Alexis Carrel, pioneering French scientist and Nobel Prize winner, was proponent of eugenics

A Quebec MNA is calling on mayors in the Montreal area to remove the name of Alexis Carrel, an alleged Nazi sympathizer, from streets and parks in each of their municipalities.

David Birnbaum, MNA for D'Arcy-McGee, says he has contacted the mayors of Montreal, Châteauguay and Boisbriand in the hopes they take action before Holocaust Memorial Day on May 4.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre told reporters Tuesday he would move quickly to comply with the request.

Carrel, a pioneering research scientist, surgeon and biologist who won the Nobel Prize in 1912, was a proponent of eugenics.

And in the preface of his 1936 German edition of the book, Man the Unknown, Carrel praised Adolf Hitler's National Socialist government for its new eugenics program.

"In Germany, the government has taken energetic measures against the increase of minorities, of the mentally ill, and of criminals," Carrel wrote.

"The ideal situation would be that each individual member of these classes of persons would simply be eliminated when he or she shows dangerous tendencies."

In the same book, he recommended the use of gas chambers to deal with undesirable people.

Name of alleged Nazi sympathizer should be removed from street signs, Quebec MNA says - Montreal - CBC News

Alexis Carrel was a French research scientist, surgeon and biologist. (Library of Congress)