Oh where should we start then? Malthus? How about Amalek?
I'm well aware of the history of the eugenics movement. It may explain why the Germans had no qualms about exterminating classes of people (such as the mentally or physically non-productive), but it doesn't explain Germany's direction of that philosophy toward exterminating Jews.
Of course Germans fell into Hitler's arms, but one of the reasons they did so was because of his views on the "Master Race", an extension of eugenics theories.
Allow me to quote you again: He is missing a whole lot of the background which helped to cause the Holocaust.
At which point you expounded upon eugenics. I did not dispute those facts, nor the role that the Darwinist philosophy that precipitated eugenics played in permitting the extermination of classes of people. I merely pointed out that you were "missing a whole lot of the background which helped to cause the Holocaust." You missed the reason that the philosophy which justified the means (genocide) had the end of exterminating Jews in particular.
"I merely pointed out that you were 'missing a whole lot of the background which helped to cause the Holocaust.'"
I didn't mean to imply that eugenics was the sole cause. It was a major contributor, though.
But I'm not just focusing so much on what Germany did with the idea of eugenics, I'm focusing in a larger sense on what the rest of the world thought about it. The rest of the world pretty much accepted eugenics so it was easy for them to ignore the use of it in Germany -- until they actually saw the magnitude and the horrors of the Holocaust.
"but it doesn't explain Germany's direction of that philosophy toward exterminating Jews."
Germany exterminated more than just Jews in the 30's; certainly Jews became the focus but initially the idea was to exterminate the unfit in general. The concept of removing those who were unfit was already in place when Hitler began to demonize the Jews. AFAIK, no one really knows why Hitler chose to try and wipe out the Jews.