Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy
Encyclopedia
The Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy was a Nazi Germany
committee formed on 2 June, 1933 that planned Nazi racial policy. On July 14, 1933, the committee's recommendations were made law as the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring, or the "Sterilization Law".
The committee was organized by Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick
, and brought together many important Nazi figures on racial theory, including Ernst Rudin
, Alfred Ploetz
, Arthur Gutt, Heinrich Himmler
, Fritz Thyssen
, Fritz Lenz
, Friedrich Burgdorfer, Walther Darre, Hans F. K. Günther, Charlotte von Hadeln, Bodo Spiethoff, Paul Schultze-Naumburg
, Gerhard Wagner, and Baldur von Schirach
.
. Only one member of the new committee—Friedrich Burgdorfer—was also on the old committee.
were immigrating in large numbers. Frick argued this would lead to "degenerate" offspring. He also warned the number of "genetically diseased" were growing because of a lack of a government racial policy. He estimated—conservatively, in his opinion—the number of Germans with genetic defects to be at 500,000. "Some experts," he said, "consider the true figure to be as high as 20 percent of the German population."
of any citizen who in the opinion of a "Genetic Health Court" suffered from a list of alleged genetic disorders. Under this law, Nazi doctors sterilized nearly 400,000 people.
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
committee formed on 2 June, 1933 that planned Nazi racial policy. On July 14, 1933, the committee's recommendations were made law as the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring, or the "Sterilization Law".
The committee was organized by Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick was a prominent German Nazi official serving as Minister of the Interior of the Third Reich. After the end of World War II, he was tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials and executed...
, and brought together many important Nazi figures on racial theory, including Ernst Rudin
Ernst Rüdin
Ernst Rüdin , was a Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist and eugenicist. Rüdin was born in St. Gallen, Switzerland...
, Alfred Ploetz
Alfred Ploetz
Alfred Ploetz was a German physician, biologist, eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene and promoting the concept in Germany. Rassenhygiene is a form of eugenics.-Biography:...
, Arthur Gutt, Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, Fritz Thyssen
Fritz Thyssen
Friedrich "Fritz" Thyssen was a German businessman born into one of Germany's leading industrial families.-Youth:Thyssen was born in Mülheim in the Ruhr area...
, Fritz Lenz
Fritz Lenz
Fritz A Lenz was a German geneticist, member of the Nazi party, and influential specialist in "racial hygiene" during the Third Reich, one of the leading German theorists of "scientific racism" which legitimized the Nazi racial policies, starting with the 1935 Nuremberg Laws.- Biography...
, Friedrich Burgdorfer, Walther Darre, Hans F. K. Günther, Charlotte von Hadeln, Bodo Spiethoff, Paul Schultze-Naumburg
Paul Schultze-Naumburg
Paul Schultze-Naumburg was a Nazi architect and one of Nazi Germany's most vocal political critics of modern architecture...
, Gerhard Wagner, and Baldur von Schirach
Baldur von Schirach
Baldur Benedikt von Schirach was a Nazi youth leader later convicted of being a war criminal. Schirach was the head of the Hitler-Jugend and Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Vienna....
.
Preceding Weimar Republic committee
The Nazi's expert committee replaced the old Reichsausschuss fur Bevolkerungsfragen, established by Frick's predecessor, Carl SeveringCarl Severing
Carl Wilhelm Severing was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era.He was Interior Minister of Prussia from 1920 to 1926, Minister of the Interior from 1928 to 1930 and Interior Minister of Prussia again from 1930 to 1932...
. Only one member of the new committee—Friedrich Burgdorfer—was also on the old committee.
Findings
At the first meeting, Frick gave a speech calling for a new German population policy. He argued the declining birthrate would weaken the quantity and quality of the race. Germany at that time had been facing an increasingly older population, and JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
were immigrating in large numbers. Frick argued this would lead to "degenerate" offspring. He also warned the number of "genetically diseased" were growing because of a lack of a government racial policy. He estimated—conservatively, in his opinion—the number of Germans with genetic defects to be at 500,000. "Some experts," he said, "consider the true figure to be as high as 20 percent of the German population."
Sterilization law
Because of the findings of the committee, the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring was passed. The law allowed the compulsory sterilizationCompulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...
of any citizen who in the opinion of a "Genetic Health Court" suffered from a list of alleged genetic disorders. Under this law, Nazi doctors sterilized nearly 400,000 people.