TERM 2: GRADE 11 Topic 3:

Ideas of Race in the late 19th and 20th centuries

Study Notes

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Notions About the Hierarchies of
Race in the 19th Century
• 1730’s, Carolus Linnaeus (Swedish) classification of
living things. Human species: European, American,
Asiatic, African
• 1795, Johan Blumenbach classified humans into 5
groups: Negro (African), Mongolian (Asian), Malay
(Southeast Asia), American Indian (American) and
Caucasian (European). Believed Caucasians were the
top race and the other 4 races were degenerations
from the Caucasian race.
• 1790’s, Petrus Camper (Dutch) believed all races shared
common ancestor but some had drifted from the
Biblical ideal. Greeks and Romans ranked highest in
beauty and human perfection.

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Notions About the
Hierarchies of Race in
the 19th Century

• Mid 19th Century, Samuel Morton

(American) believed in common ancestor
but that each race was created separately
and differently. Believed intelligence was
linked to brain size. According to his
measurement Whites had the largest
skulls and were therefore most intelligent.
• 1854, Josiah Nott (American doctor) and
George Gliddon (Egyptologist)published
Types of Mankind and in 1857, Indigenous
Races of the Earth

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Notions About the Hierarchies of
Race in the 19th Century

• Samuel Morton’s work, and work of similar

scientists gave racism legitimacy
• Racist ideas taught in universities & churches
and spread in media
• Many leaders used these ideas to justify
slavery & dispossession of Native Americans
of land
• Few questioned; exception was Friedrich
Tiedemann whose findings conflicted with
Morton’s

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Notions About the Hierarchies of Race in
the 19th Century : Role of DARWIN
• Charles Darwin (1809-1882) believed that plants and animals
evolved by natural selection process, due to competition for
natural resources
• Those best suited to the environment a.k.a. the “fittest” would
survive to pass on their genes to future generations
• Work was controversial because the belief that a human being
was a form of animal contradicted teaching of the church
• Social Darwinism – Darwin’s ideas applied to society by Herbert
Spencer. Used term “evolution.” Believed that societies also
evolved through natural selection.
• Due to military strength, countries like America, Britain and
Germany (White races) were deemed superior and highest
ranking
• This was used to justify colonialism and imperialism (Scramble for
Africa)
• Fairs held world-wide exhibiting and ranking people of different
races
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Explanation of Eugenics
• Sir Francis Galton devised the term ‘eugenics’ in 1883
• Greek eugenes means “well-born”
• Science of improving human race by breeding the ‘best with the
best’
• Enlightened society should weed out weaknesses and thereby
control inherited human traits
• Scientific funding by wealthy American business men
• Charles Davenport – centre for experimental investigation (1904)
and records centre (1910) in New York
• Claimed that various races inherited various different traits

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Negative Eugenics

• Forced sterilization policy

• Discouraging reproduction of the
genetically unfit would eliminate
many social problems
• Thirty US states passed
sterilization laws
• 65 000 people involuntarily
sterilised

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 “Positive” Eugenics

• Superior couples
encouraged to have
more children
• “Fitter Family” and
“Better Babies” contests
• Formation of family
planning clinics

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Modern Understanding of Race

• Archaeology & palaeontology & genetic

research conclude that there is one
single human “race”
• Palaeontology – provides information on
evolution from fossil records
• Human Genome Project (1990-2003) –
genetic research programme to map all
human genes : no such thing as racial
difference & humans originated in Africa

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Practices of Race and Eugenics - USA
• USA, Germany and Britain initially most involved
• USA early 1900’s eugenics policies e.g. banning of
marriage if one party was ‘feeble-minded’,
alcoholic or diseased with TB or syphilis
• Suggested that education should not be wasted
on ‘feeble minded’, nor social welfare, as it was
helping the weak to survive
• IQ tests used and weighted in favour of Whites
• Immigration restricted those not from northern
Europe
• Used to justify action against indigenous people of
America
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Practices of Race and
Eugenics - Australia
• 1 Million Aboriginal Australians when European
colonization started late 18th Century
• Reduced to 400 000 due to diseases introduced
and conflicts with settlers over land
• Eugenics policies sought removal of ‘mixed
race’ children> foster homes > assimilate to
White Australian society
• Aim to ‘breed out’ Aboriginal blood, create
White population
• Encouragement of European settlers > Australia
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
Practices of Race and Eugenics –
Germany & South Africa
• Social Darwinism & eugenics > nationalism
(wanting single race) and fascism
• Led to Third Reich (Hitler)
• Led to apartheid (South Africa) : many believed
that there were physiological differences in the
brains of blacks and whites > influenced apartheid
education
• 1920’s South African Eugenics institution formed
• Great Depression (1929-1932) fear of racial mixing
in South Africa
• Birth control programme introduced in South
Africa
- White women encouraged to have
children & white-preferred
immigration policy
- Black women pressured to use birth
control / be sterilised

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Practices of Race and
Eugenics – Namibia
• Namibia was a German colony till end of WW1 (called
South West Africa)
• 1904 campaign to exterminate Herero people (genocide)
• Concepts of racial hygiene and racial cleansing developed
by German doctors and scientists
• Concentration and work camps for Nama and Herero
• Dr Eugen Fischer > SW Africa (Namibia) to carry out
medical experiments on children of German men and
Rehoboth women (he concluded that their offspring were
mentally inferior to German fathers)
• His work was studied by Hitler in prison
• Mixed marriages banned in SW Africa (Namibia)
• Fischer > influential Nazi

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Case Study: Australia and the indigenous
Australians

Background: the colonisation of Australia

• 1788 first fleet from Britain arrived (to Botany Bay)
• Britain wanted to found a colony of banished convicts
• 1788-1867, 162 000 convicts sent from England and Ireland
• Many convicted for minor crimes, sentenced to 7yrs transportation
• Many tradesmen or farmers, often pardoned if they stayed
• First governor of New South Wales (Captain Arthur Phillip) intended friendly relations with Australian Aborigines
• Majority of settlers, however, treated Aborigines inhumanely
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Case Study: Australia and
the indigenous Australians

Background: the colonisation of Australia

• On arrival of British there were 750 000 – 1 million
Aboriginal Australians in Australia
• Decimated by smallpox epidemic
• 1790-1816 guerilla attacks against invaders (farm raids,
sheep destroyed, fires)
• Settler attacks lasted > 1880’s (Aboriginal population est. 80
000 in 1888)
• 26 Jan 1938 – Australia Day celebrated by white Australians
but known as Day of Mourning for Aboriginal Australians
marking 150 yrs. of degradation and mistreatment
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Race theories in Australia in the early 20th century

• Two main debates around ‘racial suicide and

racial decay’
• Colonial conquest legitimised by alleged
inferiority of indigenous people thought to be
‘primitive’ and ‘scarcely human’
• Eugenics movement peaked first half of 20th
Century
• Eugenics Society of Victoria – Richard Berry
was a main member (compared head
measurements and concluded that White
people had biggest heads and therefore
smartest)

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Race Theories in Australia in
the Early 20th century –
Racial Suicide Debate

• Racial suicide – Australians feared invasion of Asians if the

white population did not expand quickly enough >
Immigration Restriction Act (1901)
• Limited immigration to those who could pass a dictation
test in a European language (based on law in Natal, South
Africa designed to keep out non-Europeans)
• British Empire Settlement Act of 1922 encouraged adult
immigration to Australia from UK
• 2 objectives: increase white population in colonies &
reduce UK unemployment

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Race Theories in Australia in the Early
20th century – Racial Decay Debate

• Central to eugenic thinking around the world

• Racial decay - concern that successful and wealthy white
mothers having fewer children than ‘inferior’ groups (poor)
• 1912 white mothers offered £5 childbirth bounty
• 1928 Royal Commission on Child Endowment or Family
Allowance – stated eugenic considerations must be taken into
account, when providing family support
• Feared effect of “racial poisons” such as venereal disease, TB,
prostitution, alcoholism and criminality

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Australia’s Immigration
Policies

• Children sent from Britain to Australia 1920’s – 1967 to increase number of

settlers
• Children were from poor backgrounds / in social or charitable care
• Children cut off from families – many told they were orphans
• Parents told that children had gone to a better life
• Children sent to Australian orphanages / to farming families as unpaid labour
• Many physically and sexually abused
• Catholic church set up some homes for children and provided education
• Young men (15-19) also encouraged to migrate to the colonies (Big Brother
Movement) to be farm workers

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 The Stolen Generation

• First official policies about ‘mixed’ unions in early 20th Century

• ‘Half-caste’ populations thought to threaten ideal of a “White Australia”
• Biologist W Baldwin Spencer set out proposals to manage “problem”
• By early 1930’s a eugenicist scheme was set in place managed by CE Cook and AO Neville
• 100 000 ‘mixed-race’ children snatched from parents by police or government officials between 1910 and 1970 to be
‘assimilated’ into White population (‘breeding blackness out’);placed with foster parents / sent to institutions or made
to work for white families
• Hasluck stated policy based on concerns for the welfare of the children
• Official apologies made to the ‘stolen generation’ by 2008/9 Prime Minister Rudd (Australia) and 2009 Prime Minister
Gordon Brown (Britain)
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Case Study: Nazi
Germany and the
Holocaust

Hitler’s Consolidation of power

• 1929-1932 six million Germans out of work due to effect of Great
Depression; more people attracted to political parties with
extremist ideals i.e. Communist Party, Nazi Party
• Nazi party was looking for scapegoats to attack (Communists, Jews
and democratic politicians) > chaos and violence
• Hitler’s campaign took him all over Germany where he appealed to
all types of people : played on the fears of all classes; accusing
German politicians of betrayal; Hitler funded by industrialists >
three massive election campaigns 1930-1932
• Goebbels given job of spreading Nazi message (propaganda)
• By July 1932 Nazis were largest single party with 230 seats in
Reichstag (German Parliament) but in Nov 1932 dropped to 196
seats (looked as if bid for power might fail)
• Saved by President Hindenburg who was persuaded to lead
coalition government with Hitler/Nazis

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Nazi Germany and the
Holocaust

Hitler’s Consolidation of power

• 13 Jan 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany
which was celebrated by his Nazi followers
• Hitler had no intention of honouring coalition and
called for another election, publicly he simply
appealed for support from German people
• Reichstag building burned one week before election;
Hitler blamed the Communists
• Hitler persuaded Lindenberg to sign a decree
enabling Nazis to put their political opponents in
prisons and concentration camps
• By March 1933, Nazis had 288 seats in the Reichstag
(party now dominated)

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Nazi Germany and the
Holocaust
Hitler’s Consolidation of power
• Goering (faithful to Hitler) was President and Reichstag
building packed with Nazi Storm Troopers (the SA)
• Hitler demanded and got Enabling Act giving him power to
make his own laws and set up totalitarian state – took away
civil liberties from Germans, centralised the government
(appointed Gauleiter to manage the states), destroyed free
trade union movement
• Soon after, other political parties abolished & leaders herded
into concentration camps
• Nazis also burned books to stamp out ideas
• Hitler faced problems in his own ranks: SA (2 Million men,
working class Nazi militia) wanted more control in running of
country with more socialist emphasis (Leader - Röhm wanted
to control army)
• 30 June 1934 – Night of the Long Knives, Röhm and followers
murdered by Heinrich Himmler and SS (Schutzstaffel –
Protection Squadron in German army). 400 murdered.

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Nazi Germany and the
Holocaust
Hitler’s Consolidation of power
• Hitler justified his actions to the Reichstag claiming that he was
the supreme court of justice for the German people during the
24 hours it took to kill the ‘guilty’
• August 1934, Hindenburg died; immediately Hitler made
himself Führer – leader of the German nation (merged
positions of Chancellor & President)
• Soldiers had to swear oath of loyalty
• Hitler now all-powerful in Nazi party and Germany became a
police state
• SS and police given powers to arrest, punish, execute those
considered to be enemies of the state (Heinrich Himmler led
the SS – ruthless)
• Himmler created special security service and gained control of
the Gestapo (German secret state police); established network
of informers
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Nazi Racial Ideology
• Hitler believed in hierarchy of races and Social Darwinism
(survival of the fittest)
• Determined to create racial purity to retain strength of the
German people
• ‘Aryan race’ top of the hierarchy: people of Northern Europe
with blond hair and blue eyes
• Bottom of hierarchy – Africans, Slavs, Roma and Sinti
(Gypsies) and Jews
• Sources of thinking: colonial anthropologists in Namibia and
eugenics in the USA
• In German colony, South West Africa (Namibia) order was
given to annihilate the Herero people (1904-1908): dress
rehearsal for the Nazi’s Final Solution > Holocaust
• Eugene Fischer (anthropologist) argued African blood of
lesser value and Africans should be exploited as long as they
were useful, and then eliminated
• 1920’s-1930’s German eugenicists worked with American
counterparts, claimed link between race, intelligence and
personalities

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 The Creation of a Racial
State in Germany

• Defining the pure Aryan race in the German nation as an example of the ideal in
relation to the ‘other’ who were stereotyped > prejudice > marginalisation>
segregation > mass murder
• ‘Superior’ Aryan qualities: blond hair, blue eyes, intelligent, hard working, willing
to sacrifice themselves for Germany
• Hitler wanted Germany ‘cleansed’ of all non-Aryan elements : the ‘other’
• The ‘other’ were the
• Unproductive: the unhealthy, the severely disabled, the mentally
handicapped, homeless people, beggars
• Asocial and undesirable: alcoholics and prostitutes
• Homosexuals
• Juvenile delinquents
• Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)
• Jews (obsessive hatred of Jews (anti-Semitism), much deeper than most
Germans who had limited hostility based on Christendom)
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Applying Racial & Eugenic
Laws & Policies
‘Positive’ eugenics
• Incentives to ‘breed’ pure Aryans
• Breeding programs between SS men and ‘Aryan’ women
Negative eugenics: laws introduced to eliminate ‘contaminating’
elements from Germany
• Sterilisation Law of 1933 (‘feeble-minded’, schizophrenics,
epileptics, alcoholics)
• By 1936 – concentration camps for homeless, beggars, alcoholics,
prostitutes, juvenile delinquents
• Euthanasia programmes: Oct 1939, Hitlers signed decree
permitting killing of the handicapped by lethal injection and then
by carbon monoxide gas (secret killings in gas chambers, disguised
as shower rooms, Brandenburg Prison)
• 1940-1941 approximately 70 000 euthanized (5 000 were Jews
who were killed regardless). Protests ended programme in 1941.

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Groups Targeted by the
Nazis
Jews
• Hitler believed Jews were a separate race that
embodied evil
• Nazi approach was gradual
• Propaganda against Jews increased
• Jews were segregated and excluded from political,
educational, cultural, economic and sporting life in
Germany
• 1933-1934 - boycotting of Jewish shops and
professions
• 1935 Nuremberg Laws – Reich Citizenship Act (only
those with German blood were citizens of the Reich);
Law for Protection of German Blood and German
Honour (marriages and extra-marital relations between
Jews and Germans forbidden)
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Groups Targeted
by the Nazis
Jews
• 1938 Hitler annexed Austria to German
Reich spreading Jewish persecution to
Austria
• Ernst von Rath (German diplomat) killed
by a Jew, Herschel Grünspan (7 Nov)
• Retaliation: Nazis initiated pogrom
(organised killing of an ethnic group)
• Attacking of Jewish homes and businesses
(Kristallnacht (Crystal Night))
• Jewish pupils expelled from schools (15
Nov)
• Jewish businesses forced to close (3 Dec)
• All Jewish valuables confiscated & curfew
set for all Jews (1939)
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Groups Targeted by the Nazi

• Sinti and Roma (Gypsies): 1935 law – Fight

against the Gypsy Menace, all Sinti and
Roma had to register with police> deported
to ghettos and concentration camps > death
(gassing, starvation, exhaustion,
experimentation on children by Dr Josef
Mengele)
• Dark-skinned German people
• Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to submit
to new regime
• Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats,
and trade union leaders and thousands
accused of ‘asocial’ or criminal behaviour, as
well as homosexual people
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Choices That People
Made
• Perpetrator: Hitler; Nazis; those who ran
concentration and death camps; members of
Einsatzgruppen; ordinary people who joined in the
killing; those who took part in the exterminations;
secretaries who typed up lists of targets; bureaucrats
who signed transport lists; train drivers
• Bystander: Most German people stood by and did
nothing. By being passive witnesses they affirmed the
actions of the perpetrators.
• Resister: Bystanders who stood up against the regime
became resisters
• Rescuer: Those who risked their lives to hide Jews or
help them escape

© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Responses of Persecuted

Exile – many intended victims were able to flee but were

caught up later by German occupation of Europe and much of
Russia
Accommodation – accepting the ever-increasing demands of
the Nazis leading to imprisonment in concentration camps
and, most likely, death
Defiance -
• Partisan activity (smuggling of food and messages and
weapons, sabotage, military engagement, wilful
disobedience e.g. continuing to practise religious or cultural
activities)
• Underground resistance movements based elsewhere in
Europe e.g. France
• Warsaw Ghetto: Ghetto fighters held out against the Nazis
for several weeks (1943)
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 The Final Solution: Labour &
Extermination Camps – 6 Million Jews
murdered

• WW2 gave Hitler cover needed to carry

out his ‘Final Solution’
• 1939 invaded Poland and any Polish
civilians resisting the Germans / capable
of resisting were sent to concentration
camps, forced labour camps or killed.
Poles were considered ‘sub-humans’.
• 3 Million Polish Jews forced into ghettos
• 1941 Hitler invaded Russia. Armies were
followed by the Einsatzgruppen of the SS
to round up and kill Jews
• Hitler experimented with ways to kill Jews
• 1941, 700 Polish Jews taken to Chelmno
and killed (first death camp)
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 The Final Solution: Labour & Extermination Camps
– 6 Million Jews murdered

• Jan 1942 decision at Wannsee Conference to systematically exterminate all Jews in Europe
• Six death camps set up: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. Two were labour camps as well as death
camps –Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek.
• Victims crowded into cattle trucks; many died on the way; on arrival they had to undress and move into gas
chambers disguised as shower rooms
• Selected Jewish prisoners called sonderkommando had to salvage anything of value from the corpses e.g. hair
and gold teeth, and then they were also killed 4-6 weeks later
• Feb 1943 Warsaw ghetto destruction; all survivors deported
• Jan 1945, Germany defeated in WW2 and liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland by Russians followed by
more liberations; many inmates weak or ill and dying as liberation took place
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za
 Forms of Justice : The Nuremberg Trials

• Britain, France, USA and USSR put main perpetrators on trial

• 1946 International Military Tribunal set up
• 22 Nazi leaders on trial for crimes against humanity
• Some argued that they were not complicit, merely following orders
• Hitler and Goebbels committed suicide at end of WW2 and Robert Ley before his trial; Gustav Krupp too ill to stand trial
and Adolf Eichmann disappeared
• 13 separate trials 1945-1950: 199 Nazis tried
• Thousands of smaller perpetrators escaped retributive justice
• Culture of silence (denial of responsibility) for many years in Germany
© e-classroom www.e-classroom.co.za