The Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy (german: Sachverständigen-Beirat für Bevölkerungsfragen und Rassenpolitik) was a
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
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
Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring (german: Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses) or "Sterilisation Law" was a statute in Nazi Germany enacted on July 14, 1933, (and made active in January 1934) which allowed the com ...
Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), who served as Reich Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate ...
, and brought together many important Nazi figures on racial theory, including Ernst Rudin,
Alfred Ploetz
Alfred Ploetz (22 August 1860 – 20 March 1940) was a German physician, biologist, Social Darwinist, and eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene (''Rassenhygiene''), a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany.
Ea ...
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
,
Fritz Thyssen
Friedrich "Fritz" Thyssen (9 November 1873 – 8 February 1951) was a German businessman, born into one of Germany's leading industrial families. He was an early supporter of the Nazi Party, but later broke with them.
Biography
Youth
Thyssen w ...
Paul Schultze-Naumburg
Paul Schultze-Naumburg (10 June 1869 – 19 May 1949) was a German traditionalist architect, painter, publicist and author. A leading critic of modern architecture, he joined the NSDAP in 1930 (aged 61) and became an important advocate of N ...
The Nazi's expert committee replaced the old ''Reichsausschuss fur Bevolkerungsfragen'', established by Frick's predecessor,
Carl Severing
Carl Wilhelm Severing (1 June 1875, Herford, Westphalia – 23 July 1952, Bielefeld) was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era.
He was seen as a representative of the right wing of the party. Over the years, he took a leadi ...
. Only one member of the new committee—Friedrich Burgdorfer—was also on the old committee.Proctor, ''Racial Hygiene''. pp. 359
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
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
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."Proctor, ''Racial Hygiene''. pp. 96
Sterilization law
Because of the findings of the committee, the
Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring
Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring (german: Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses) or "Sterilisation Law" was a statute in Nazi Germany enacted on July 14, 1933, (and made active in January 1934) which allowed the com ...