The Nazi Ancestral Proof

Source abstract

Thoroughly researched and vigorously argued, this study seeks to explain how the National Socialist regime institutionalized its racial ideology, why it met with virtually no opposition, and how this contributed to genocide. Attorney Ehrenreich shows that, as with many other developments, 1933 was not the absolute watershed scholars usually assume it to have been. Tracing the history of genealogical practices, eugenics, and "scientific" racism from the imperial era (1871-1918) into the Weimar years (1919-33), the author reasons that Germans had become thoroughly accustomed to these discourses. Notwithstanding their scientific worthlessness, the Nazi version of these theories met with no meaningful resistance, as millions upon millions of Germans complied with the regime's demands regarding the racial purity of their ancestors. Compliance may have rested on a "combination of perceived benefits" rather than enthusiasm for the ideology, but whatever the basis for public acceptance, it allowed the Nazis to implement thousands of racial laws with virtually no opposition from either institutions or individuals. Whole new branches of commerce emerged to service a new public need-providing the proof that one was untainted by "Jewish blood." Ordinary Germans thus helped identify and isolate Jews, steps that led to their extermination. An important book, accessible to general readers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.