RACISM: HOW IT GOT STARTED AND THE HOLOCAUST IT LEFT BEHIND

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

"Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party, which he led, placed a lot of importance on their ideas of racial hygiene. They believed that it was possible to create a pure race of supreme German people using selective breeding techniques applied in agriculture. They wished to eliminate certain groups of people, who were seen as racially impure, from Germany. These included: Jewish people; the Roma (Gypsies) ; certain groups of people from Poland and Russia; Jehovah's Witnesses (a religous group) ; disabled persons; homosexuals; and Communists.   Today we say this is a racist ideology.  

The term racial hygiene was used to describe an approach to eugenics in the early 20th century, which found its most extensive implementation in Nazi Germany (Nazi eugenics). It was marked by efforts to avoid miscegenation (the mixing of different races, such as Black and White children; Semitic and Caucasian) , analogous to an animal breeder seeking purebred animals. This was often motivated by the belief in the existence of a racial hierarchy and the related fear that "lower races" would "contaminate" a "higher" one. As with most eugenicists at the time, racial hygienists believed that the lack of eugenics would lead to rapid social degeneration, the decline of civilization by the spread of inferior characteristics.

                                                           

                             The man who invented racism;  Alfred Ploetz

The German eugenicist Alfred Ploetz introduced the term "racial hygiene" (Rassenhygiene} in 1895 in his Racial Hygiene Basics (Grundlinien einer Rassenhygiene). He discussed the importance of avoiding "counterselective forces" such as war, inbreeding, free healthcare for the poor, alcohol and venereal disease. 

 In its earliest incarnation it was more concerned by the declining birthrate of the German state and the increasing number of mentally-ill and disabled people in state-run institutions (and their costs to the state) than it was by the "Jewish question" and the "degeneration of the Nordic race" (Entnordung) which would come to dominate its philosophy in Germany from the 1920s to the Second World War.     The Nordic race is one of the putative sub-races into which some late-19th to mid-20th century anthropologists divided the Caucasian race, attributing them to Northwestern and Northern Europe, particularly .

During the last years of the 19th century, the German racial hygienists Alfred Ploetz and Wilhelm Schallmayer regarded certain people as inferior, and they opposed their ability to procreate. These theorists believed that all human behaviors, including crime, alcoholism and divorce, were caused by genetics.  

                                                

The removal of Jewish people from German society was particularly well-planned and was referred to as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". About 11 million people, of whom about six million were Jewish, died mainly in death and concentration camps.  Jews were forced to wear the yellow star of David for identification.  

It was in Vienna that Hitler first became exposed to racist rhetoric. Populists such as mayor Karl Lueger exploited the climate of virulent anti-Semitism and occasionally espoused German nationalist notions for political effect. German nationalism had a particularly widespread following in the Mariahilf district, where Hitler lived.   Georg Ritter von Schönerer became a major influence on Hitler. He also developed an admiration for Martin Luther. Hitler read local newspapers such as Deutsches Volksblatt [de] that fanned prejudice and played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of Eastern European Jews. He read newspapers and pamphlets that published the thoughts of philosophers and theoreticians such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gustave Le Bon and Arthur Schopenhauer.

The Nazis started eliminating Jews in 1933.  Jews were thought of as being inferior beings and the German people went along with this statement.  They were a small population, even in 1933 and Germany was also under the spell of anti-Semitism.  Jews were not involved in any crimes, alcoholism or divorce rates in Germany, nor have they ever been in any country, though we did have but a few involved with the American Mafia in the 20's-30s.  

At the same time, Jews also held the belief that they were a religion, not a race, as they had found Jews existing in many parts of the world.  We came with blond hair and black hair, fair skin and olive complexions, brown eyes and blue eyes; in fact-King David was said to have been a gingy;  with red hair.  

                                                             

Upon studying our history, we started off as a family;  the 12 sons of Jacob in the "Old Testament," which grew into the 12 tribes of which 10 became lost with the kidnapping of those by the Assyrians in 721 BCE.  We Jews are from the tribe of Judah and maybe a few of us from Benjamin who was very close by and living in Judah, too.  However, some Jews have married Gentiles, so that line is mixed in certain cases.  Those that married into our family converted to Judaism in most cases.              

Here it is, 2021, and genetics has improved after being discovered and used in  my lifetime.  DNA was discovered in 1869 by Swiss researcher Friedrich Miescher, who was originally trying to study the composition of lymphoid cells (white blood cells). Instead, he isolated a new molecule he called nuclein (DNA with associated proteins) from a cell nucleus.

Through DNA we are finding through autosomal testing that we Jews have intermarried throughout the generations with each other unknowingly, which means we are an endogamous people, probably from living in ghettos and such.   We are now finding that we have not only possible 1st cousins unknown to us, but 2nd, 3, 4th, 5th and higher cousins;  people sharing but a few genes with us.  

We have found that our intelligence rates high on tests, certainly not low as the Nazis had tried to make out.  In fact, they were afraid of Jews because during their times of financial downfalls, the Jews were standing firm and not closing their shops.   They had great heads for business and the average German wasn't doing well at all.  

It all comes from past history and the behaviors of people towards Jews.  Anti-Semitism has existed since Abraham.  Jews have been isolated; 

allowed only certain professions in different countries.  One profession allowed to them was that of the peddler that grew into a business such as traveling on the Silk Road and finding goods to trade.  Christianity did not allow their people to deal with charging interest for borrowing money as it was considered as lowly and disgusting-but they left that an open field for the Jews.  Banking became a profession for a few.  Math became a subject that was easier for Jews than for others, evidently, having used it so much in their line of occupations.  

                                                    

           Albert Einstein and his Theory of Relativity.  In April 1933, Einstein discovered that the new German government had passed laws barring Jews from holding any official positions, including teaching at universities. Historian Gerald Holton describes how, with "virtually no audible protest being raised by their colleagues", thousands of Jewish scientists were suddenly forced to give up their university positions and their names were removed from the rolls of institutions where they were employed.

Music and Math help develop both skills, and Jews had many musicians included in their people, an interesting observation.  Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880 – February 13, 1952) was a German-American musicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's Machtergreifung, arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for being the editor of the first major revision of the Köchel catalogue, which was published in the year 1936. The Köchel catalogue is the extensive catalogue of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  While one source (1980) lists Alfred as a cousin of the scientist Albert Einstein, another claims (1993) that no relationship has been verified. Some websites claim they were both descended from a Moyses Einstein seven generations back, hence they were sixth cousins. In 1991, Alfred's daughter Eva stated that they were not related. On the other hand, she wrote in 2003 that they were fifth cousins on one side, and fifth cousins once removed on the other, according to research by George Arnstein. They were photographed together in 1947 when Albert Einstein received an honorary doctorate from Princeton, but they did not know that they were distantly related. 

 It sounds to me that the Einsteins have taken a DNA test to establish 5th or 6th cousin relationships.  It's so easy to do today.  Albert was a great mathematician, of course.  He had an IQ of 180.  Most people have one of 100 which is considered "normal."  Albert was offered the position of President of Israel, but he turned it down.  His thing was science. 

I find I am related to a male Einstein as 5th cousin, and we share 51cms with the longest segment being 8 cMs.  I'm going to write to him but will most likely will never find our common ancestor.   My brother matches as a 3rd to 5th cousin to the same person and a female with more DNA!  This is interesting!  It does help when all siblings take the same test.  You get more information that way.  

1933

• January 30: Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
• March 22: Dachau concentration camp opens
• April 1: Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses
• April 7: Laws for Re-establishment of the Civil Service barred Jews from holding civil service, university, and state positions
• May 10: Public burnings of books written by Jews, political dissidents, and others not approved by the state
• July 14: Law stripping East European Jewish immigrants of German citizenship
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party. He rose to power as the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then as Führer in 1934. During his dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on 1 September 1939.  Hitler served in WWI.  At the end of this horrid war, "

The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany had to relinquish several of its territories and de-militarise the Rhineland. The treaty imposed economic sanctions and levied heavy reparations on the country. Many Germans saw the treaty as an unjust humiliation–they especially objected to Article 231, which they interpreted as declaring Germany responsible for the war, when they were guilty.  It was they who started it off by the invasion of Poland!    The Versailles Treaty and the economic, social, and political conditions in Germany after the war were later exploited by Hitler for political gain.

Racial hygienists played key roles in the Holocaust, the German National Socialist effort to purge Europe of Jews, Romani people, Poles, Serbs (along with the majority of the other Slavs), Blacks, mixed race people, and physically or intellectually disabled people. 

In the Aktion T4 program, Hitler ordered the execution of mentally-ill patients by euthanasia under the cover of deaths from strokes and illnesses. The methods and equipment that had been used in the murder of thousands of mentally ill were then transferred to concentration camps because the materials and resources needed to efficiently kill large numbers of people existed and had been proven successful. The nurses and the staff who had assisted and performed the killings were then moved along with the gas chambers to the concentration camps, which were being built in order to be able to replicate the mass murders repeatedly.

Today countries have programs to help the poor to raise their status; such as pre-schools, healthcare, etc.  They are finding this much more cost-effective.  Today, all humans are classified as belonging to the species Homo sapiens. However, this is not the first species of homininae: the first species of genus Homo, Homo habilis, evolved in East Africa at least 2 million years ago, and members of this species populated different parts of Africa in a relatively short time.

Though many countries around the globe have passed laws related to race and discrimination, the first significant international human rights instrument developed by the United Nations (UN) was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. The UDHR recognizes that if people are to be treated with dignity, they require economic rights, social rights including education, and the rights to cultural and political participation and civil liberty. It further states that everyone is entitled to these rights "without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status".

The UN does not define "racism"; however, it does define "racial discrimination". 

Resource:

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/jewish/yom-hashoah

https://stlholocaustmuseum.org/holocaust-history/timeline/?gclid=CjwKCAiA9bmABhBbEiwASb35VyWYiD5FnDbb-X1AmcE9gqmyGtAtZdLOV68kJHXtXmMGWLJbcVxm4BoCcOMQAvD_BwE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_hygiene

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_musicians

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1831991/fbclid/IwAR2zRsZcRxJU93nHmkHnZkrPS7MPIb-tNVdhyekyGv_i_oC1-J89q9hQOZw/jewish/How-the-Science-of-Racism-Led-to-the-Holocaust.htm  (I didn't know about this article till 1/26/21) to think that we had almost the same title!  It blows my mind.  )  from Chabad