Historical Background of the Holocaust

Darwinism and the Greek Ideal of Civilization

There was emphasis of racial hygiene in the Nazi Germany since the pre-war period.  It was possibly rooted in the “German notion of Darwinism”, which is different comparing with Darwinism of the rest of the world.  Darwin stated that the evolution of men progressed through the survival of the fittest individual.  Yet the German, in general, perceived Darwinism as the survival of the fittest race (Krüger 1990).  Hitler’s conception of genocide is based on biological pattern.  He made a distinction between people who have blood related to the German breed or not (Fein 1993).  This is a scientific discrimination though it was the hope of Hitler that the purity in race was to be achieved, but a replication of Greek ideal in civilization should also the civilization of culture, not physical element alone.  It was misinterpreted in Germany and this is how the Holocaust happened under the political misuse of science.

Physical Exclusion

        The Ghetto for the Jewish could appear naturally and compulsorily.  This is an area where a population is concentrated, yet not like concentration camp, Jews in the Ghetto could live their “normal” lives, at least at the onset of the Holocaust.  The emergence of the Ghetto actually implied the physically expulsion of a race, Jewish in this case, to achieve the German purity in race.  This was done without any resistances under the dictatorship of Hitler.  In fact, Hitler never approved the Holocaust explicitly.  There are no verbal or written documents to prove that Hitler actually allowed the mass killings, but he must be responsible to the Holocaust and also the scientists who have helped him.  By setting up racial law approved by scientist, the state was allowed to promote the racial idea that makes a race more superior (the Aryan race) than the others (for example, the Jews, Polish, etc).  

Physical Education

        The emphasis of physical education did not come into the German Education system until Hitler recommended two hours a day of every kind of physical education available in Mein Kampf (Meaning: My struggle).  There was only two hours of physical education per week in most school in 1864.  A student could not even be promoted to a higher form if he/she failed the physical education even if he/she had achieved excellently in the academic field.  On the other hand, the physical education teachers, who were not important in schools, now have gained power because of the emphasis of their profession.  Some of them could even be promoted by the Nazis to be a headmaster of a school without any other intellectual qualifications.  Thus, the whole system of physical education became an institution through which the German Nazis could further achieve their ideal.  

Conclusion

        In Nazi ideology, the Germanic race is believed to be the purest representative of the Aryan race with its diametrical opposite being the Semitic race, represented by the Jews.  Nazism portrays the Aryan race as the only race capable of creating culture and civilizations (the Greek ideal), while other races are merely able of some preservation, or destruction of, culture.  The Nazis used this concept of the Aryan race, a “master race” of people of northern European descent, to justify their racial and military policies (Kershaw 2000).  It is clear that the Holocaust was definitely the result of a political abuse of science.  

Bibliography

1. Fein, H. 1993. Genocide: A Sociological Perspective.  Surrey: Sage.  
2. Kershaw, I. 2000. The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, 4th Edition.  London: Arnold.  
3. Krüger, A. Year unknown. “Breeding, Rearing and Preparing the Aryan Body: Creating Supermen the Nazi Way”. Chapter 3 in Unknown edited book, copied available in the SO2CUL module reading packet. [could try Journal of Sport History in 1990, I found editor notes in this Journal mentioned about Krüger’s writing related to Germany]