Nazi Connection by Kuhl Stefan;

Author:Kuhl, Stefan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 1994-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

Foreign Reception of Nazi Race Policies

The international reception of Nazi race policies passed through several phases, at least in the perception of National Socialists. In looking back, Walter Gross, who was one of the main propagandists of German race policy, declared in 1939 that Germany’s race policies had gained more and more international acceptance during the previous years. After countering initial criticism from non-German countries, the Nazi government and German scientists together succeeded in quelling much of the opposition by promoting the notion that Nazi race policies were of a scientific character and politically necessary. In a speech at the Hochschule für Politik, Gross claimed that this success was among the biggest achievements of the last six years in Nazi Germany, comparable only to the “unheard successes in the development in political, military, or economic areas.”13

While Gross’ speech must be viewed as part of Nazi propaganda, it nevertheless points to a shift in the reaction of foreign countries toward Nazi race policies. From the perspective of Nazi race politicians, the first two years, 1933–1934, were marked by “the devastating and incredible success” of propaganda from Jewish circles that attempted to discredit the scientific character of their race policy.

Gross viewed the Congress of the IFEO in 1934 as the turning point after which the Nazis succeeded in convincing foreign scientists of the scientific character of their race policies. He explained that at the Congress, German and non-German scientists had held long discussions on the question of whether the Nazis really intended to sterilize only people who were hereditarily “ill,” or if they would use the law to get rid of former ministers and representatives of the Weimar Republic.

The Nazi journal, Neues Volk, summarized foreign criticism under three different categories. First, foreign countries argued that Germans neglected the importance of education and overstressed the importance of inheritance. Second, they believed that National Socialists overestimated differences between races. Third, they feared that Germany’s emphasis on the importance of the folk would result in diminished freedom for individuals. Neues Volk optimistically believed that such opposition would be overcome:

The cooperation of the scientists of all nations, who have begun to express agreement with our standpoint, will lead unavoidably in the near future to an intellectual shift in other countries.14

Similar evidence illustrating how Germans perceived a weakening of international resistance toward their race policies surfaced in an internal meeting of the Racial Policy Office of Baden in December 1934. The Office representative told his audience that the Law on Preventing Hereditarily Ill Progeny was initially greeted by a “series of outrageous attacks” from foreign countries; however, “only after one year,” he stated, “did the defense propaganda start to work.”15 Beginning in 1935, German propagandists voiced greater satisfaction with the prevailing image of Nazi race policies. In June 1935, the Racial Policy Office of the National Socialist Party stated:

Of greatest importance is the increasing interest of foreign countries in the National Socialist race ideology. . . . Scholarly circles in England, the United States, and even in

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