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Why the Nazis studied American race laws for inspiration
Aeon Essays ^ | 2017 | James Q Whitman

Posted on 11/23/2025 5:58:59 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

On 5 June 1934, about a year and half after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the Reich, the leading lawyers of Nazi Germany gathered at a meeting to plan what would become the Nuremberg Laws…

That transcript reveals a startling fact: the meeting involved lengthy discussions of the laws of the United States of America.

At its very opening, the Minister of Justice presented a memorandum on US race law and, as the meeting progressed, the participants turned to the US example repeatedly. They debated whether they should bring Jim Crow segregation to the Third Reich. They engaged in detailed discussion of the statutes from the 30 US states that criminalised racially mixed marriages. They reviewed how the various US states determined who counted as a ‘Negro’ or a ‘Mongol’, and weighed whether they should adopt US techniques in their own approach to determining who counted as a Jew. Throughout the meeting the most ardent supporters of the US model were the most radical Nazis in the room.

This story might seem incredible. Why would the Nazis have felt the need to take lessons in racism from anybody? Why, most especially, would they have looked to the US? Whatever its failings, after all, the US is the home of a great liberal and democratic tradition. Moreover, the Jews of the US – however many obstacles they might have confronted in the early 20th century – never faced state-sponsored persecution. And, in the end, Americans made immense sacrifices in the struggle to defeat Hitler.

Nevertheless the evidence is there, and we cannot read it out of either German or American history.

(Excerpt) Read more at aeon.co ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; jews; jimcrow; nativeamericans; nazigermany; nazism; nuremberg; racism; segregation

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It's true, the woke Left has hijacked the historical narrative. But just because the US isn't a one dimensional villain, doesn't mean that there aren't some uncomfortable paradoxes of history worth noting.

A key advisor who spent time taking notes about the South in particular, was Heinrich Krieger, an exchange student at the University of Arkansas...

1 posted on 11/23/2025 5:58:59 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

You aren’t letting up with your anti-America themes are you.


2 posted on 11/23/2025 6:01:37 PM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Ohh, phu cough.


3 posted on 11/23/2025 6:04:14 PM PST by Rummyfan (Ok In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support lthe civilized man.👨 so t tv)
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To: ansel12

Remember, it was Democrats that instituted Jim Crow laws.


4 posted on 11/23/2025 6:04:49 PM PST by Fai Mao (I used to care, but things have changed ~ Bob Dylan)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Wait a second. I thought they took cues from the way ‘native Americans’ were treated. 🤔😂👍


5 posted on 11/23/2025 6:08:03 PM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within? On hold! Enlisted USN 1967 proudly. 🚫💉! 🇮🇱🙏! Winning currently!)
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To: rktman
I thought they took cues from the way ‘native Americans’ were treated.

They did, Heinrich Krieger who I mentioned above, studied laws pertaining to American Indians as well. (While at the Univ. of Arkansas.)

6 posted on 11/23/2025 6:11:46 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege ( )
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To: Fai Mao

I lived it and remember segregation.


7 posted on 11/23/2025 6:12:04 PM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

What a load of crap! Right off the bat there was NEVER a law, that I know of, anywhere in the USA concerning Jewish ancestry. This was the #1 priority of Nazi race laws.


8 posted on 11/23/2025 6:13:01 PM PST by LuxAerterna
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To: LuxAerterna

They took inspiration of the laws applying to blacks and Native Americans in the US, to apply to the Jews.


9 posted on 11/23/2025 6:14:26 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege ( )
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

It was the Democrats that used eugenics to justify their efforts to string up as many blacks as they could, using Jim Crow. Hitler also used eugenics to call Jews as unfit genetically and a threat to the Master Race (Herrenrasse).


10 posted on 11/23/2025 6:18:48 PM PST by jonrick46 (Leftniks chase illusions of motherships at the end of the pier.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
In addition to race laws, Planned Parenthood's genocidal campaign of abortion against blacks was an inspiration to the Nazis, as were the American sterilization laws mandating forced sterilization of those deemed "unfit" - often based on subjective prejudices about a person's 'fitness' to procreate.

This may make some people uncomfortable, but truth should always be valued above blind allegiance so that we learn from our mistakes.

11 posted on 11/23/2025 6:29:26 PM PST by EnderWiggin1970
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Back off please. Next you'll be saying that President Trump "is Hitler".

Actually, after two recent HORRIFIC attacks on innocent young White girls on public transit,
I'd say that the old race laws would have prevented such recent horrors inflicted upon Iryna and Bethany.

12 posted on 11/23/2025 6:35:05 PM PST by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and his mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

It’s not surprising at all that the Nazis took lessons from Democrats in America. They also copied much of what the communists did in the Soviet Union. They’re very similar in ideology, and the Nazis were more left wing that today’s left will admit.


13 posted on 11/23/2025 6:40:53 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: CondoleezzaProtege; rlmorel; nicollo; LS
"It's true, the woke Left has hijacked the historical narrative."

We can win it back with a mass explosion of open source audio books; Everything prior to 1930 anyways.

With respect to the topic at hand, the Nazis also learned about Eugenics from the (U.S.)Progressives.(And some British) The Nazis also learned propaganda from the (U.S.)Progressives.

The history game versus the progressives is one we can infinitely win. I just fear most people around us are not interested in doing so.

They might have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the win.

14 posted on 11/23/2025 6:55:01 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica (We cannot vote our way out of these problems. The only way out is to activist our way out.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Not every culture bothers to write down the bad stuff. And not every culture had a written language and hence a written history. So it’s easy to imagine that they were peaceful and innocent and we were uniquely rotten. But no, we write it all down good and bad, and pass judgment on ourselves.

Not everyone does that. It’s part of what makes us who we are.


15 posted on 11/23/2025 7:04:59 PM PST by marron
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To: ProgressingAmerica; jonrick46

There is a campaign video Zohran Mamdani made while sitting in front of America’s first abortion clinic in Brownsville, NYC. He used the setting to talk about to talk about following its legacy in his plans for protecting women’s ‘healthcare.’

Oh, he mentions Eugenics & Margaret Sanger alright. But listen to how he uses that as fuel, then turns it into a master class in narrative reversal, in his favor. 😳 Link below.

This is why it’s so important young conservatives be buffered up on history, including the ugly aspects of “your side.” To properly defend Christianity for example, you can’t deny crimes done in the name of it…But you can find a way to acknowledge the sins, and still make your case.

https://youtu.be/4ZDWz4UFJnI?si=tHkiJJpVob4ZueYo


16 posted on 11/23/2025 7:27:59 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege ( )
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Well the noted Abortionist Margret Sanger could fly into Berlin without asking permissions if that tells you where Planned Parenthood stood...


17 posted on 11/23/2025 7:42:11 PM PST by dpetty121263
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
I don't believe this one bit. The Reichstag hand-stamped every law that Hitler wanted put in place. I doubt Hitler cared about U.S. race laws, seeing as the main topic of the Wannsee Conference was The Final Solution...how to get rid of all the Jews they cleared from the countries they took over.

A search of how many lawyers were at the Wannsee Conference came back with three. According to Wikipedia: "At the Wannsee Conference, held on January 20, 1942, there were 15 participants, including at least three lawyers: Adolf Eichmann, Wilhelm Stuckart, and Otto Hofmann. The conference was primarily focused on coordinating the logistics of the Holocaust."

Reinhard Hydrich called for the meeting to be held. He wasn't a lawyer. Adolf Eichmann, at his trial in Israel claimed that he wasn't a participant, but as secretary and Hydrich's primary Lieutenant in charge of deportations, he took the notes of the meeting.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library:

"Eichmann took minutes, thirty copies of which were evidently distributed among the participants and other interested parties in the following weeks. The only surviving copy, marked No. 16 out of 30, was found in March 1947 among German Foreign Office files by American War Crimes investigators. After that discovery, the minutes, or Wannsee Protocol, rapidly attained postwar notoriety."

The “Final Solution”: The Wannsee Protocol (January 20, 1942)

18 posted on 11/23/2025 7:43:54 PM PST by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: marron
… we write it all down good and bad…Not everyone does that. It’s part of what makes us who we are.

We are losing that, and it’s why MAGA’s podcast sphere is unravelling. 😳

19 posted on 11/23/2025 7:47:02 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege ( )
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

“They took inspiration of the laws applying to blacks and Native Americans in the US, to apply to the Jews.”

Inspiration??? As if the demoniacs that ran the Nazi party needed to reach out for inspiration from any quarter.

There were pogroms against Jews way back into the 19th century. There were no pogroms against blacks in the United States.

Have you ever thought about migrating to North Korea, or China if American society and culture falls so far short of your pure sensibilities? I am sure they would welcome you.


20 posted on 11/23/2025 7:48:15 PM PST by odawg
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