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Volume IV · Page 624
German law, but to see to it that only people of purely Germanic blood live in the East." |
| In November 1939, the Office for Racial Policy of the Nazi Party put forth a treatise with the weighty title of "The Problem of the Manner of Dealing with the Population of the Formerly Polish Territories on the Basis of Racial-Political Aspects". In this treatise, which formed in part the basis of actions taken by these defendants, it stated — |
"The aim of the German policy in the new Reich territory in the East must be the creation of a racial and therefore intellectual-psychical as well as national-political uniform German population. This results in the ruthless elimination of all elements not suitable for Germanization. |
| It must be realized that under the Nazi theory of race, non- Aryans simply did not matter. Hitler stated this clearly in "Mein Kampf" when he said,¹ "All who are not of good race in this world are chaff." This is again clearly brought out in the judgment of the International Military Tribunal, where it is stated — |
"When the witness Bach-Zelewski was asked how Ohlendorf could admit the murder of 90,000 people, he replied, ‘I am of the opinion that when, for years, for decades, the doctrine is preached that the Slav race is an inferior race, and Jews not even human, then such an outcome is inevitable’."² |
| It may seem somewhat inconsistent for the
Nazis to prate of race and purity of blood on the one hand and on the other to
take Poles, Czechs, and nationals of many other countries and decide, upon the
basis of physical characteristics such as blue eyes and blond hair, that these
people can be Germanized. This was a measure to which the Germans were forced
because they found that their own population was not sufficient to fulfill the
Nazi schemes of expansion. This taking of non-Germans and calling them Germans
was also justified on the ground that Germany was thereby taking the best blood
from the other nations and thus weakening them as well as strengthening itself.
The seemingly insurmountable theoretical barrier of race was avoided very neatly. It was obvious, they said, that for a thou- [...sand] |
¹ "Mein Kampf", 1943 Edition, Houghton, Miflin & Co., p. 296.
² Trial of the Major War Criminals, vol. I, p. 248, Nuremberg, 1947.
