Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews

by Peter Longerich

  whose offspring would ‘most likely’ inherit physical or mental deficiencies. 87

  With the establishment of public health departments in the summer of 1934 the

  regime had at its disposal an important instrument for carrying out ‘negative

  hereditary care’. 88 These health departments evaluated medical and other official Displacement from Public Life, 1933–4

  47

  documents to identify ‘persons with heredity illnesses’ and to use these individual

  cases as the basis for discovering ‘inferior hereditary lines’ within the German

  people.

  Doctors and other medical personnel were required to notify the authorities of

  people they believed to be suffering from ‘hereditary diseases’. Applications for

  sterilization could be made by state-registered doctors, the directors of medical

  institutions, those concerned or their legal representatives, and decisions on such

  applications were made by the ‘hereditary disease courts’, made up of a lawyer and

  two doctors. 89 In by far the majority of cases these courts determined in favour of sterilization; the number of applications refused varied from 1934 to 1936 between

  7 and 15 per cent. The total number of those subjected to sterilization will have

  been about 360,000 in the Altreich (Germany as it was until the end of 1937),

  although it may have been higher. Both men and women were sterilized, slightly

  more men than women overall. 90

  There were nine possible diagnoses included under the sterilization law, and of

  these ‘mental deficiency’ was the most common, used in more than 50 per cent of

  cases, followed by ‘schizophrenia’, ‘manic-depression’, and ‘epilepsy’. These four

  psychiatric labels—which together accounted for more than 95 per cent of all

  cases—did not in themselves constitute precise diagnoses of illnesses. Instead

  mental deficiency and schizophrenia were blanket terms for a wide variety of

  behaviours that attracted attention or deviated from the norm. ‘Mental defi-

  ciency’, for example, was established using an intelligence test that included

  general knowledge, facts of the kind taught at school, questions on politics and

  history, and general moral concepts. Criteria such as thrift, diligence, industri-

  ousness, domestic cleanliness, educational success, ‘normal’ sexual habits, and the

  like were decisive factors in determining hereditary illness. The supposed ‘diag-

  nosis’ of such illnesses was in reality a social diagnosis in which the social ‘valency’

  of an individual was determined in the context of a belief in ‘racial improvement’.

  ‘Racial hygiene’ was not based on anything approaching empirically verifiable

  evidence about clearly defined inheritable conditions or characteristics; instead it

  represented a long-term experiment, designed to run over several generations and

  to eliminate certain ‘negative’ phenomena felt to be in contradiction to the Nazis’

  racial ideals using methods for monitoring and controlling human reproduction

  (‘racial enhancement via eradication’). There was a presupposition that illnesses

  and characteristics can be inherited, which was to be turned into a proof of the

  possibility of ‘racial enhancement’ as the results of these experiments became

  available.

  The victims of enforced sterilization came overwhelmingly from the socially

  disadvantaged groups—pupils at remedial schools, those receiving welfare sup-

  port, young people in children’s homes, people with criminal records, prostitutes,

  criminals, persons of no fixed abode, families with an ‘irresponsibly large’ number

  48

  Racial Persecution, 1933–1939

  of children, or unskilled workers who were thought to demonstrate ‘mental

  deficiency’ because they were used to carrying out simple repetitive tasks. 91

  There was a ‘racial hygiene’ component in the exclusion of certain groups from

  eligibility for loans on marriage that had been legally established in July 1933.

  Following a decree from the Minister of Finance, spouses who suffered from

  ‘hereditary mental or physical afflictions’ that demonstrated that ‘their marriage

  was not in the interests of the community at large’ were, with Germans of Jewish

  origin, ineligible to apply for such loans. 92 The same applied from September 1935

  to grants for child support. 93 The logic of this ban was to prevent such ‘undesirable’ marriages altogether and was taken to its conclusion with the Marriage

  Health Law of 18 October 1935. 94

  The castration of sex offenders sanctioned by the Law against Dangerous

  Habitual Criminals passed on 24 November 1935 was also motivated by consid-

  erations of ‘racial hygiene’ (and in June 1935 this law was extended to include

  homosexuals, provided that the person concerned gave consent). It was not

  introduced simply to protect the victims but was intended to prevent ‘degenerate

  sexual drives’ from being passed on to future generations. On the basis of this law,

  2,300 men were compulsorily castrated in the period between 1935 and 1943.95

  After enforced sterilization, the next step in the logic of racial hygiene was

  termination of pregnancies, and this was realized in September 1934 when the

  leader of the Reich doctors’ organization, Gerhard Wagner, included in a circular

  letter Hitler’s decision to exempt from punishment abortions carried out to stop

  babies with ‘hereditary illnesses’ being born. 96 After much discussion an alteration was made to the Sterilization Law in June 1935 to the effect that women whose

  sterilization had already been determined upon by the Hereditary Illnesses Tri-

  bunal could, with their agreement, have current pregnancies terminated. 97 At the same time, threats of action against those who aborted ‘healthy’, ‘Aryan’ children

  were intensified, and prosecution of this crime was stepped up, which indicates an

  overwhelmingly racial motivation in this area, too.

  The Law for the Protection of the Genetic Health of the German People of

  18 October 1935 finally made it necessary for couples who wished to marry to

  obtain a ‘Certificate of Suitability for Marriage’ from the local Public Health

  Department Office. 98 It was originally intended to link this form of ‘genetic protection’ (Erbschutz) with ‘racial protection’ (Blutschutz) in a single law against

  ‘marriages inimical to the welfare of the people’, but on Hitler’s own initiative at

  the 1935 Party Conference, these aspects were regulated separately. These ‘Certifi-

  cates of Suitability for Marriage’ were not in fact introduced universally. They

  were only required when the relevant official had ‘good reasons’ for doubting the

  appropriateness of a proposed marriage.

  The legal measures taken to promote racial hygiene affected one group, ‘social

  misfits’ (Asozialen), in a particular way. These were groups on the margins of society

  whose apparently ‘deficient’ genetic inheritance made the National Socialists feel that

  Displacement from Public Life, 1933–4

  49

  they were ‘not in a position to fulfil the minimum requirements of the community

  with respect to their personal, social, and national behaviour’. 99 The sterilization experts were increasingly extending the concept of ‘mental deficiency’ to include the

  ‘social misfits’ suc
h that, although repeated demands for a comprehensive Commu-

  nity Aliens Law to enforce the sterilization of these groups were never officially met,

  by the end of the 1930s this measure was being enforced in practice. The concept of

  ‘social misfit’ was vague, encompassing both prostitutes and their pimps, criminals,

  persons of no fixed abode, beggars, ‘depraved’ families or families with too many

  children, the work-shy, addicts, gamblers, those guilty of any form of perversion,

  unmarried mothers, fathers who did not support their families financially, those in

  long-term receipt of state support, Gypsies, and many others. 100

  In the first years of the ‘Third Reich’ the authorities directed their principal

  attentions towards various measures for interning ‘social misfits’ who had

  nowhere to live, and in doing so greatly increased the population of asylums. In

  later years, many of these people were to fall victim to the policies of annihilation

  as ‘unnecessary mouths to feed’. On the initiative of the Reich Propaganda

  Ministry, September 1933 was to see the first ‘beggars’ week’, in which perhaps

  as many as 100,000 beggars and persons of no fixed abode were arrested. There-

  after many raids like that were carried out. Those arrested would be imprisoned

  briefly and then sent to workhouses. Between 1934 and 1940 the courts made

  nearly 8,000 such orders. A few beggars were also sent to concentration camps. 101

  Other official measures were taken to secure the internment of this group of

  people. From 1934, special camps were designated by some districts for those

  carrying out the work that was obligatory for those in receipt of welfare support. 102

  Those on welfare benefits were increasingly sent to special detention institutions,

  and in 1934–5 local authorities began to set up their own dedicated ‘colonies’ for

  the ‘social misfits’. 103

  In the early years, Gypsies were also subjected to increased discrimination and

  persecution by the authorities, measures which can be interpreted as a radicaliza-

  tion of traditional anti-Gypsy policies. Some states tightened up their regulations

  on the rights of Gypsies, local authorities discriminated against Gypsies when

  granting welfare or interpreted the administrative regulations in a restrictive

  manner. Gypsies were frequently hauled in as part of the operations undertaken

  against ‘social misfits’. From 1935 many municipalities, especially the larger cities,

  began to accommodate Gypsies in dedicated camps, which were closely guarded

  and strictly regulated. 104

  However, Gypsies were particularly affected by the new legal requirements

  governing the control and management of reproduction and were disproportion-

  ately the victims of enforced sterilization. Qualified estimates assess that some

  2 per cent of all Sinti and Roma aged between 14 and 50 were detailed for

  sterilization and that about 400 of the 450 people concerned were actually sub-

  jected to enforced sterilization.

  50

  Racial Persecution, 1933–1939

  Gypsies were prevented from marrying those ‘of German blood’ both by the

  Blood Protection Law and the Marriage Health Law. (The First Implementation

  Order of the Blood Protection Law, 14 November 1935, made explicit provision for

  extending the marriage ban to non-Jewish ‘members of alien races’, and soon

  afterwards the Reich Ministry of the Interior confirmed that it was to be applied to

  ‘Gypsies, negroes, and their bastards’. 105) The racist paradigm thus affected the Gypsies in two different ways, as ‘alien races’ and as ‘inferiors’ to be excised from

  the ‘Aryan’ race. With the implementation of enforced sterilization and marriage

  bans on Gypsies the regime was beginning to depart from the traditional paths of

  Gypsy persecution. The supposedly genetic reasons for ‘typically Gypsy’ behav-

  iour were now being moved into the heart of Gypsy policy.

  Enforced sterilization, exceptions to the regulations on abortion, and the

  institution of marriage bans gave the National Socialist regime a whole battery

  of weapons for the social discipline of individuals whose lives—at a more personal

  level than political opposition—did not conform with National Socialist norms.

  Those who were in any way inconvenient, conspicuous, non-conformist, or

  potentially disruptive could be kept in check with the help of these three eugenicist

  measures. It was precisely the fact that the criteria for making these interventions

  were indistinct and indefinable that made them a potential threat for all those

  whose private lives deviated from what was considered to be ‘normal’.

  Aiming wider even than the control of marginal social groups, and working

  alongside massive racial ‘hygiene’ propaganda, 106 the eugenicist measures were designed to form one of the cornerstones of the National Socialist project to

  establish a new order of values and authority in German society, one determined

  by the hegemony of ‘race’. Sterilization, abortion for reasons of racial hygiene, and

  bans on marriage represented not only a deep intrusion into people’s private lives

  but were intended to abolish the very notion of a private sphere. Decisions about

  who to live with, when to start a family, and parenthood were now subject to a

  state veto. 107 The eugenicist measures helped replace the principle of equality of citizenship with the principle of racial inequality, and did so in a manner that was

  directly effective at an individual level. In essence there were no limits to the

  continuing exclusion of citizens from reproduction. Experts juggled with numbers

  of ‘inferior people’ that ran into millions. 108 Using racial hygiene arguments it was theoretically possible to use a self-defining position of ‘normality’ as a basis for

  declaring everything else, everything different, a ‘deviant biological development’

  and thus open the way to its ‘eradication’. It was the very inconsistency and

  irrationality of the concept of race, which was not scientifically definable, that left

  it up to the National Socialist state to determine the content of its cherished racial

  ideals. In reality, a form of ‘biologization’ subjugated society to the totalizing

  claims of National Socialist policy.

  Another group that should be investigated within the context of racist perse-

  cution is homosexuals. Attacks on homosexuality by the NS regime were on the

  Displacement from Public Life, 1933–4

  51

  one hand clearly consistent with the long tradition of persecuting homosexuals in

  Germany, but on the other it is equally clear that such persecution in the ‘Third

  Reich’ was radicalized and motivated in a new and distinct manner. The perse-

  cution of homosexuals was rooted in population policy and formed a fixed

  component of the plan for the racial ‘enhancement’ of German society.

  Between the ‘seizure of power’ and the murder of Ernst Röhm, known to be

  homosexual, and his followers on 30 June 1934, the NS regime did intensify police

  measures against visible focal points of the homosexual sub-culture, but the

  majority of homosexuals were left largely free of persecution. 109 This situation changed when the SA leadership was eliminated and the systematic persecution of

  homosexuals began. A special
section was established in the Gestapo headquarters

  and in the last months of 1934 large-scale raids on homosexuals were carried out.

  In the summer of 1935 the relevant paragraph of the penal code (§175) was made

  significantly more severe, in particular by the introduction of a penalty of impris-

  onment of up to ten years for certain groups of offenders. 110

  In the course of these racist measures, non-Europeans living in Germany were

  also affected by policies aimed at the segregation of ‘alien peoples’. In 1933 and 1934

  the Reich Ministry of the Interior and the Foreign Ministry both had to deal with

  numerous complaints on the part of non-European states concerning discrimin-

  ation against foreigners living in Germany and fears that they too might be

  sterilized. 111 In order to minimize foreign-policy difficulties, as has already been shown, the Reich government was prepared to apply racial policy to foreigners

  with a degree of flexibility. 112

  Since the spring of 1933 the authorities had been concerned with the special

  problem of children born of German women and coloured soldiers during the

  French occupation of the Rhineland. 113 Initially they were identified by the authorities and as early as February 1935 one of the working parties of the Committee of

  Experts on Population and Racial Policy was to consider the possibility of sterilizing

  the ‘Rhineland bastards’. It was agreed that the decision about whether or not to

  bring in legislation to deal with this matter should be left to Hitler himself, as will be discussed in Chapter 4. 114

  chapter 2

  SEGREGATION AND COMPREHENSIVE

  DISCRIMINATION, 1935–1937

  The second wave of anti-Semitism set in at the beginning of 1935 with renewed

  violence that went on until late summer 1935. It was for the most part brought to a

  close by the promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws in September. 1 After Jews had been largely driven out of public and administrative life during 1933 and 1934, the

  regime was concerned to take one further step towards the complete segregation

  of the Jewish minority from the German population.

  There were three core aims to be realized: the ban on ‘racial miscegenation’