The Origins of the Holocaust - Essay Example

The Origins and Consequences of Scientific Racism and Anti-Semitism Considering scientific racism, it isnecessary to pay attention to the special significance of the concept of racism. “Racism exists when one ethnic group or historical collectivity dominates, excludes, or seeks to eliminate another on the basis of differences that it believes are hereditary and unalterable” (Fredrickson). Analysis of the history of mankind allows one to argue that racism existed many centuries ago, in particular, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

At that date, Jews were the main target of racism, because they were seen as carriers of extremely negative human qualities that justified the need for oppression and suppression of the Jewish people. In general, scientific racism has always prevailed during the colonial policies pursued by the developed European countries in relation to other cultures and peoples. Apotheosis of scientific racism could be observed during the existence of Nazi Germany. It claimed that the Germans were the most advanced human race, while other cultures and peoples were primitive.

In this regard, the Jews were seen as the most insignificant people, and therefore anti-Semitism was seen as rather justified policy.Scientific racism can be seen as an ideology that argues the superiority of one people over another one. Racism first received its scientific basis during the Enlightenment, in particular, in the works by Charles Linnaeus (Hossain). The feature of the racial classification proposed by Linnaeus was that it determined the degree of importance of individual nations based on an analysis of their mentality.

In particular, Asian and African nations, as well as Native Americans were endowed with negative qualities such as baseness, vileness, a low level of intellectual abilities, etc. Against the background of these peoples, the Europeans were considered as carriers of the most positive qualities, such as erudition, the high intelligence, ingenuity, honesty, a high level of compliance with the law, etc. Such an understanding of the significance of various peoples allowed the developed European countries to carry out the colonial policy based on the idea that the advanced countries had the right to colonize the peoples who had a low level of culture and civilization.

Nazi Germany used and developed a whole arsenal of the ideology of scientific racism that had existed previously. Scientific racism presented in Nazi Germany relied on the various arguments for the superiority of the German nation over other nations. Not only biological but also mental qualities of Germans were considered as evidence in favor of the fact that the Germans were the most outstanding nation in the world, while other nations could not boast of it. Such a concept was particularly important for Nazi Germany because it argued the validity of the policy of destruction and oppression against various peoples, in particular, the Jewish people.

Considering the Jews as insignificant people, which were characterized with the most negative physical and mental qualities, the Nazis had formal reasons for anti-Semitism.To sum up, scientific racism had always been associated with political and colonial aspirations of individual countries. Arguing the superiority of one people over others, it provided the formal arguments in favor of a policy of oppression and destruction of various nations and even races. For this reason, Nazi Germany did not miss the opportunity to apply the ideological basis developed in the framework of scientific racism.

This allowed it to destroy those peoples, which posed a special threat to fascists.Works CitedFredrickson, George M. “The Historical Origins and Development of Racism.” Stanford University. n.d. Web. 8 March 2015.Hossain, Shah Aashna. “Scientific Racism in Enlightened Europe: Linnaeus, Darwin, and Galton.” Serendip Studio. 2008. Web. 8 March 2015.