Eugenics — the name means "good in birth" — led to laws in 27 states that targeted society's most vulnerable citizens, particularly minority racial and ethnic groups, with things such as forced sterilization and regulated marriages.

Eventually the movement was discredited, but not before American eugenicists planted some of their ideas overseas.

Now investigative journalist Edwin Black has written a book arguing that the American eugenics movement at the turn of the 20th century was the foundation of Adolf Hitler's beliefs and campaign to annihilate the Jews.

Black's book, "War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race," is based on a review of 50,000 documents collected from four countries.

Black will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Jewish Campus, at 12500 N.W. Military Highway. His appearance is free to the public and sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial.

"Adolf Hitler studied American eugenics and in 'Mein Kampf' wrote that American eugenics had inspired him and shown him the way," Black said. "So he medicalized and scientized deeply held anti-Semitic beliefs and adopted the American idea of a quest for a master race and implemented our ideas with great ferocity and velocity."

Eugenics originated with statistician Francis Galton, who was influenced by Gregor Mendel's genetic experiments with peas, which came decades before scientists understood the complexity of the genetic code.

Galton's ideas were embraced by Charles Davenport, director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where the campaign to "redirect human evolution" was headquartered for 30 years.

Laws, policies and even a U.S. Supreme Court decision brought about forced sterilization of 60,000 people, along with decrees that forbade others from marrying. Countless others were institutionalized after being deemed "feebleminded."

Documents unearthed by researchers show how Hitler embraced the ideas and how American philanthropists financed Nazi scientists, Black said.

Black has produced an important work about a movement that people need to know about, said Maxine Cohen, director of the Holocaust Memorial.

"The very basis of Hitler's genocidal attempts to exterminate the Jews and other groups was racism," Cohen said. "Much of it was generated by the eugenics program that began in the United States."