In 1935, Hitler’s Nazi Germany passed the Nuremberg laws, what is considered the legal precedence for the holocaust of Jews. Experts and historians have continuously asserted that Nazi legislators and lawyers looked closely at the model of 20th century America. They drew inspiration from the Jim Crow laws that created such a racially segregated society like those that kept Native Americans as non-citizens, and that banned interracial marriage. Almost identical to the Jim Crow laws, the Nuremberg laws revoked Reich citizenship for Jews and prohibited Jews from marrying or having sexual relations with anyone of "German or related blood." These laws even defined what a Jew was considered, not religious affiliation but by having 3 or more Jewish grandparents. Some might even say this classification was less harsh than American race laws that deemed anyone with even “one drop’ of black blood to be considered a “colored person”. With the rise of the eugenics movement in America, American scientists exchanged ideas and republished academic papers from Nazi scientists. Nazi scientists shared the results of the horrific experience they preformed on disabled, Jewish, Polish, Roma and other ethnic groups of people with American scientists who praised their innovation. Nazi officers even used diagrams that depicted the physical traits of ethnic groups very similar to those created by American Eugenicists to help them distinguish between white-passing people of non- German backgrounds. In the most prolific correlation, American eugenicists sterilized over 60,000 American citizens to “improve” the human race, by removing anyone with physically, mentally, and morally undesirable traits. In Nazi Germany prior to and during the holocaust, 400,000 people were sterilized against their will. Both groups justified sterilization in almost the same ways, they claimed that those with undesirable traits were a burden to society, and halted the progression of the human race.
"You Are Sharing the Load! A Hereditarily Ill Person Costs 50,000 Reichsmarks on Average up to the Age of Sixty."
This post is especially important now with the rise of white supremacy. I don't think that the United States understands the influence they have on other countries. Many countries follow the paths of the United States and as a result, white supremacy, xenophobia and nationalism is growing to an international following. I think that the return of this is something that everyone should be worried about. Xenophobia has been increasingly impacting the way refugees are treated at European borders. Even though we should be welcoming those in need, many do not care and have placed stereotypes that align with nationalist values.
ReplyDelete