DR. WALTER GROSS
Head of the Reich Bureau for Enlightenment on Population Policy and Racial Welfare
Head of the Reich Bureau for Enlightenment on Population Policy and Racial Welfare
Of all the
measures introduced in the new Germany those bearing on National Socialist
racial policy caused the greatest stir internationally, for here was a State
setting its feet upon paths hitherto almost untrodden and leading through
untouched preserves, whose aims were in many respects liable to clash with
established Liberal views. Relevant legislation served to corroborate and
achieve these aims and it was no wonder, therefore, that – in the beginning at
least – this particular phase of National Socialist reconstruction met with
universal misunderstanding and prejudice. We are happy meanwhile to be able to
discern that other nations have come to realise that Germany is, indeed, taking
to new paths, but they are right ones and are necessary and, more than that,
Germany is in many respects blazing a trail for others; mention need only be
made of our law for the prevention of the transmission of hereditary diseases
(Sterilisation Law) which has been followed in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and
Finland by similar laws or draft proposals. However, no one will wholly
understand or sympathise with our legislation who is not wholly familiar with
the fundamental change in the philosophical conception. of life which has come
with National Socialism in the light of history.
Whereas formerly, and more
especially under the powerful influence of Marxist teachings, the development
and decline of States and civilisations was attributed to economic or purely
political causes, we see to-day the determining role played by the human being
in sustaining and shaping economy, the State, culture, politics, art and
intellectual thought. We have come to feel that the protection and preservation
of the people who, after all, are originally responsible for the achievements
of the State and culture, is the chief factor in retaining these achievements;
for good blood and the strength that comes from good blood is given a people
only once and if allowed to degenerate cannot be regenerated as one would
rebuild a city or restore devastated lands. Thus, wise statesmanship will place
the preservation of the biological, that is, racial energy of its people before
its political and economic concerns. The endless series of past empires and
civilisations which have flourished and declined forcefully remind us how
inexorable are the consequences of ignoring this truth.
History and the study of the science
of population show that there are three biological stages which inevitably lead
to the destruction of the vitality of a people and with it the destruction of
the foundations of the State and culture as such. These three stages are:
A decreasing population,
An increase of the hereditary unfit,
The promiscuous mingling of races.
In these respects, Germany’s
position in 1933 was alarming. A declining birth-rate among the fitter
inhabitants and unrestrained propagation among the hereditarily unfit, the
mentally deficient, imbeciles and hereditary criminals, etc., had led, for
instance, to a state of affairs in which the increase of the healthier section
of the population in the past 70 years was only 50 per cent., while the
unhealthy and, in fact, those only fit to live in asylums, had multiplied
ninefold in the same time, or 450 per cent. The care of the latter costs the
working population of Germany the not inconsiderable sum of 1 billion
reichsmarks yearly, while the entire administrative costs of the Reich,
Provinces and Communes amount to 713 million reichsmarks. It was, therefore, an
act of self-preservation which caused the National Socialist State to
promulgate the Law to prevent the transmission of hereditary disease. It was a
measure taken in self-defence and much more besides. For a large portion of the
hereditary unfit had brought children into the world in ignorance of the
consequences of their own afflictions, and many – those still possessed of a
sense of responsibility – were horrified at seeing the “sins of the fathers”
visited upon their children. To this unfortunate category the National
Socialist State lends a helping hand in freeing them from possible mental
torment. Sterilisation relieves their conscience of the frightful burden of
causing further pain and suffering to innocent beings.
It is frequently claimed abroad in
circles hostile to Germany that the politically undesirable are hauled up for
sterilisation. Anyone versed in German Law and the thoroughness and precautions
attendant on the whole procedure knows full well the absurdity of such
allegations and that no one can be sterilised simply on request or as a result
of political pressure. The law for the prevention of the transmission of
hereditary disease is only applicable in acknowledged cases of physical and
mental deficiency such as congenital idiocy, schizophrenia, manic-depressive
insanity, hereditary epilepsy, chronic St. Vitus dance, hereditary blindness,
deafness and serious bodily defects; in addition, it applies to chronic
inebriates. The procedure in regard to the act of sterilisation can take place
upon application being lodged with the special Court of Heredity by the person
concerned, his relatives, a local physician or such official persons as are
connected with matters of public health. The competent Court, which is composed
of an officiating judge, a medical officer and a doctor, decides whether
sterilisation is called for or not. If the applicant or person under
consideration does not agree with the decision of the Court, an appeal may be
lodged with the Higher Court which has a similar composition as the Lower
Court, although the individuals are never the same. The decision of the Court
of Appeal is final. Even then the operation may be avoided by taking life-long
sojourn – or at least for as long as the faculty of procreation exists – in a
private home, provided such sojourn entails no costs for the Government. This
clause was included in order that possible adherents of the Catholic faith who
might have conscientious objections on the grounds of the Papal encyclical be
given the opportunity of observing their religious tenets at all costs.
These measures of the National
Socialist State, despite their broadmindedness, have been attacked mainly for
political or dogmatic reasons. Such criticism is based on a number of
objections which appear unfounded and extravagant. They may be summarised in
three groups.
The first arises purely from the
individualist standpoint which resents any intrusion into the life of the
individual. According to its advocates, the individual has the right to be
without children if he prefers or, despite obvious hereditary afflictions,
procreate at will, or indeed, by transcending all frontiers and racial
barriers, to contract marriage to his own taste. Fundamentally, that is, any
restriction on the life of the individual demanded by the collective interests
of the community is categorically rejected. Obviously, such an attitude must be
deplored in every State since, if applied in all spheres, it would render
communal and State institutions, both economic and cultural, impossible.
Civilisation is only possible
through the individual becoming part of the whole and just as collective
authority in the interests of all limits the egoism of the individual by, say,
taxation laws or measures to combat epidemics, etc., it similarly has the right
to implement such measures for the benefit of the community as are
scientifically proved expedient in the way of population policy or eugenics.
The need for such action prevailed in Germany.
The second set of objections is
mainly based on humanitarian grounds. It is argued, for instance, that the act
of sterilisation represents such a weighty sacrifice for the person concerned
that society should only accept it if made voluntarily. But it is not humane
that among civilised peoples the standard of living of that section of the
population which is fit and able to work is lowered by burdening it with the
excessive levies necessary for the maintenance of and keeping within its midst
the hereditarily diseased who, despite these heavy costs, can never be healed
of their ailments. After all, the healthy members of the race are also entitled
to a share of compassion and humane considerations.
Nor is it justifiable to argue that
sterilisation will not do away with the possible recurrence of similar cases.
In arguing thus one might just as well refrain from putting out a fire because
another might happen to break out elsewhere at some other time. Incidentally,
sterilisation is and remains a humane duty to the individual. How great is the
mental agony of a person suffering from some hereditary disease in the pitiful
knowledge that not only he himself is incurable but that his children
frequently begotten in ignorance of the complications of his own trouble, are
doomed to a similar or worse fate. Timely sterilisation rids the hereditarily
unfit of such mental torment.
Other objectors insist that the
operation should only be performed with the consent of the individual. It is
foolish, however, to want acquiescence from a human being who has no command
over his morbid instincts or of one who is to be prevented from procreation for
the very reason that he is suffering from some mental debility.
Everywhere in organised society,
justice and morals are bound to interfere with personal liberty to a greater or
lesser extent, even with that of the healthy individual. If an epidemic breaks
out endangering the welfare of the community everyone, whether he wants to or
not,
must be vaccinated; similarly, just
as the doctor takes preventive measures on this score, the specialist in the
sphere of hereditary transmission, both medical and legal, backed by the
knowledge of biological necessities must, if called upon, take upon his
shoulders the responsibility which the individual patient is unable to bear.
A third and last group fears lest
the suggestion of a biological stratification of society or the racial
classification of humanity should lead to serious conflicts. As to this, it may
be said that racial peculiarities are natural and any social or human system of
differentiation will last only so long as it is in harmony with natural
phenomena. Why, the very knowledge and acknowledgment of the social claims of
the race, of racial hygiene, and its practical application, is calculated to
limit, even prevent wars. For war, even if successful, signifies biologically
an irretrievable loss of the best hereditary tendencies. Since National
Socialist Germany frankly thinks along biological lines she wants nothing but
peace. The National Socialist idea of State is the most peaceful conceivable,
for it of all others sees its duty in the preservation of the pure racial
continuity of its people. Nothing but sheer want of sense could accuse the new
Germany of hankering after war. For we are only too well aware what irreparable
damage has been done and how heavy has been the toll taken of our people in the
way of hereditary values through centuries of retrogressive selection,
declining birth-rate and, finally, through the frightful decimation of the
flower of our manhood in the War. If we need peace and quiet for the political
and economic regeneration of our people tried almost beyond endurance, we need
it doubly so to effect the reconstruction and vital racial aspirations of our
population policy directed along biological lines, for nothing could be more
disastrous than war with its ruthless destruction of the best and consequent
indirect preferential selection of the less valuable.
Even a victorious war is
biologically a loss. The true statesman is aware of this and will never take to
the sword except as a last necessity. Here it becomes manifest that the
national-racial principle – contrary to the aims maliciously attributed to it –
is in itself the surest guarantee for a policy fundamentally peaceful.
Most open to misinterpretation are
National Socialist views on the relations between the various races of the
world. It has been questioned whether the fundamental racial principles of the
new world theory must not breed condescension, even contempt of people of
different race. Quite the contrary; these very principles offer the very best
guarantee for mutual tolerance and for the peaceful co-operation of all.
We appreciate the fact that those of
another race are different from us. This scientific truth is the basis, the
justification and, at the same time, the obligation of every racial policy
without which a restoration of Europe in our day is no longer practicable.
Whether that other race is “better” or “worse” is not possible for us to judge.
For this would demand that we transcend our own racial limitations for the
duration of the verdict and take on a superhuman, even divine, attitude from
which alone an “impersonal” verdict could be formed on the value or lack of
such of the many living forms of inexhaustible Nature. But we of all people are
too conscious of the inseparable ties of the blood and our own race to attempt
to aspire to such an ultra-racial standpoint, even in the abstract.
History, science and life itself
tell us in a thousand ways that the human beings inhabiting the earth are anything
but alike; that, moreover, the greater races are not only physically but
especially spiritually and intellectually different from each other. Yesterday
one passed this fact by, and in attempting to unify political, economic,
cultural and religious standards for all nations of the earth, one was sinning
against Nature, violating the natural attributes of various racial and national
groups for the sake of a false principle. To-day we bow to the racial
differences existing in the world. We want every type of being to find that
form of self-expression most fitted to its own particular requirements.
The racial principles of National
Socialism are, therefore, the surest guarantee for respecting the integrity of
other nations. It is incompatible with our ideas to think of incorporating
other nationalities in a Germany built up as a result of conquests, as they
would always remain – because of their alien blood and spirit – a foreign body
within the German State. Such foolhardy thoughts may be indulged in by a world
which has as its goal economic power or purely territorial expansion of its
frontiers, but never by a statesman thinking along organic, racial lines whose
main care is the preservation of the greatness and along with it the essential
unity of his people held together by the ties of blood relationship.
For this reason, we have nothing in
common with chauvinism and imperialism because we would extend to other races
peopling the earth the same privileges we claim for ourselves: the right to
fashion our lives and our own particular world according to the requirements of
our own nature.
And if National Socialism would wish
to see the unrestricted mixing of blood avoided for the individual, there is
nothing in this to suggest contempt. After all, we Germans ourselves, viewed
ethnologically, are a mixture. The National Socialist demand is only that the
claims of the blood and the laws of biology should be more closely observed in
future.
Here again our standpoint is not so
very far removed from that of other people with a sound mental outlook. The
American Immigration Laws, for instance, are based on definite racial
discrimination. The Europeans and the inhabitants of India, the Pacific
Islands, etc., have instinctively held aloof from a mingling of the blood, and
both sides genuinely regard any transgression as very bad form. Nevertheless,
this natural attitude in no way detracts from the possibility of close
co-operation and friendly intercourse. And, speaking on behalf of the new
Germany, let me once more emphasise:
We do not wish our people to
intermarry with those of alien race since through such mingling of the blood
the best and characteristic qualities of both races are lost. But we will
always have a ready welcome for any guests who wish to visit us whether of
kindred or foreign civilisation, and our racial views only lead us to a fuller
appreciation of their essential peculiarities in the same way as we would want
our own peculiarities respected.
On the basis of this reasoning, the
National Socialist State was bound to object to the imperialistic designs of
the Jewish people on German soil. Thus it is purely an internal concern of the
German people who could no longer tolerate the domination – a result of
political errors in the past – of an alien race having neither sympathy nor
understanding for them. During the political regimes of the past the Jews had
managed to obtain an increasing hold on politics, art, culture and commerce.
Since 1910, as many as 13 of them had immigrated every day into Germany from
the East. Thus Berlin had –
32.2 per cent. Jewish
chemists
47.9 ”
“ doctors (60 per cent, panel
doctors)
50.2 ”
“ lawyers
8.5 ”
“ newspaper editors
14.2 ”
“ producers and stage managers
37.5
” “ d entists
No people on earth with a vestige of
pride in itself and its national honour will be willing to put up with such
domination of the key professions by members of a completely alien race. At the
same time, the Jews were a determining factor in those political parties which
were against any reconstruction on national lines. As to the so-called State
Party, for instance, 28.6 per cent. of its parliamentary members were Jews, and
in the Social Democratic Party the figure was 11.9 per cent. It is of some
political significance that the founders of the German Communist Party, a
branch of the Moscow Comintern, that destructive force, were Karl Liebknecht
and Rosa Luxemburg, both Jews.
This predominance of alien influence
foreign to the German nature in politics, science and things cultural, provided
the objective for the law for the restoration of professionalism in the Civil
Service and what has since come to be known as the Nuremberg Laws. The Jews in
Germany constitute a group of aliens who can expect to enjoy the hospitality of
the country just like the members of other races. But no Frenchman would wish
to have his leading offices of State occupied by Englishmen, and no Englishman
would want to see the key positions in the politics, art and culture of his
country occupied by, say, Japanese. Who then can reasonably object to the
Germans removing the Jews from the prominent positions in their country? As to
the higher percentage of crime which is an additional factor of importance in
judging the Jewish question in Germany, it may be mentioned that the majority
are immigrants from Eastern Europe, whose cultural and moral ideas could never
be in harmony with those of the German people. The Nuremberg Laws, therefore,
exclude members of the Jewish race from obtaining Reich citizenship. Persons of
mixed parentage – some 300,000 in all – can become citizens of the Reich, but
are excluded from holding office in the Civil Service, the Army and the medical
and legal professions. Exemptions are possible as provided for in the Laws. The
regulation forbidding marriage between a Jew and a German and making illicit
intercourse liable to punishment was designed primarily with a view to
preventing the birth of further individuals of mixed blood whose fate is a
sorry one everywhere in the world, because they are neither one thing nor the
other. For those already in existence a distinction is made between those
having two Jewish grandparents and those with only one. The former require the
approval of the authorities for contracting marriage with someone of German or
allied blood. The latter may not marry a Jew or a member of the former
category. They may only marry people of German blood and their children are
exempt from the restrictive regulations (Army Laws and the Law for the
restoration of professionalism in the Civil Service, etc.). In short, their
children become full members of the German community.
These measures were necessary
because we realised that a nation or a people can only preserve its culture and
its intellectual individuality by keeping the blood pure. It has been said that
“every race is a divine inspiration” – a shaft incidentally aimed at the racial
policy. We would re-join, however, “just because every race is a divine
inspiration, the foremost task of civilisation is to keep that inspiration pure
and reject the least contribution towards detracting from its purity.”
No comments:
Post a Comment