“RACIALISM A MYTH”

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20270, 12 August 1937, Page 16

“RACIALISM A MYTH”

HITLER’S IDEAL ATTACKED. JEWS A 8 SCAPECOAT. Describing Herr Hitler’s demand for racial purity in Germany as the “Aryan myth” akin to the Nordic myth, Dr. I. L. G. Sutherland, Professor of Philosophy at Canterbury University College, in an address, attacked the theory and explained the treatment of the Jews in Germany. Dr. Sutherland declared that there was no such thing as a pure race, and, in fact, he deprecated the use of the term "race” because of the variety of meanings attributed to it. He preferred “ethnical group.” “The exploiting of the idea of blood and kinsltip to arouse and strengthen national sentiment is a very old and a very extensive practice,” Dr. Sutherland said. “A nation, It has been cynically remarked, is a society united by a common error as to its origin and a common aversion to Its neighbours. “Hitler and numerous professedly scientific supporters have revived the old and long-exploded theory of the Aryan race. They have identified the Nordic race, of which it is maintained the Germans are on the whole the most typically representative, with the Aryan, and have attributed to them all important advances in culture and in the history of civilisation and so justified their violent anti-Semitism.” The three ethnic groups in Europe, Dr. Sutherland said, were the tall, fair-haired Nordic type, the mediumstatured round-headed Durasiatic type, and the short, dark-haired, long-head-ed Mediterranean type. There was no evidence to show that those stocks once existed in a state of genetic purity. A given region of Europe was populated by a highly mixed ethnic group with component types more highly concentrated in certain areas, such as the Nordio type in parts of Scandinavia, and the Mediterranean type in parts of southern Italy. “No Pure Raoe.” “But scienoe nowhere know r s of any such thing as a pure race,” Dr. Sutherla?id continued. “It is certain that so far as European populations are concerned, nothing In the nature of a pure race in the biological or psychological sense has any real existence. “Nationality has in the past represented itself in the guise of race. It now does so in Germany backed by what can only be described as an outrageous perversion of science. “Racialism is a myth, and a dangerous myth, masquerading as science. Hitler’s racialism is, of course, not new, nor is his anti-Semitism. The Nordic myth originated mainly in the writings of Gobineau, a Frenchman, and Stewart Chamberlain, an Englishman. In 1873, Marr, an obscure Hamburg Journalist, published during a severe financial crisis a pamphlet on ‘The Victory of Judaism over Germanism.’ In his pamphlet, which at once leaped into fame, Marr ‘exposed’ the real authors of the financial catastrophe as Jewish financiers, and found the remedy in a revived and racially purified Germany. A disillusioned, impoverished, and disunited Germany has responded to the* same ideas.” Dr. Sutherland quoted extracts from speeches by Herr Hitler, such as “Human culture and civilisation on this earth are inseparably bound up with the existence of tho Aryan,” and “The outcome of the heroic-virtue type of instinct of self-preservation are Aryan States of work and culture, and of the subtle-cunning type Jewish parasite colonies.” Justification Attempted. A number of German scientists had a;tempted a justification of the doctrine, one of them, Professor L. G. Tirala, publishing a book. The book was attacked in a review by Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, of London University, who said, “Such is the recklessness of one who attempts to find a scientific Justification for the atrocities of Nazi misdoing. The effect of Professor Tirala’s fantasia of so-called science can only emphasise the real greatness of some of those at whom he and his like hurl their abuse." “The actual motive for the treatment of the Jews is clear enough,” Dr. Sutherland said. “During the economic depression the certnpetition of the Jews in the professions, in finance and- in retail trade was proving embarrassing, and in the revolution it was convenient to treat the Jews as a collective scapegoat, who could be blamed for mistakes, and on whom might be vented the anger which must be restrained against external enemies. “The Jews are no more a distinct, sharply-marked race than are the Germans or the English. They are originally of mixed descent. During their dispersal they have inter-bred with the surrounding populations, so that a number of genes derived from the immigrant Jews are scattered through the general population, and the Jewish communities have come to resemble the local population in many particulars. In this way the Jews of different parts of the world have become markedly different from each other in physical type. They vary as much as, or even more than people in Europe. Jews Not a Race. “The Jews do not constitute a definite race, but a society forming a special kind of national group with a strong religious basis, and with peculiar historic traditions. A sense of common suffering is one of the factors which has held them together. For centuries they have been subject to a differential selection through being debarred from owning land, forced into certain occupations, and confined to crowded and unhealthy ghettos. Biologically it is almost as illegitimate to speak of a Jewish race as of an Aryan race. “The Nordic theory, with which Hie Aryan theory lias been identified, lakes a hypothetical race, ascribes to it a number of valuable qualities, notably initiative and leadership, and then, where it finds such qualities in the mixed national groups, ascribes them to the Nordic elements in the population. It then goes further, and sets up ns a national ideal a return lo purity of Nordic stock. The fact of the ease, is that I lie Nordic race has no present existence. It is like tho

notion of pure races, hypothetical. There docs, however, exist a Nordic type. It is scattered over Europe, most highly concentrated in Scandinavia, and most authorities believe that it came originally from the steppes of southern Russia. The Aryan myth is a variety of the same theme. ( “Generally speaking, the greatest 1 achievements of modern civilisation,” J Dr. Suiherland concluded, “have oc- 1 curred in regions of the greatest mix- J lures of types." ~ *1