Hitler's American Model

Photo: Jack Delano/FSA/Library of Congress

James Q. Whitman's upcoming book Hitler's American Model, details how the Nazis studied America's race law's in creating their own form of institutional racism, and includes verbatim transcripts as the regime met to craft the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws in 1934.

An excerpt states "That transcript reveals a startling fact: the meeting involved lengthy discussions of the law 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."

Definitely on my must-read list for 2017. Find out more about it HERE.