Whitman 2017

Hitlers American Model: Introduction

Key Argument : Despite other scholars' beliefs Whitman argues that Nazi Germany did in fact use the United States legal race order as a foreign model and precedent for their Nuremberg Laws, they drew inspiration from Jim Crow laws, eugenics, and the Western colonization of Native Americans

Intro

• Typical Assumption: The normative view among many historians during the time of publication was that there was little connection between the American conception of race and Nazi Germany.
  • Other scholars like Guttel and Hanke argued that because Nazi Germany was not segregationist like the Jim Crow South, there was little evidence to suggest that Nazi race law borrowed from American race law.
  • Scholars such as Reithmer argued that because American race law did not specifically target Jewish people in the way that Nazi race law did, American race law did not influence Nazi policies.

Interest in the US

• The Nazis took an interest in the US as a foreign model because of the implementation of racist legislation and practices of social dominance. They studied the segregation of Jim Crow Laws
• Like other states, Nazis thought America was recognized as “the premiere power in the world” with approval from even their enemies.
• In many instances, Hitler and the Nazi press had praised Franklin Roosevelt with a buzz around the New Deal which established power to the government as a key factor in economic and social affairs.

Whitman argues three instances of America as an example to the Nazi party

• Eugenics

• Anti-Miscegnation Laws

• Immigration