"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.
Jews were exterminated more as a threat than merely "unfit" in the Darwinian sense.
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.
In the list of leaders of the Spartakusbund you'll find a substantial number of Poles as well.
AFAIK, no one really knows why Hitler chose to try and wipe out the Jews.
Well then by all means don't learn more about the Spartakusbund by availing yourself of the link I provided you.
At that time, it was not uncommon to regard communism as a Jewish plot. Fascism was being sold across Europe as a defense against anarchy and communism. Interstingly, the capitalist role in fomenting soviet style communism as a fascist foil (the Popular Front) was made abundantly clear in the Spanish Civil War when the Stalinists did more to defeat the Spanish anarchists than Franco's fascists did.