics movement was not a rare thing in the 1930s. California wasn't alone in this travesty.
The concept of eugenics, and forced sterilization was pretty widespread in the late twenties and later. It started, or forced sterilization in the name of "improving the breed" (eugenics) in America actually. Sweden’s eugenics program lasted far longer than either California's or Germany's. Californians weren't the only ones who embraced the concept in the US, I think it went on into the sixties or seventies in some parts of the south. But that said, the Swedes are a bit closer to Germany than California. I’m not saying the Nazis didn’t study the California program, but I would think they also studied the one right across the Baltic from them as well. The Swedish government has approved a draft document granting compensation to thousands of women who were forcibly sterilised as part of a 40-year eugenics programme. The government has agreed to grant around $21,150 to each of the victims. Officials have given the document to their lawyers to iron out the details, but no major changes are expected. Two years ago, an investigative reporter uncovered the policy carried out between 1936 and 1976 of forcibly sterilising women considered socially unfit. …Since the Swedish case came to light, it has been revealed that many other countries carried out sterilisation programmes, based on eugenics ideas linked to the Nazis. They include Austria, France, Finland, Norway and Switzerland. Goto: BBC NEWS | Health | Background Briefings | International | Sweden to compensate sterilised women