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’
Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews Page 10
