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war and social upheaval: World War II Axis Germany race racism Nazi
World War II: Race--Germany
Figure 1.--This is a scene from a German school classroom. Thev teacher has called a blond and surely blue-eyed girl forward and is pointing out her Nordic features to praise her in front of the class. The Chilldern throughout Grmany were thus encouraged to assess each other on the basis of racial criteriin. This began while Jewish children were still in the classroom. We wonder how many of the children stopped to think that such Nordic features did not correspond to academic, artistic, or physical abilities as well as character. Source: S�ddeutscher Verlag.
World War as conceived by Adolf Hitler was a racist war. Race was not just an aspect of Hitler's world view, it was the dominant factor. Hitler clearly conceptualizes a great conflict against Jews and the only slightly more preverable Slavs. The Jews Hitler believed had to be purged from German life. This proved to be more complicated that the NAZIs may have at first anticipated. One complication was the number of Jews in the military. [Rigg] This process of purging Jews from German life evolved into the Holocaust. It raises the military question of the impact on the NAZI war effort. It may have helped the NAZIs seize power, but it also helped the Allies build the atomic bomb. Refugee scientists, many Jewish, played a major role in Manhattan Project. This could have been used on Germany had Allied operations in Europe proved less succesful than they did. The war against the Slavs was the culmination of a millennium-long conflict between Germans and Slavs--the Drang nach Osten. There was a degree of intermingling with Germans settling in the east (the Volga Germans and other Volks Deutsch). At the same time, the Slavs had expanded westward and there enclaves in Germany (the Sorbs). Historians often stress Hitler's hated of Communism. This is true, but his racial antipathy toward the Slaves was as least as important if not more important. Hitler's vision was to allow at least some of the Slavs would be allowed to survive because slave labor was needed for the new Reich. And Hitler saw the war as not a German war, but an Aryan war. For this reason, the people of the Nordic countries, the Neterlands, and the British would fit into the new Aryan nation. Hitler was frustated at the beginning of the War because he found himself fighting the British and allied with the Soviets. What he wanted of course was to be allied with the British and fighting the Soviets which he saw as the worst possible combination of Jewish Bolshevicks overseeing the Slavic masses. Not all the people in Germany and racially compatable countries were acceptable to Hitler. Geneology became big business in Germany. To enter the SS one had to prove an Aryan ancestry back centuries. Had the NAZIs won the War, the SS would have evolved as a new aristocracy in Germany.
Germans during the Middle Ages pushed east into lands occupied by the Slavs and Blts. Historians now use the term "Der Drang nach Osten". This term was not used in the Middle Ages. Rather the Germans at the time used the term "Ostsiedlung" or "east colonization". It was the German effort to expand their culture, language, and settlement east. The Germans had been push west by the Huns, Avars, and other nomadic warriors from Central Asia. These pressure from Central Asia subsided and Eastern Europe was settled by Slavs and Balts. With the fall of the Roman Empire, Germanic tribes over ran the West and established medieval kingdoms. These kingdoms, especially the ones in the east began to push east to expand their territory. After the Darl Ages the comonies of Europe began to increase as commerce quickened and agricultural technology increased yields. The result was an expanding population. German at the time was the Holy Roman Empire. Germans from the Rhenish, Flemish, and Saxon territories of Empire eastwards began tomigrate east into the less-densly populated areas of the Baltic and Poland. This population movements were supported by the German nobility and the medieval Church. It was also supported by Slavic kings and nobility. This is because the increased population and the skills of the German settlers meant increased income and taxes. Much of this migration was peaceful. There were also military campaigns launched against the Poles and still pagan Balts. This is sometimes referred to as the Northern Crusades. One of the Baltic tribes attacked was the Prussei (1018-1285) and the future state of Prussia would take on the name of the defeated tribe. The Teutonic Knights played a major role in the conquest of the Balts. Konrad of Masovia invited the Knights to northern Poland. The Teutonic Knights became a Polish vassal (1466). Der Drang nach Osten is a German term that appeared in the 19th century with the rise of German nationalism. It became a centerpiece of NAZism culminating in Germany's World War II invasion of Poland and the Soviet Union.
The Nation State
Germans went East (often invited by the rulers in Polen and Russia) and settled large areas in Poland, Romania and Russia. Most of them did not mix with the local population, especially the Volga-Germans who lived in their own villages. The Sorbs in Germany did not move westwards, they always lived in the swampy area southeast of Berlin where they still are. They simply were forgotten by the Germanization when Teutonic tribes moved eastwards. It is amazing that they have kept their customes and language. These migratory patterns during the medieval era created enclaves and blurred ethnic frontiers. Rulers throughout Europe had subjects of varied ethnicity and langusage. By the 19th and 20th century, these migrations and mixed etnicity had considerable political implications. The rise of the nation-state brought he politics of identity and agendas such as Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism surfaced. Furthermore, Social Darwinist theories framed the coexistence as a "Teuton vs. Slav" as a struggle for domination, land and limited resources. Integrating these ideas into their own, the Nazis believed that the Germans, the "Aryan race", were the master race and the Slavs were inferior.
Geman F�hrer Adolf Hitler at the Nuremberg Party Congress on September 15, 1935 announced three new laws that were to be cornerstones of German racist policies and the supression of Jews and other non-Aryans. These decrees became known as the Nuremberg Laws. They were decrees which in NAZI gErmany had the force of law forbidding contacts between Aryan Germans and Jews, espcecially marriage and srtipping Jewsof German citizenship. The first 1935 decree established the swastika as the official emblem of the German state. The second established special conditions for German citizenship that excluded all Jews. The third titled "The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" prohibited marrige between German citizens and Jews. Marriages violating this law were voided and extra-marital relations prohibited. Jews were prohibuted from hiring female Germans under 45 years of age. Jews were also prohibuted from flying the national flag. The first three Nuremberg Laws were subsequently supplemented with 13 further decrees, the last issued as late as 1943, as the NAZIs constantly refined the supression of non-Aryans. These laws affected millions of Germans, the exact number depending n precisely how a Jew was defined. That definition was published November 14, 1935. The NAZIs defined a Jew as anyone who either 1) had three or four racially full Jewish grandparents, 2) belonged to a Jewish religious community or joined one after September 15 when the Nuremberg Laws came into force. Also regarded as Jews was anyone married to a Jew or the children of Jewish parents. This included illegtimate children of even the non-Jewish partner. There appears to have been no serious public objection to these laws. [Davidson, p. 161.]
Destincive NAZI Approsch
Hitler's war against the Slavs (der Drang nach Osten) in a sence was nnothing new. But there were major differences that Hitler introdfuced into this age-old struggle. First, Hitler wanted a definitive end to the struggle. Many German nobels had been quite happy to rule over sklavic subjects. And even in the Wilemite German Empire, many German junkers were quite happy to opeate their estates with Poles as they worked for lower wages than German agriculktural laborers. Hitler did not want to rule over the Slavs, he wanted to eliminte them--millions of people. He wanted to replace the Slavs with ethnic German settlers. Only a small portion of the Slavs would be allowed to survive as a slave labor force for the Reich. Second, Hitkler introduced science into the struggle. The NAZIs were strong supporters of eugenics. Eugenics in the late-19th and early-20th century was widely seen as a legitimate science. And it was not just embraced by ultra-nationalists. The Progressive Movement in America was strongly influenced by eugenics. It ws seen as assessing social problems. Thus the NAZIs used the oprestige of science to legitamize racism. And German scientists to obtain grants and prestigious appointments proceeded to produce thousands of scientific papers to prove how racists programs could adavnce German culture and improve the life oif the German people.
Geneology
Geneology became big business in Germany. To enter the SS one had to prove an Aryan ancestry back centuries. Had the NAZIs won the War, the SS would have evolved as a new aristocracy in Germany.
Racial War
World War II as conceived by Adolf Hitler was a racial war. Hitler fiscusses the preceived racial threat to Germany at somelength in Mein Kmpf. Race was not just an aspect of Hitler's world view, it was the central factor. Hitler clearly conceptualizes a great conflict against Jews and the only slightly more preverable Slavs. Both the Jews and Slavs were seen as race enemies. His major war goal was to conquer Europe so a new racial order could be imposed. The problem for Hitler was that there were not enough Germans to build a military capable of conquering Europe. There were groups that might have assisted Hitler and the NAZIs such as Ukranians and anti-Soviet Russians, but Hitler was opposed on msaking common cause with them because they were Slavs. Thus the ibsession on race doomed the NAZI War effort.
The Jews Hitler believed had to be purged from German life. Historians have discussed the origins of this racial animus at great length. There was a long history of nti-Semitism in Germany and the rest of Europe. The Jews had, however, achieved full legal rights in Germany and were perhaps the most assimilated Jewish community in Europe. Purging the Jews from German life proved to be more complicated that the NAZIs may have at first anticipated. One complication was the number of Jews in the military. [Rigg] Once in command of Germany, the SS and other Government agies fistered pseudo science designed to prove that anti-Semitism had axscientific basis. The major step in this process was the Nurremberg Rave Laws (1935) which deprived Jews of their German citizenship and civil rights. Once made legal, the oprocess of iusolating Jews from German life, stealing their property, and making it impossible to make a living could proceed in ateady beaureacrativ and leegal way. This process turned violent with Kristallnacht (1938). This process of purging Jews from German life evolved into the Holocaust. It raises the military question of the impact on the NAZI war effort. It may have helped the NAZIs seize power, but it also helped the Allies build the atomic bomb. Refugee scientists, many Jewish, played a major role in Manhattan Project. This could have been used on Germany had Allied operations in Europe proved less succesful than they did.
Arabs
NAZ attitudes toward the Arabs are clear, but complicated. The NAZIs including Hitler considered the Arabs to be an inferior race. To some extent they were associated with Jewss because of beliefs as to origins and physical appearance. Of course this was before DNA was discovered and could be used to actually study such relationships. Arabs in NAZI racial rankings shared the inferiority ascribed to the Jews. [Lewis, p. 140.] This assessment, however, was not expressed with the same vehemence. As there were few Arabs in Germany or connections to the Arab world as well as a tradition of anti-Arab sentiment, NAZI pseudoscience focused racial research and Goebbel's media gave little attention to the Arabs. The principal target was the Jews. It was the believed relkationship go the Jews that most affected NAZI thinking. One historian writes, "Nazis viewed the Arabs with contempt. Arabs in Germany received the discriminatory treatment consistent with Nazi racial theories." [Mattar, p. 100.] Hitler in public rarely mentioned the Arabs. Thgere was a slur in a 1939 speech just before he lsubchjed the War. He was talking about the Middle East and reffered to the Areabs among other non-Europeans, as "painted half-apes, who want to feel the whip." [Lewis, p. 100.] There are many similar derogarory comments in less public settings. [Morris, p. 165.] This racial assessmernt was not strongly expressed in NAZI propaganda. This was because the Arabs were useful politically. Britain and France had Arab colonies or presences in several Arab countries. The most important wa Egypt with the Suez Canal. Thus supporting the Arabs fit into German foreign policy. This is one rason that the Germans offered santuary to Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. The Mufti who mastermined the uprising against the British and Jews in Palestine (1938-39) and thge Iraqi revolt (1941) was sought by the British. Once in Germany, he became a strong advocate of the Holocaust. Even so, Hitler refused to shake the Mufti's hand and refused to drink coffee with him in a well-publicised December 1941 meeting. [Friedmann] At the time tghe Holocaust had been launched with mass killings in the Sioviet Union and Poland. The NAZIs attracted comnsiderable support in severalk Arab ciuntries (Egypt, Iraq, and Syria) as well as Iran. They were attracted by German hostility toward Britain and the Jews as well as the abiity of Germany to ammass state power. The democratic reforms Britain tried to institure in Palestine had little appeal. Arab leaders seem to have been unaware or did not take seriously NAZI racial attitudes toward them. Reich F�hrer SS Himmler who he was closer to did shake his hand. The Mufti encouraged him toi kill more Jews. The Mufti from Berlin made propaganda broadcasts to the Arab world for the NAZIs.
Africans
Asians
Slavs
The war against the Slavs was the culmination of a millennium-long conflict between Germans and Slavs--the Drang nach Osten. There was a degree of intermingling with Germans settling in the east (the Volga Germans and other Volks Deutsch). At the same time, the Slavs had expanded westward and there enclaves in Germany (the Sorbs). Historians often stress Hitler's hated of Communism. This is true, but his racial antipathy toward the Slaves was as least as important if not more important. Hitler's vision was to allow at least some of the Slavs would be allowed to survive because slave labor was needed for the new Reich. NAZIs planners developed a plan as to jst how to deal with the Slavs and the East--Generalplan Ost.
Balts
Nordic People
And Hitler saw the war as not a German war, but an Aryan war. For this reason, the people of the Nordic countries, the Neterlands, and the British would fit into the new Aryan nation. Other European people like the French and Balts were not targeted like the Jews and Slavs, but they were to be given a subsidisary status in the NAZI New Order.
Non-Nordic Germans
An interesting racial asopect of World War II was that while Hitler sought to wage a racial war, many Germans were not particularly Nordic. The best example of this of course was Hitler himself. And there wre many minority groups and people of foreign ancestry within the Reich, including Poles, Czechs, Sloveners, Danes, French (often of Hugenout extraction), and others. It actually is ironic that many SS-men had Polish and other Slavonic names. Two of the most fanatic NAZIs were Odilo Globocnik (of Slovenian ancestry) and Otto Skorzeny, Hitler's daredevil. Globocnik was the gauleiter of Vienna until dismissed for corruption. He was later rehabilitated and oversaw Operation Reinhard and the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, Skorzeny rescued Mussolini when the Duce was imprisoned on a mountain top in Central Italy. Closer to home: Hitler's own niece and first mistress before Eva Braun, Geli Raubal, had a Czech last name. The question arises as to what would have happened to these people had the NAZIswon the War.
Hitler faced a findamental problem--there werenot enough Germans to conquer Europe. This came to the fore after Barbarossa failed before Moscow (December 1941). Himmler came up with a potenntial answer--harvest children of Aryan stock from the occupied areas. The NAZI domestic Lebensborn program was soon transformed into a much larger and more sinister effort of kidnapping large numbers of racially suitable children in occupied countries. This was valled "Eindeutschung" which I am unsure how to translate. The NAZI description of this is instructive, "Erhaltung und F�rderung rassisch wertvollen germanischen Erbgutes". This translates roughly as the "preservation and promotion of racially valuable Germanic hereditary property". In other countries Lebensborn homes were established. The NAZI polices in this regard varied greatly from country to country. Probably more than 0.3 million children were kidnapped by the NAZIs. Few were ever to be reunited with their parents. A substantial number were murdered in concentration camps.
War Developments
Hitler was frustated at the beginning of the War because he found himself fighting the British and allied with the Soviets. What he wanted of course was to be allied with the British and fighting the Soviets which he saw as the worst possible combination of Jewish Bolshevicks overseeing the Slavic masses. Not all the people in Germany and racially compatable countries were acceptable to Hitler.
Sources
Adler, Franklin Hugh. "Racial Theories in Fascist Italy (review)" Holocaust and Genocide Studies Vol.18, Number 1, Spring 2004, pp. 127-130.
Davidson, Eugene. The Unmaking of Adolf Hitler (Univesity of Missouri: Columbia, 1996), 519p.
Lewis, Bernard. Semites and anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice (W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Friedmann, Jan. "World War II. New Research Taints Image of Desert Fox Romme," Der Spiegel (May 23, 2007).
Mattar, Philip (1992). The Mufti of Jerusalem: Haj Amin al-Husseini and the Palestinian National Movement (Columbia University Press, 1992).
Morris, Benny. Righteous victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-2001 (Random House, Inc.: 1999).
Rigg, Bryan Mark. Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military (Modern War Studies, 2004).
