Anton Weiss-Wendt and Rory Yeomans,eds,Racial Science in Hitler's New Europe,1938–1945

Reviewed by: Bradley W. Hart, California State University, Fresno, USA

This edited volume presents a series of essays examining the impact of racial science and theory in areas of Europe either occupied by, or allied with, Nazi Germany. Its origins lie in a 2009 conference on the same topic in Oslo, Norway. The book's introduction draws out five major themes of inquiry examined in the remaining text: firstly, the connection between racial science in Germany and elsewhere in Europe after the Nazis embraced eugenics on an unprecedented level; secondly the ways the notion of ‘race’ was interpreted and appropriated by elites across the Continent; thirdly, the reasons why eugenics and racial science was accepted by so many bureaucrats, policy-makers, and other state officials in occupied areas and elsewhere; fourthly, the reasons why some figures opposed Nazi eugenics and euthanasia policies despite their belief in racial rebirth; and, finally, how deep the connection between racial science and state policy ran (16–17).

Over the course of the following 13 chapters, the volume examines these themes across a wide geographical area ranging from the origins of racial anthropology in early twentieth-century Britain and Germany to the implementation of eugenic and racial purification policies in Demark, Norway, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic States. The final chapter by Wolfgang Bialas ties together many of the themes contained in the earlier essays and presents an analysis of the ‘Nazi ethics’ that the regime and its supporters used to justify atrocities across Europe.

This volume is impressive for several reasons. Its geographic scope is remarkable and explores areas that have been hitherto neglected in most English-language historiography of eugenics, racial hygiene and the Second World War more widely. Marius Turda has been one of the few scholars to publish widely on eugenics and racial theory in Eastern Europe in recent years, and he also makes a valuable addition to this collection. The emerging strand of historical writing on eugenics focuses on expanding the narrative from the traditional centres of examination (generally the United States, Great Britain and Germany) to areas that have previously been seen as the periphery or have simply been under-examined (Latin America and Southern Asia, for instance).

Interestingly, most of the essays presented in this work suggest a roughly similar developmental path for racial science across the countries considered: firstly, racial theories are imported and developed from international examples, usually Germany and/or the US in the 1920s; secondly, these ideas are appropriated by nationalist elites to define the state's identity, particularly in nations carved out of former empires by the Treaty of Versailles, becoming part of the political discourse; thirdly, these ideas become a contested terrain in the interwar period as competing factions vie for control of research resources and to influence the political conclusions being drawn from their ‘science’; and, finally, the wartime elevation of racial science to national policy under German occupation or influence and the resolution of these prior debates in favour of Nazi ideology. It would be interesting for scholars of eugenics and racial science outside Europe to consider whether a similar pattern appears elsewhere, with obvious wartime differences but an equally German-centric resolution of internal debates.

In addition to its wide geographic scope, this volume contains a number of contributions from scholars working in novel areas or who have previously published little in English. Amy Carney's contribution focuses on Heinrich Himmler's efforts to encourage SS officers to have children and care for their families amidst the upheaval of the war, along with the stringent regulations that managed an SS member's personal life. Terje Emberland's essay explores the impact of similar policies in Norway, where the SS established its Lebensborn programme with the goal of ‘stealing some good Germanic blood’ (117). Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe Künzel's contribution tells the fascinating story of Dutch workers who were convinced to help ‘resettle’ occupied areas in the east. Like the later chapters examining national case studies, any of these sections could easily be converted into an important book-length study.

This is an impressive work that provides important new insights for historians of eugenics/racial hygiene, racial anthropology, the Second World War and the Holocaust. Many of the essays will hopefully serve as a prelude to the publication of longer works exploring these themes in the future. In the meantime, this work deserves a wide readership and should be classed alongside The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics as one of the significant recent publications helping expand the scholarly understanding of racial science in the first half of the twentieth century.