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German science and black racism—roots of the Nazi Holocaust

New York University Institute of Community Health and Research, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

¹ Correspondence: 400 East 34th St., RR114, New York, NY 10016, USA. E-Mail: francois.haas{at}med.nyu.edu

ABSTRACT

The Nazi’s cornerstone precept of "racial hygiene" gave birth to their policy of "racial cleansing" that led to the murders of millions. It was developed by German physicians and scientists in the late 19th century and is rooted in the period’s Social Darwinism that placed blacks at the bottom of the racial ladder. This program was first manifested in the near-extermination of the African Herero people during the German colonial period. After WWI, the fear among the German populace that occupying African troops and their Afro-German children would lead to "bastardization" of the German people formed a unifying racial principle that the Nazis exploited. They extended this mind-set to a variety of "unworthy" groups, leading to the physician-administered racial Nuremberg laws, the Sterilization laws, the secret sterilization of Afro-Germans, and the German euthanasia program. This culminated in the extermination camps.—Haas, F. German Science and Black Racism—Roots of the Nazi Holocaust.

Key Words: eugenics • racial hygiene • Nazi medicine • Social Darwinism • Herero