Figure 1.--We have seen two explanations of this photograph. One that German boys are being given physical examinations by SS doctors. The purpose is racial screening and certification to ensure that they are not Jewish or have some other impediment to being considered Aryan. Identifying handicaps was another aspect of this screening. We do not have a lot of information on these screening. We do not know, for example, if all German children were screened like this. The boys look to be about 10 years old. This may have been a requirement before being accepted into the Hitler Youth at age 10. This may have been carried out at the schools. The photograph is undated, but was probably taken in the late-1930s. We are skeptical about this explanation as we have not read accounts of such SS screenings in Germany. Anotyhr possible explnation is that the SS here is screening Polish boys who have been picked up as part of the SS Lebensborn program. This seems to be the most likely explanation becuse we know that vlarge numbers of Polish cjildren were picked up by the SS and subjected to SS screenings. We are not sure who the person in the flat cap was. He is clearly not anyone associated with the HJ, or SS. Source: Süddeutscher Verlag.

Racism was a key aspect of World War II. Racism was a primary factor within in the Axis military alliance. World War as conceived by Adolf Hitler was a racist war. Hitler clearly conceptualizes a great conflict against Jews and the only slightly more preverable Slavs. The Jews Hitler believed had to be purged from German life. This process evolved into the Holocaust. Aa least some of the Slavs would be allowed to survive because slave labor was needed for the new Reich. And Hitler saw the war as not a German war, but an Aryan war. For this reason, the people of the Nordic countries, the Neterlands, and the British would fit into the new Aryan nation. Hitler was frustated at the beginning of the War because he found himself fighting the British and allied with the Soviets. What he wanted of course was to be allied with the British and fighting the Soviets which he saw the worst possible combination of Jewish Bolshevicks overseeing the Slavic masses. Not all the people in Germany and racially compatable countries were acceptable to Hitler. Gyneology became big business in Germany. To enter the SS one had to prove an Aryan ancestry back centuries. Had the NAZIs won the War, the SS would have evolved as a new aristocracy in Germany. The Japanese also had highly racist attitudes which showed in their treatment of Koreans, Chinese, and other subject peoples. Japanese attrocities are less publicized, but resulted in the deaths of even more people than fell victim to NAZI racist policies. Italy was less affected by racist notions. Italian Fascism rather emphasized Italian nationalism and cultureal identity, but Italy proved to be a largely ineffectual military partner in the Axis war effort. Racism was not, however, limited to the Axis.

Germany

World War as conceived by Adolf Hitler was a racist war. Race was not just an aspect of Hitler's world view, it was the dominant factor. Hitler clearly conceptualizes a great conflict against Jews and the only slightly more preverable Slavs. The Jews Hitler believed had to be purged from German life. This proved to be more complicated that the NAZIs may have at first anticipated. One complication was the number of Jews in the military. [Rigg] This process of purging Jews from German life evolved into the Holocaust. It raises the military question of the impact on the NAZI war effort. It may have helped the NAZIs seize power, but it also helped the Allies build the atomic bomb. Refugee scientists, many Jewish, played a major role in Manhattan Project. This could have been used on Germany had Allied operations in Europe proved less succesful than they did. The war against the Slavs was the culmination of a millennium-long conflict between Germans and Slavs--the Drang nach Osten. There was a degree of intermingling with Germans settling in the east (the Volga Germans and other Volks Deutsch). At the same time, the Slavs had expanded westward and there enclaves in Germany (the Sorbs). Historians often stress Hitler's hated of Communism. This is true, but his racial antipathy toward the Slaves was as least as important if not more important. Hitlerls vision was to allow at least some of the Slavs would be allowed to survive because slave labor was needed for the new Reich. And Hitler saw the war as not a German war, but an Aryan war. For this reason, the people of the Nordic countries, the Neterlands, and the British would fit into the new Aryan nation. Hitler was frustated at the beginning of the War because he found himself fighting the British and allied with the Soviets. What he wanted of course was to be allied with the British and fighting the Soviets which he saw as the worst possible combination of Jewish Bolshevicks overseeing the Slavic masses. Not all the people in Germany and racially compatable countries were acceptable to Hitler. Geneology became big business in Germany. To enter the SS one had to prove an Aryan ancestry back centuries. Had the NAZIs won the War, the SS would have evolved as a new aristocracy in Germany.

Italy

Italy was less affected by racist notions. Italian Fascism rather emphasized Italian nationalism and cultureal identity, but Italy proved to be a largely ineffectual military partner in the Axis war effort. Mussolini and Italian Fascists in the early years endorsed neither racism or anti-Semitism. There were Jews who supported Mussolini and were involved in the Fascist Party. Mussolini even rediculed Hitler's racist bombast. This gradually changed as Italy fell into the NAZI orbit, especially after Italian military failure reduced Italy to a junior partner. One scholar claims that it was not just the NAZI influence. He writes, "It would be wrong to reduce Italy's turn toward racism simply to a necessary accommodation to Germany, once Mussolini decided on the alliance with Hitler. By the mid-1930s, the fascist regime had entered a serious legitimation crisis. Growing social unrest followed a decline in living conditions occasioned by the Depression as well as the failure of syndical reform and corporatist initiatives." [Adler] Thus NAZI-style anti-Semuitism became useful for Mussolini and the Fascists.

Japan

The Japanese also had highly racist attitudes which showed in their treatment of Koreans, Chinese, and other subject peoples. Japanese attrocities are less publicized, but resulted in the deaths of even more people than fell victim to NAZI racist policies. Japan began its coloianlist expansion with the Sino-Japanese War (1895). The military gradually expanded its political role, especially after World War I. The military in the 1930s seized control of the Japanese Government, this was symbolized by the appointment of Gerneral Tojo as primeminister (1941). Virulently racist beliefs were common place in Japan. This is one reason the Japanese reacted so strongly to American/European efforts to limit naval contruction at the Washington Naval Talks (1921). Japanese racist attitudes were not just expressed toward Europeans. They also saw Chinese, Koreans, Ainu, and other Asians as inferiors. Japanese policies after the Meiji resoration were aimed at moderizing Japan economically. As a result, Japan by the 1930s was the most advansed industrial power in Asia. That industrial base allowed Japan to dominate Asian countrie, including Japan. Many Japanese saw there predominant situation as a result of their racial superiority. These racist attitudes were a factor in the terrible attrocities committed by the Japanese during the War. It certainly affected their treatment of POWs and interned civilians.

Romania

The three Balkan Axis countries were kargely forced into the Axis by the NAZIs. For Romania this was made easy by the fact that the the Soviets seized the northeast of the country Bessarabia and Bukovina (1940). Noyh provinces had been part of the Tsarist Empire. Unlike the Finns, the Romanians complied with the Soviet demands rather than fighting a war. At the time the NAZIs and Soviets were allies and the Soviets were pursuing the sezure and poartiton of Eastern Europe as agreed to under the Molotov and Ribbentrop Pact (1939). Only teven the Secret Protocol was not specific enough to avoid issues between the two totalitarian powers. And Romania was of primary importabce to Germany because the Poloesti oil fiekds were aarecsoyurceof natural petroleum to which the NAZIs had access. Romanians as a result were an important source of manpower when Hitler launched Barbrossa (June 1941). The major racial issue involving the Romanians was the Jews. Romania had a substantial Jewish population. The primary Romanian racial action taken by the Romanians as part of the Holocaust were horific killing actions of Jews in the Soviet Union, begining with the reconquest of the northeeastern provinces that had been seized by the Sovierts and cintinuing as the Germans and Romanians moved east into Ukraine. Marshal Ion Antonescu and Deputy Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu issued secret orders to the Romanian army and gendarmerie to murder all the Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina under the code name Curatirea Terenului (Cleansing of the Ground). In preparatuin, the security services created a special killing unit commanded by the deputy Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu -- the Esalon Special (Special Echelon). They worked closely with German Einsatzgruppe D as they moved east. It is difficult to assess how much of this as racial animus as opposed to the widesopread belift that Jews were Comminists. Anbd thus resoonsibke for the atricuities cinducted by the nKVD after the Red Amy iccuoied northeastern Romania (1940)

Hungary

Bulgaria

Finland (Non-Axis Co-Beligerant)

Race is often treated as a footnote to World War II. It was not. Race was central to Hitker and NAZI thinking and the war effort that they pursued. The greatest German objective was to seize the land and resources of the East. The people were another matter they were to be removed and murdered in large numbers--Generalplan Ost. Those who were not to be murdered, were to be enslaved. The major problems the NAZIs faced were numbers--there was just not enough of them to achieve their horendous goals. Thus there was interest in gaining control over the Germans outsude the Reich. This effort was uses as an excuse to seize Austria and the Czech Sudetenland (1938). It soon became obvious, however, that it was in part a cover to seize neigboring countries--but it was at the same time also a very real desire. And it was a reason the NAZIs were interested in Scadanavia to the north. There were resources there, but also what the NAZIs called 'genetically valuable material'--the people. Scandanavia was settled by the north German tribes. These were German tribes unknown to the Romans, but would burst on to the Europoean scene as the Vikings in the medieval era. And unlike Germany itself, Scandanavia had a more Germanic population than Germany itself which was more mixed with other European peoples. Finland was, however, not part of Scandanavia, although bordering on it. And the Finnish people were not the descendents of Germanic tribes. They are a Nordic, but not a Germanic people. They are Proto-Uralic peoples. The NAZIs were determined to kill Slavs and other such people, but the Finns looked like Scandanavians--the blond hair and bklue eyes the NAZIS sp admired. And located strategically north of the evolving Barbarossa plan, it was a valuable potential ally. The Finns like other European people had no desire for war. but the Sovier invasion and seizure of Karelia (1939-40) left the Finns willing to cooperate.

Sources

Adler, Franklin Hugh. "Racial Theories in Fascist Italy (review)" Holocaust and Genocide Studies Vol.18, Number 1, Spring 2004, pp. 127-130.

Rigg, Bryan Mark. Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military (Modern War Studies, 2004).

Created: 8:15 PM 11/15/2006
Last updated: 4:03 PM 7/20/2022