Letterhead of the I.F.E.O. evidencing the
collaboration between Harvard’s Davenport,
Leonard Darwin, and Hitler’s scientists, Alfred
Ploetz and Ernst Rüdin. (Published for the first
HARVARD time in “From a ‘Race of Masters’ to a ‘Master Race’”
by permission of the Special Collections Dept. at
Truman Uinv.)
Harvard graduates and professors were not solely
AND THE responsible for the eugenic movement, but they were
the undisputed leaders of the movement. They
achieved these leadership positions by leveraging their
HOLOCAUST Harvard credentials, and in turn, Hitler’s scientists
sought them out precisely so National Socialism could
claim to have the approval of this highly touted
university.
____________ Incidentally, these Harvard elitists were cocksure
BY: A.E. Samaan ~ March 2nd, 2013
www.RaceOfMasters.com of their “scientific” views, and they vocally proclaimed
conservative and traditional values as their biggest
The Harvard Crimson staff recently published an political obstacle. Their eugenic leadership had a
article that received national attention. The article pronounced disdain for laissez-faire economics and took
titled “Warning: Do Not Enroll” asks that conservatives every opportunity to question the wisdom of the basic
not apply to Harvard if they disagree with the civil rights inherent to the nation’s founding. We can
Progressive political leanings of the university. Some say this with certainty because these pre-WWII elitists
introspection is in order, as the historical record proves were as arrogant as their German counterparts,
that this type of arrogance on the part of past Harvard documenting their every scientific and political
elitists contributed to some of the most horrid episodes aspiration. Thus, they left behind a substantial amount
in human history. More to the point, some measure of of evidence which explains exactly what their political
conservatism and respect for tradition would have leanings were.
prevented Harvard’s best from becoming the Without exception, these eugenicists desired a
figureheads of the reviled eugenics movement. The centrally planned society, where a scientific caste was
consequences of Harvard’s hubris were: entrusted with the political power to decide who lived,
who died, who was segregated, and who was allowed
1.) One Harvard graduate sat in as a judge in Hitler’s to contribute to society. They were keenly aware that
eugenic courts. “breeding” for better humans inescapably meant
2.) A Harvard eugenicist was part of the imbuing the government with the power a horse
administration at Buchenwald. breeder has over his livestock. This was elitism at its
3.) Harvard graduates helped author significant worst, as no eugenic goals could be accomplished
portions of the infamous Nuremberg Laws. without ‘total’ control over all aspects of society. In
4.) Harvard graduates were at the forefront of the this respect, they saw eye to eye with Hitler in desiring
legislation that kept so many Jewish refugees from a massive and intrusive centrally planned government
reaching the safety of U.S. shores. where everything is nationalized and socialized to
5.) Harvard graduates provided highly publicized create the “total state”. Of note was the fact that one
support for Hitler’s racial policies. of the shared goals of the Progressive-minded
eugenicists was a ‘nationalized’ medicine, as
controlling medicine and science was a necessary acquired characters and written to Francis Darwin, the
precursor to creating a “master race”. son of the famous biologist, indicating his interest in
One simply has to go down the list of presidents financially supporting such an effort. (Pg. 225) The
for the American Eugenic Society, the Human Carnegie Institution was subsequently founded in
Betterment Foundation, the Pioneer Fund, and the 1902, and Charles Davenport began a campaigning for
Immigration Restriction League to see how they are, the Carnegie Institute to invest funds for a department
almost without exception, all headed up by Ivy of genetics. In 1904, the Carnegie Institution
Leaguers. Harvard contributed more than the other Ivy established the Station for Experimental Evolution at
League universities combined to these institutions. Cold Spring Harbor, making Davenport its director.
Extrapolating precisely what this list of Harvard Allan Chase, author of the 1975 book titled, “The
graduates and professors represents will reveal just Legacy of Malthus: The Social Costs of the New
how instrumental were to the horrific eugenic policies Scientific Racism,” documents how The Cold Spring
that resulted in The Holocaust: Harbor eugenics facility was established upon
⥇ Charles Benedict Davenport - (eugenic kingpin) Davenport’s Harvard credentials and Francis Galton’s
⥇ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. - (1927 Buck v. Bell) fame. (Pg. 118, “Legacy of Malthus”) An Oct. 26, 1910
⥇ Lothrop Stoddard - (Nazi eugenic courts) letter has Davenport crediting Galton: “My dear
⥇ Earnest A. Hooton – Harvard Professor Galton: So you see the seed sown by you is still
⥇ Lawrence Lowell – President of Harvard sprouting in distant countries.” (Eugenics Records
(Immigration Restriction League) Office, #2094)
⥇ Prescott Hall (Immigration Restriction League) It is from Cold Spring Harbor that the
⥇ Wickliffe Draper – (Founder Pioneer Fund) collaboration with the German scientists flourished
⥇ Clarence Cook Little – (American Eugenics Society and thrived. Davenport collaborated with Eugene
President) Fischer on studies documenting the alleged inferiority
⥇ Harry L. Shapiro – (American Eugenics Society of Africans of mixed ethnicity. In 1926, Wickliffe
President) Draper, the eugenic-minded millionaire from the
⥇ Dr. Katzen-Ellenbogen – (Buchenwald) Proctor & Gamble fortune and a product of Harvard
⥇ Robert DeCourcey Ward – (Immigration education gave the Carnegie Institution a donation so
Restriction League) the “problem of race mixing” could be studied.
⥇ E.L. Marks - (Harvard zoology & eugenics) Davenport headed a team to conduct an 8000 page
survey of the racially-mixed Jamaican population.
⥇ Herbert Spencer Jennings
Eugene Fischer formalized this work by publishing in
⥇ Robert M. Yerkes - (Eugenics intelligence testing)
1913 as “The Rehoboth Bastards and the Problem of
⥇ Dudley Sargent - (eugenic infanticide)
Miscegenation among Humans”. In the years of 1937-
⥇ Ernst Hanfstaengl – (Hitler’s Foreign Minister)
1938, Fischer analyzed 600 children descending from
⥇ Dr. Clarence Gordon Campbell – (President of the
French-African soldiers during World War I. All of
American Eugenics Research Association)
these children were later subjected to National
Socialism’s eugenic sterilization policies.
Charles B. Davenport, the undisputed leader of
These professional relationships were formalized
the eugenics movement in the United States attended
into one institution. Davenport founded the
Harvard University, earning a PhD in biology in 1892,
International Federation of Eugenics Organizations
winning the Thayer Scholarship in 1890 and 1891.
(IFEO) in 1925 and became its first president, with
Davenport was also an instructor at Harvard from 1891
Eugene Fischer as chairman of the Commission on
until 1899. Davenport was appointed director of the
Bastardization and Miscegenation (1927) and its
Sciences Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor,
second president. Leonard Darwin, the other son of the
New York, in the spring of 1898. Cold Spring Harbor
famous biologist would serve as president of the IFEO
became the epicenter of American eugenics. Alan G.
as well. The IFEO was instrumental in creating Hitler’s
Cock and Donald R. Forsdyke, in their 2008 book
eugenic state. The internal correspondence of the
“Treasure Your Exceptions: The Science and Life of
IFEO, namely that between Charles Davenport and
William Bateson,” document that Andrew Carnegie
Leonard Darwin illustrates how the “Model Eugenic
had been inspired by Herbert Spencer’s interest of
Laws” which were drafted by the members of the IFEO credentials being leveraged is the passing of the 1924
ultimately were adopted in order to draft the infamous Immigration Restriction Act. The Act is of historical
Nuremberg racial laws. Many key passages of the importance as it was the main tool which eugenic-
Nuremberg laws were a verbatim translation of this minded racists kept so many Jewish refugees from
“Model Eugenic Law”, written by Davenport’s protégé, reaching U.S. shores. Harvard credentials were
Harry Laughlin. These legislative recommendations leveraged to oversell the validity of the now reviled
had been tempered and refined by testing them in the science of eugenics which the law was based upon.
courts of 30 States and the U.S. Supreme Court. The 1924 Act was repealed in 1952, and it is
Dear Major Darwin: --- I am arranging to have interesting to see the Congressional report directly cite
two copies of the sterilization book sent to you. the undue influence of these scientists as the
I gathered from contact with geneticists and justification given for the racially skewed law. The
eugenicists in Austria and Germany that so far
resulting report is titled, “Hearings before the
from eugenics not being recognized by
scientific societies that the German President’s Commission on Immigration and
Government is about the only one that has Naturalization,” documented the hearings held
asked and secured the cooperation of leading between September 30 and October 29, 1952. The
scientific men (certainly members of leading report recalls precisely how influential the Immigration
scientific societies) to cooperate with the Restriction League, a creation of Harvard graduates,
Government by constituting a committee to actually was in the passing of the 1924 Act.
which should be referred all legislation of
In 1894, Davenport’s classmate at Harvard,
eugenical import. Apart from the international
society of Dr. Alfred Ploetz in Munich, the Prescott Hall, and Robert deCourcy Ward, a Harvard
liveliest society dealing with eugenical matters professor, founded the Immigration Restriction League.
is the Deutsche Geselschaft fur Vererbungswissenschaft The Immigration Restriction League was created by
of which Dr. H. Hachtsheim, Landwitach, Hochschule members of the Harvard class of 1889. Allan Chase
zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, Berlin, H.4, is documents that the membership was made up of Ivy
secretary. (Pg. 575, “From a ‘Race of Masters’ to League high-society, namely members the exclusive
a ‘Master Race’”, emphasis mine) Boone and Crocket Club of New York, whose president
was fellow eugenicist and Harvard graduate, Theodore
In short, Hitler was handed proven and tested Roosevelt. The famous racialist authors, Yale’s
legislation as necessary to create the eugenic state that Madison Grant and Harvard’s Lothrop Stoddard were
was National Socialism. This is how Hitler’s regime members. The League never had more than 30
was able to pass the thousands of laws within months members at a time, and its membership was a close knit
of amassing power; an accomplishment historians are group from New York high-society with racial
typically awed by. The photo illustration at the qualifications necessary for inclusion.
beginning of this document shows Dr. Alfred Ploetz as According to the U.S. Department of State, “the
part of the leadership of the IFEO along with most basic purpose of the 1924 Immigration Act was to
Davenport and Darwin. In 1933, Reich Interior preserve the ideal of American homogeneity.” The
Minister Wilhelm Frick established an “expert definition of “American homogeneity” was explicitly
advisory committee for population and racial policy,” eugenic, as the experts used by the House Committee
which included Ploetz, Fritz Lenz, and Ernst Rüdin. in order to arrive at the definition were from
This expert advisory committee had the task of drafting Davenport’s Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring
the infamous Nuremberg laws. This relationship with Harbor, namely Mr. Harry H. Laughlin.
the American and British members of the IFEO Throughout WWII Secretary of State Cordell
endured into the late 1930’s, until it became illegal to Hull used the 1924 act to repeatedly and systematically
associate with Germany at the outbreak of WWII. deny Jewish refugees asylum. All of those heart
In fact, it is impossible to write the history of breaking stories of boatloads of victims being turned
eugenics without continually stumbling upon the work away are in truth the stories of the 1924 Act being
of Harvard graduates and professors. Without utilized to refuse passage. All of this came to a head
Harvard’s Ivy League prestige, the eugenics movement when on January 16, 1944, the U.S. Secretary of the
in the United States would likely not have the impetus Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., and one of his
or reputation it enjoyed. A prime example of Harvard
deputies, Randolph Paul, personally visited the member of a prestigious reproductive rights
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to coerce him organization, Stoddard was given unimpeded access
to finally act. The report Morgenthau and Paul into Adolf Hitler’s “racial state.” Stoddard’s racialist
delivered was titled, “Report to the Secretary on the books earned Stoddard notoriety around the world,
Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of the and Hitler deeply appreciated the propaganda value of
Jews.” The Jewish Virtual Library website by the having a Harvard educated reporter write a piece about
American-Israeli Cooperative has a copy of the report: National Socialism’s eugenic legislation. Stoddard’s
I am convinced on the basis of the information tour of Hitler’s Germany resulted in his 1940
which is available to me that certain officials in publication of the book “Into the Darkness.” The
our State Department, which – have been guilty extent and the depth of the access Lothrop Stoddard
not only of gross procrastination and willful
enjoyed is probably best described by Theodore J.
failure to act, but even of willful attempts to
prevent action from being taken to rescue Jews O’Keefe’s review of Stoddard’s book. Theodore J.
from Hitler. (Pg. 36, “From a ‘Race of Masters’ O’Keefe is book editor for the Institute for Historical
to a ‘Master Race’”) Review, and an associate editor of the IHR’s Journal of
Historical Review. O’Keefe’s review is titled “Veteran
The illustrious Harvard graduate, Lothrop American Journalist Provides Valuable Inside Look at
Stoddard, was not only instrumental in passing the Third Reich Germany”:
1924 Immigration Restriction Act, but also used his He was able not merely to get access to Joseph
reputation to whitewash Hitler’s eugenic policies. The Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Robert Ley,
“Genetic Health Courts” created by the 1933 Wilhelm Frick, Walter Darré, Gertrud Scholz-
Nuremberg law consisted of a judge, a medical officer, Klink and many other leaders ---- Stoddard
then went off to observe what the Nazis were
and medical practitioner, much in the same way in
doing ---- in the eugenics court. (Before visiting
which Harry H. Laughlin’s “Model Eugenic Law” the last, he talked with such figures of the
recommended, and in the same way which the U.S. Reich’s racial and genetics programs as Eugen
Supreme Court found to be sufficiently observant of Fischer, Fritz Lenz, and Hans F. K. Günther.)
“due process” in the 1927 case of Buck v. Bell. The
Buck v. Bell case was one of Harry H. Laughlin’s “test Stoddard’s participation in the sessions of the
cases”. The Buck v. Bell opinion incidentally was Upper Court for Hereditary Health in Berlin-
written by another eugenic-minded Harvard graduate, Charlottenburg is also documented by Stefan Kühl,
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., where he author of the book, “The Nazi Connection.” Note
infamously proclaimed that “three generations of Stoddard’s allegedly “scientific” thoughts:
imbeciles was enough”. The Justice was referring to At the Hereditary Health Supreme Court in
the poor whites and blacks of the American South; a Charlottenburg, Berlin, he joined two regular
Nazi judges, a psychopathologist, and a
view which was based on expert testimony provided by
criminal psychologist. Stoddard reported on
Davenport’s Cold Spring Harbor staff. four cases that he reviewed in order to illustrate
Hitler’s version of these eugenic courts were given the urgency of sterilizations:
a veil of legitimacy when famous individuals such as ⥇ An “apelike” man with a receding forehead -
Lothrop Stoddard reported back to the world his who had a history of homosexuality and was
participation in the courts and his approbation of the married to a “Jewess” by whom he had three
system. Lothrop Stoddard is an indispensable figure in “ne’er-do-well” children.
the effort to understand the nature of National ⥇ An obvious manic-depressive, of whom
Socialism and eugenics. Stoddard received a Ph.D. in Stoddard wrote that “there was no doubt that
History from Harvard University in 1914. Stoddard is he should be sterilized.”
mostly remembered for his book, “The Rising Tide of ⥇ An eighteen-year-old deaf-mute girl with
Color against White World-Supremacy” in 1920. several “unfortunate” hereditary factors in her
Margaret Sanger partnered with him the following year family.
to create the American Birth Control League, the ⥇ A seventeen-year-old mentally retarded girl
forerunner to International Planned Parenthood. employed as a helper in an inexpensive
As an American journalist, author, and founding restaurant. (Pgs. 62-63, “Nazi Connection”)
The “Baur-Fischer-Lenz” book was a
Historians must also note that Davenport, compendium of the eugenic views of the IFEO
Stoddard, and company had taken up the cause of membership, which forwarded the laughable notion
eugenics much prior to Adolf Hitler. Going back to that Henry Ford was an expert on the Jewish psyche.
Eugene Fischer, the man whom collaborated with Stefan Kühl documents how the participation and
Davenport in his study of blacks of mixed ethnicity, we acceptance into the IFEO was subsequently used by
see precisely what the relationship between eugenics German eugenicists to justify the Third Reich’s eugenic
and Hitler truly was. Eugenics was an American and policies:
British export to Germany, and not the other way In the summer of 1934, one and a half years after
around. These American, British, and German the Nazis came to power in Germany, the
eugenicists educated Hitler on the creation of a “master International Federation of Eugenic
race”. More poignantly, Fischer was one of the authors Organizations, meeting in Zurich, passed a
resolution to which Nazi propaganda
of the eugenics textbook that Hitler was handed while
frequently referred in order to illustrate the
he was writing and researching “Mein Kampf”. international acceptance of their race policies.
Hitler would describe his spell in prison as a “free In this unanimously passed resolution, sent to
education at the state’s expense.” J.F. Lehmann, the prime ministers of all the major Western
Hitler’s publisher, financier, and sympathizer brought powers, the IFEO stated that, despite all
the book titled “Grundriss der Menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre differences in political and social outlooks, the
organization was “united by the deep
und Rassenhygiene,” or in English the “Principles of conviction that eugenic research and practice is
Human Heredity and Racial Hygiene” which had been of the highest and most urgent importance for
written in conjunction by Eugene Fischer, Fritz Lenz the existence of all civilized countries.” It
and Erwin Baur. The book was first published by J.F. recommended that all governments “make
Lehmann in 1923, and it is quite literally the “scientific” themselves acquainted with the problems of
blueprint for Hitler’s racial policies. The book has heredity, population studies, and eugenics.” It
stated that eugenic principles should be
come to be known by historians as the “Baur-Fischer-
adopted as state policies “for the good of their
Lenz” book. Hitler is widely quoted by historians as nations . . . with suitable regional modifications.
stating that he had “studied with great interest the German racial hygienists and Nazi race
laws of several American states concerning prevention politicians viewed this resolution as
of reproduction by people whose progeny would, in all confirmation of German and American
probability, be of no value or be injurious to the racial dominance in the eugenics movement and as
international approval of the 1933 German
stock.” The “Baur-Fischer-Lenz” book was the primary
sterilization law. (Pgs. 26-27, “The Nazi
source of that study, as well as one of the foundations Connection” – Pg. 50, “From a ‘Race of Masters’
for the Nuremberg Laws. to a ‘Master Race’”)
Robert Proctor, author of the 2001 book “The
Nazi War on Cancer” explains that “racial hygiene”, the Historically speaking, figureheads like Davenport
term some Germans used for “eugenics”, was the and Stoddard were instrumental in dismissing the
creation of medical science and not the Nazis: criticism of Hitler’s policies abroad and insuring that
One often hears that National Socialists The Holocaust remained a debated “rumor” until
distorted science, that doctors perhaps American forces liberated the death camps.
cooperated more with the Nazi regime than There is also a historically important observation
they should have, but that by 1933, as one
to be made. By the time the IFEO was created modern
émigré said, it was too late, and scientists had
no alternative but to cooperate or flee. There is genetics had disproven the claims of the eugenicists.
certainly some truth in this, but I think it The Hardy-Weinberg Principle had disproven the
misses the more important point that claim that eugenic sterilization or euthanasia could
medical scientists were the ones who alter the course of human evolution by means of
invented racial hygiene in the first place. (Pg. artificial eugenic selection. Mendel’s work had been
27, “When Medicine Went Mad” – Pg. 58 rediscovered, and had debunked the simplistic
“From a ‘Race of Masters’ to a ‘Master Race’”,
assumptions eugenicists had made about the Theory of
emphasis mine)
Evolution. This is where the politics inside the medical
and scientific profession illustrate how Harvard’s the brain and the muscles. According to Chase, Stiles
reputation was used to keep opposing views was ignored and shunned until December 1902, when
submerged by leveraging its Ivy League prestige. Stiles presented a paper on hookworm disease at the
The best example of this would have to be the Pan-American Sanitary Conference in Washington,
disease of “pellagra”. Understanding the politics D.C. The reporter that covered the conference for “The
within the history of “pellagra” is comprehending how New York Sun” was Irving C. Norwood. Allan Chase
arrogance and elitism directly caused the deaths of quotes Stiles recollection of Norwood's article:
thousands in the United States. Harvard’s Davenport . . . reported the address with the headline that
literally used his reputation to squash the cures and the “Germ of Laziness” had been discovered.
remedies that had been found by lesser known This press story was published throughout the
scientists, and did so in order to make sure no world, causing amusement in some circles and
indignation in some quarters. My interpretation
challenges to the science of eugenics emerged from is that this newspaper reporter contributed an
under him. Davenport had reason to fear the findings exceedingly valuable piece of work in
of the lesser known scientists. “Pellagra” was touted as disseminating knowledge concerning
a “hereditary” defect by Davenport, and as proof that hookworm disease. The “Germ of Laziness”
improving education and environment would not became common information. It would have
alleviate the social problems eugenicists like him taken scientific authors years of hard work to
direct as much attention to this subject as Mr.
claimed were the result of poor “breeding stocks”.
Norwood did through his use of the expression
These lesser known scientists had proven the “Germ of Laziness”. (Pgs. 197-198, “Legacy of
opposite of Davenport’s eugenic claims. They proved Malthus”, emphasis mine)
through scientific experimentation that “pellagra” was
nothing more than the consequences of poverty. Stiles was being modest or diplomatic. In
However, they were up against the person literally at hindsight, the reason he had such an uphill battle in
the top of the scientific community. Davenport was changing opinions was because he was unknown in the
president or vice president of ten of the 64 societies in scientific community, and to make matters worse, he
which he was a member and was on the editorial was challenging the a priori notions of the Ivy League
boards of eight scientific journals. From 1900 until his scientific elite, namely that of Harvard’s Davenport.
death in 1944, Davenport was one of the best known American eugenicists also practiced their eugenic
and most influential biological scientists in the world. segregation and sterilization “experiments” within the
Allan Chase documents this episode in medical United States. Again, Harvard was at the forefront of
history. In 1902, two previously unknown Americans, this effort. Journalist Welling Savo wrote the
Charles Wardel Stiles and Irving C. Norwood, bombshell of an article titled “The Master Race” in the
combined their talents to deliver a body blow to December 2002 edition of “Boston Magazine”. In it he
Davenport’s claims. It is interesting to see that tells the story of Shutesbury, a town just outside of
historians of the “pellagra” fiasco recognize that it was Boston that was one of the small rural towns targeted
Stiles’ conservative and traditional values that allowed by eugenicists in their nation-wide sterilization
him to understand the real causes of the disease: project. The project was headed up by Leon Whitney,
As the child of a family that took seriously the Davenport’s eugenic associate at the IFEO and direct
same Christian ethics despised by people like descendant of the famous inventor of the cotton gin:
Madison Grant, Stiles was impressed as much
Harvard was a brain trust of eugenic thought.
by the social as by the medical challenges of
In 1926, at least nine members of the Eugenics
hookworm disease. (Pgs. 193-194, “The Legacy
Society’s advisory council were also on the
of Malthus” – Pg. 612, “From a ‘Race of Masters’
Harvard faculty, and many more were affiliated
to a ‘Master Race’”)
with Harvard as students and researchers. The
society’s vice president, Charles Davenport, was
Stiles would prove that much of the laziness a Harvard-trained biologist who also founded
eugenicists attributed to poor Southern whites and the Eugenics Records Office, which kept tabs
blacks was the proximate cause of hookworm invading on people’s genetic backgrounds. Like Hooton,
the body and causing a thinning of the blood. The Davenport believed that increased charity,
thinned blood, in turn, provided poor nourishment for philanthropy, and medical advances had
interfered with the natural survival of the
fittest. (Pg. 580, “From a ‘Race of Masters’ to a Eugenics was always an undercurrent at
‘Master Race’”) Buchenwald. One block was known as the
Ahnenforschung barrack, or ancestral research
The 2002 “Boston Magazine” article goes on to barrack. It was worked by a small detachment
describe how the IFEO’s Whitney engaged in known as Kommando 22a, mainly Czech
sterilization campaigns, targeting rural towns like prisoners, researching and assembling family
Shutesbury. All in all, over 80,000 Americans were trees of SS officers. SS officers were required to
document pure Aryan heredity. ---- As a skilled
subjected to sterilization against their will and often and doctrinaire eugenicist, Katzen-Ellenbogen
without their knowledge. Stephen Buckley of the St. was assigned to perform eugenic examinations
Petersburg Times interviewed WWII veteran of Polish prisoners, seeking those fit for
Raymond Hudlow for a November 11, 2001 article. Germanization. (Edwin Black, “The Story of the
Raymond Hudlow had been one of more than 8,000 New Jersey Doctor”)
individuals who were forcibly sterilized by the
Commonwealth of Virginia as a result of the eugenic Questions improperly answered linger in the
legislation adopted by that state. These eugenic public conscience. We still persist in asking how
sterilization campaigns targeted those minorities, those Germans, the most educated and cultured people of the
rural farm boys, and those recently arrived immigrants time could be enlisted in such a horrific cause. Part of
which we now identify as the “Greatest Generation”. this important question can be answered by closely
It is through American eugenic sterilization inspecting the political aspirations and modus operandi of
campaigns that the story now turns to the Harvard eugenicists outside of Hitler’s Germany. Holocaust
lecturer that became part of the administration at historians write about the “irrationality of evil”,
Buchenwald. Edwin Black, author of the famous book alluding to Hitler’s mob violence, and too often
“The War against the Weak” wrote a complimentary overlook the “rationality of evil”. The truth is that the
article for his book titled, “The Story of the New Jersey way to enlist a highly cultured and educated people in a
Doctor Who Helped Kill Prisoners at Buchenwald in campaign of murder is to appeal to their vanity and
the Name of Eugenics.” In it, Black tells the story of elitism through propaganda and political diatribes.
Dr. Edwin Katzen-Ellenbogen. In 1913, Katzen- Hitler’s “willing executioners” operated in a rational
Ellenbogen became charter member #14 of the Eugenics and systematic manner. They employed the latest
Research Association at Davenport’s Cold Spring technology and their industrial might to murder in the
Harbor. He had been the chief eugenicist of New many millions. The truth is that mob violence only
Jersey and scientific director of the State Village for gets you so far. While Hitler’s Brown Shirts murdered
Epileptics at Skillman, New Jersey under governor in the thousands, his scientists and engineers murdered
Woodrow Wilson. Katzen-Ellenbogen drafted New in the millions.
Jersey’s law to forcibly sterilize epileptics and Progressive-minded historians typically react to
“defectives”, with the definition of “defective” being these damning facts by claiming that eugenics had a
explicitly eugenic in scope. broad political appeal. This is a farce. We know
Dr. Katzen-Ellenbogen took his eugenic precisely who the men were behind this international
knowledge to Hitler’s Germany in order to practice his eugenics movement because they were as meticulous in
ideology. On April 11, 1945, the American Third Army record keeping as their German counterparts. Their
liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp near political preferences are a matter of documented
Weimar, Germany. Young American soldiers came face historical fact. More to the point, these Progressive-
to face with Hitler’s atrocities for the first time, and minded eugenicists knew what stood in their way, and
thereafter, a ghastly realism came to replace what had they were very explicit in targeting traditional morality
once been the topic of scant reports and rumors. What and conservative legislative traditions. They explicitly
American troops found at Buchenwald was more than set out to destroy not just the Hippocratic Oath, but to
just murder. Buchenwald was the camp where human overturn the humanistic tradition in German medicine
skin was harvested to make lampshades, gloves and established by men like Rudolf Virchow and Alexander
book covers by its sadistic administrators. Edwin Von Humboldt. Of note is that these “scientists” spent
Black documents how eugenic policies were at the as much time writing “Model Eugenic Laws” as they
center of many of the activities at Buchenwald: did in the laboratory conducting actual science. Theirs
was an explicitly political revolution at odds with the by exerting their constitutional rights. Hitler’s
established moral order. speeches evidence the disdain he had for “individual
The overlapping political agendas by themselves rights”, and his demand that all be sacrifice for the
evidence the political taint of the eugenics movement. social body:
Amongst the leadership of the British and American The right of personal freedom recedes before
eugenic societies, namely the IFEO are the founding the duty to preserve the race. There must be no
members of the Sierra Club, the Save the Redwoods half measures. It is a half measure to let
incurably sick people steadily contaminate the
Foundation, International Planned Parenthood, and the
remaining healthy ones. This is in keeping with
heads of the London School of Economics which the humanitarianism which, to avoid hurting
spearheaded British Fabian Socialism. one individual, lets a hundred others perish. If
Case in point, one of the most recognizable necessary, the incurably sick will be pitilessly
members of the international eugenics movement was segregated—a barbaric measure for the
the Progressive economist, John Maynard Keynes. unfortunate who is struck by it, but a blessing
Keynes was the director of the British Eugenics Society for his fellow men and posterity. (Adolf Hitler,
1923 – Pg. 90, “From a ‘Race of Masters’ to a
between 1937 and 1944, and vice president in 1937. The
‘Master Race’”)
fact that John Maynard Keynes was devoted to the
science of eugenics should not surprise anyone. These were hardly the passing notions of a
Eugenics is how collectivist and Progressive states have madman; they were the guiding principles of the
gotten rid of “excess population” throughout history. eugenic regime obsessed with controlling all aspects of
This was the case for eugenic utopias both fictional and their “total state”. Let us not forget what Himmler’s
real, thus British Fabian Socialists such as H.G. Wells, proud SS officer, Untersturmführer Hans Stark, the head
Sydney Webb, and George Bernard Shaw were the
of the admissions detail at Auschwitz concentration
champions of the cause in the U.K.
camp, had as a motto hanging in his office:
This was certainly the case in Hitler’s “eugenic
“Compassion is weakness.” This motto was the
utopia”. This was the purpose of the T4 Euthanasia
ethos ingrained in all of the Hitler Youth, the SS, and all
Program, which murdered half a million Germans of
concentration camp deputies in order to insure that
otherwise “Aryan” ethnicity, as the Nuremberg eugenic
lingering Christian morality did not impede with the
laws labeled them as “useless eaters” or “life unworthy
regime’s goals. This is also the reason Hitler silenced
of living”:
the clergy in Germany.
As Hermann Hebestreit of the German Labor
Utopias are fragile things, and they are inspired
Front put the matter, the aim was to reduce the
difference between the age of retirement and by a desire for “statist” government solutions.
the age of death – ideally zero. Werner Progressives desire the illusory “stasis” of those
Bockhacker, chief of the DAF’s health office, put “socialist utopias” that H.G. Wells frequently wrote
forward pretty much the same idea – as did about. “Stasis” and “total” control was an attractive
Hellmut Haubold, who characterized the political notion following the “boom and bust” cycle
elderly as people “no longer useful to the that lead to the Great Depression. These ideologies
community.” In the idealized Nazi scheme of
profess the “redistribution of wealth”, and thus a
things, workers would work long and hard and
then die – saving for the Volksgemeinschaft the population that grows uncontrollably threatens to
financial burdens of the elderly and sabotage their redistribution pyramid scheme. “Excess
“unproductive” infirm. (Pg. 119, “Nazi War on population” becomes a palpable obstacle for
Cancer” – Pg. 147, “From a ‘Race of Masters’ to a Progressive and socialist governments during economic
‘Master Race’”) depressions. Believing in “growing wealth” is simply
out of the question for these Progressives, as this would
Individual life was subservient to collectivized qualify them as “Capitalists” and cause them to be
priorities, and anyone whom was identified as a danger shunned by their friends, namely the Harvard Crimson.
to the “master race’s” gene pool was systematically These “merchants” of utopian ideas, these elitist
eradicated. The right to life became a meaningless intellectuals, were eager to share all of the advances
concept in the highly collectivized National Socialist made in eugenics within the United States and Britain
state. No individual could be allowed to decide his fate that the libertarian constitutions in their own
countries otherwise prevented. Leon Whitney, for eugenic elite became impossible to ignore. The article
example, had the goal of sterilizing 10% of the titled “Praise for Nazis” in the September 9 th, 1935
American population, but cited constitutional rights edition of TIME documents the 1935 World Population
and the Catholic Church as the obstacles to his eugenic Congress in Berlin. Dr. Clarence Gordon Campbell,
goals. This is how Germany became the proving president of the American Eugenics Research
ground, the blank slate, for all the eugenic goals that Association, a Harvard Medical School graduate, and
could or would not be adopted by the constitutional one of Margaret Sanger’s partners, attended along with
governments of the United States or Britain. This is fellow Harvard alumni Wickliffe Draper.
what drove the American eugenicists, Joseph Socialite Dr. Campbell's boldest dicta: “The
DeJarnette, to utter that now infamous comment to the difference between the Jew and the Aryan is as
Richmond Times-Dispatch about the strides that insurmountable as that between black and
white. . . . Germany has set a pattern which
Hitler’s Germany was making with eugenics: “The
other nations must follow. ” (Pg. 84, “From a
Germans are beating us at our own game.” ‘Race of Masters’ to a ‘Master Race’”)
Hitler’s propaganda ministry, on the other hand,
was quite delighted to make sure that credit was given TIME Magazine quotes Dr. Campbell’s toast at
where credit was due. Hitler’s government lavished the closing Congress banquet: “To that great leader,
praise on Harry Laughlin by giving him an honorary Adolf Hitler!” The mounting news must have set off
degree from Heidelberg University in 1936 on the fires inside both the Rockefeller and Carnegie
anniversary of the purge of Jewish professors from foundations, as both began to distance themselves from
German academia. the Cold Spring Harbor institution they had generously
1936 also saw the publishing of the book by funded from its onset. The Carnegie institution
Heinrich Krieger “Das Rassenrecht in Den Vereinigten created a committee to dissect the work done at Cold
Staaten”. The title literally translates to “The Race Law Spring Harbor. The resulting report would be
in the United States.” The book provided Hitler’s published as the 1935 book “Eugenical Sterilisation, a
government a propaganda goldmine. Stefan Kühl Reorientation of the Problem.” The book became
quotes the newspaper “Grossdeutscher Pressedienst”: known as one of the most sophisticated and
[F]or us Germans it is especially important to comprehensive rebuttals of the claims made by the
known and to see how one of the biggest states proponents of eugenics. Most poignantly, the
in the world with Nordic stock already has race committee treated the American, British, and German
legislation which is quite comparable to that of eugenicists as one monolithic international movement,
the German Reich. (Pg. 99, “The Nazi
as this is how the movement presented itself:
Connection” – Pg. 103, “From a ‘Race of
Masters’ to a ‘Master Race’”) Such men as Rüdin, and Whitney, stress the
fact that insanity is increasing at a terrific rate
and imply quite definitely that the biological
In July 1937 the Council of Foreign Relations
unfitness is thus threatening two swamp the
reviewed Heinrich Krieger’s 1936 book in “Foreign race. --- The writings of Laughlin, Baur,
Affairs”. Catching the attention of “Foreign Affairs” was Fischer, Lenz, Mjoen and, practically speaking,
no small accomplishment. Since its founding in 1922, all the important books echo these statements
“Foreign Affairs” has been the leading forum for serious and stress eugenic measures as the only possible
discussion of American foreign policy: protection society has against further
The Nazis point to American racial deterioration. (Pg. 25, “Eugenical Sterilization”
discrimination in support of their laws against - Pg. 109, “From a ‘Race of Masters’ to a ‘Master
ethnic minorities. The present work is a Race’”)
description of the legal disabilities enforced
against Negroes and Indians in the United For the purposes of this article it is important to
States. (Pg. 104, “From a ‘Race of Masters’ to a point out that “Eugenical Sterilization” makes it clear
‘Master Race’”) that eugenics was an attack on traditional moral ethics.
Of note is that this scientific book generously quotes
The more Hitler’s propaganda machine celebrated the Roman Catholic Pope in order to underscore this
the collaboration with the IFEO, the more the point. The committee also made reference to the
relationship between the American and German dangers of a eugenic utopia:
It is a … obviously closely allied with idealistic
social religion. If eugenics were ever made the
basis of a code of minute legislative
prescriptions regarding marriage and
reproduction, doubtless it would become an
intolerable tyranny. (Pg. 64, “Eugenical
Sterilization” - Pg. 110, “From a ‘Race of
Masters’ to a ‘Master Race’”, emphasis mine)
The eugenics movement started decades prior to
Adolf Hitler being born. It was first ridiculed as the
radicalism of crackpots and socialists. It gained
acceptance despite the clear warnings of sober minds
as a generation intent on overturning the moral and
political order emerged. As we know, the doctrines of
eugenics did produce the most “intolerable tyranny”
when it became the law of the land, as eugenicists from
Francis Galton onwards desired it to be.
For us, for posterity, it is important to recognize
that scientific and intellectual arrogance remains a
danger to humanity. Contemporary scientists clamor to
reduce the world’s population by significant
percentages, namely John Holdren of Harvard’s
Kennedy School of Government. We embark towards
the 21st Century with politicians committed to
submerging the individual under the State’s
prerogative. The scientific means to “cleanse” Correspondence from Madison Grant to Harry H.
humanity of undesirable hereditary traits has only Laughlin discussing changing the use of the term “white”
grown more formidable. Propaganda has convinced for “Caucasian”, as “Jews” would not be able to claim to
significant portions of the electorate to distrust the be “Caucasian”. (Herein published and printed for the
very founding documents that were put in place first time with permission of the Special Collections
Department at Truman University.)
precisely to protect us from the zealotry of a misguided
or powerful few. We embark towards the 21st Century
with or morality all the more stunted and our legal Copies of this article were mailed to:
Drew Gilpin Faust – President, Harvard University
protections all the more compromised. We embark Rabbi Jonah Chanan Steinberg – Hillel at Harvard
upon this precarious path, fully convinced that the past Bobby Sammuels – Editor, The Harvard Crimson
has receded into history, and confident that The
This document is in large part derived from the
Holocaust won't repeat itself as it was the fault of a 2013 book “From a ‘Race of Master’ to a ‘Master
single madman, long since dead and vanquished. Race’: 1948 to 1848” - ISBN-13: 978-0615747880
Copyright A.E. Samaan. ~ All rights reserved.
Reproduction and distribution for commercial use
is permitted only if this document is reprinted in its
unedited entirety and with express written
permission. For more information on the book,
please visit: www.RaceOfMasters.com
