In Racial Science in Hitler's New Europe, 1938-1945, international scholars examine the theories of race that informed the legal, political, and social policies aimed against ethnic minorities in Nazi-dominated Europe. The essays explicate how racial science, preexisting racist sentiments, and pseudoscientific theories of race that were preeminent in interwar Europe ultimately facilitated Nazi racial designs for a "New Europe."

The volume examines racial theories in a number of European nation-states in order to understand racial thinking at large, the origins of the Holocaust, and the history of ethnic discrimination in each of those countries. The essays, by uncovering neglected layers of complexity, diversity, and nuance, demonstrate how local discourse on race paralleled Nazi racial theory but had unique nationalist intellectual traditions of racial thought.

Written by rising scholars who are new to English-language audiences, this work examines the scientific foundations that central, eastern, northern, and southern European countries laid for ethnic discrimination, the attempted annihilation of Jews, and the elimination of other so-called inferior peoples.

Examines the scientific foundations that European countries laid for ethnic discrimination, the attempted annihilation of Jews, and the elimination of other so-called inferior peoples

About the Author
Anton Weiss-Wendt is the head of the research department at the Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo, Norway. He is the author of Murder without Hatred: Estonians and the Holocaust. Rory Yeomans is the senior international research analyst at the International Directorate of the UK Ministry of Justice. He is the author of Visions of Annihilation: The Ustasha Regime and the Cultural Politics of Fascism, 1941-1945.

Reviews
"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."-Bradley W. Hart, European History Quarterly
"An important text for Holocaust scholars."-C. Pinto, CHOICE

"[Racial Science in Hitler's New Europe, 1938-1945 is] a refreshing, cohesive, and compelling contribution to the scholarship on racial policy inside Hitler's Europe."-Michael McConnell, H-German

"These essays provide a wealth of information about eugenics and scientific racism in areas that have been underexplored in the past. The book not only sheds light on Nazi racial ideology and policies, but also on the way that scientists and government officials in other parts of Europe responded to Nazi racial ideology and eugenics in the brief period of German ascendancy in Europe."-Richard Weikart, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
"This is an important book that makes a significant and original contribution to the development of the historical literature in this field."-Lisa Pine, Social History of Medicine



Book Information
ISBN 9780803245075
Author Anton Weiss-Wendt
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press