Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Racial science chart featuring headshots of the four major ethnic groups of Europe as defined by Nazi racial policy makers. It was produced by The Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA) and edited by Dr. Bruno K. Schultz, a race specialist and SS and Nazi Party member, as a teaching tool for racial hygiene instruction. Nazi ideology sought to create a racially pure German nation. All those who did not belong to the Nordic race were to be excluded from the community. Thus citizens had to be educated to recognize the physical characteristics that revealed the racially acceptable and the racially undesirable.
- Artwork Title
- Rassen der Welt: Die 4 Hauptrassen Europas
- Alternate Title
- Races of the World: The 4 Main Races of Europe
- Date
-
creation:
approximately 1935
- Geography
-
publication:
Munich (Germany)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the District of Unterfranken
- Markings
- front, top center, black ink : Rassen der Welt / Die 4 Haupttrasen Europas [Races of the World / The Four Major Races of Europe]
- Contributor
-
Editor:
Bruno K. Schultz
Publisher: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag
Distributor: Rasse--und Siedlungshauptamt-SS. Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei
- Biography
-
Dr. Bruno Kurt Schultz (1901-1997) was born in Sitzenberg, Austria-Hungary (now Sitzenberg-Reidling, Austria). He earned a doctorate in physical anthropology and his work extended into the fields of heredity, ethnology, and anthropometry. He was the author of several books and many articles about anthropometry and racial hygiene. He lectured on these topics in Vienna, Austria, and in Munich and Berlin, Germany. In 1929, Dr. Schultz became a German citizen, and began working as editor at the J. F. Lehmann publishing house in Munich, which was known for producing medical literature, charts, and material about eugenics. In 1932, Dr. Schultz joined the Nazi Party. He was in the Schutzstaffel (SS), and worked in the Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt-SS (SS Race and Settlement Main Office; RuSHA). While working there, Dr. Schultz developed the criteria that defined the physical characteristics that determined who in German society was considered “racially pure” and “Nordic.” His model was also used to determine who was eligible to join the SS based on their ancestry, the color of their hair, eyes, and skin, and other aspects deemed “racially pure.”
Following the German invasion and occupation of other nations just before and during World War II (1939-1945), the same general model was used to analyze populations for resettlement and Germanization within those territories. In February 1942, Dr. Schultz was appointed Chief of the Race Office (RuSHa), a position he held until the end of the war in May 1945. Dr. Schultz went through what the allied powers called denazification: the effort to remove all traces of Nazi ideology, institutions, influence, and laws from Germany, as well as Nazi party members from offices or positions of responsibility. He was not prosecuted as a war criminal. In the Nuremburg Doctors’ Trial (1946), other doctors were presented as manipulated by the SS and various Nazis, and were not considered affiliated with the concentration camps or killing centers. Instead, the SS and medical personnel, such as Dr. Mengele, who were directly involved with the camps and centers, were identified as those most responsible for the atrocities.
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Classification
-
Posters
- Category
-
Instructional posters
- Object Type
-
Public health posters (lcsh)
- Physical Description
- Large, rectangular, mechanical lithographic wall chart printed in black ink on offwhite paper with linen canvas backing. The top and bottom edges are adhered to circular wooden dowels; the top dowel is flat on the back. Printed on the front are photographic reproductions featuring headshots of males of different ethnicities.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 55.250 inches (140.335 cm) | Width: 42.250 inches (107.315 cm)
- Materials
- overall : paper, linen, wood, ink, metal, adhesive
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The wall chart was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by the District of Unterfranken, Bavaria, Germany.
- Record last modified:
- 2025-01-02 11:26:26
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn523067
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Also in District of Unterfranken collection
The collection consists of school desks and educational charts relating to education and the teaching of racial science in schools in Nazi Germany before and during the holocaust.
Date: before 1945
Large wall chart with 16 photos of races from Europe and border regions to teach racial hygiene
Object
Large wall panel lithograph featuring 16 headshots of eight racial/ethnic types from Europe and neighboring countries. Nazi racial policy makers idealized the Nordic race and considered other racial groups to be inferior. The chart was produced by The Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA) and edited by Dr. Bruno K. Schultz, a race specialist and SS and Nazi Party member, as a teaching tool for racial hygiene instruction. Nazi ideology sought to create a racially pure German nation. All those who did not belong to the Nordic race were to be excluded from the community. Thus citizens had to be educated to recognize the physical characteristics that revealed the racially undesirable.
Large wall chart with 16 photos of non-European races to teach racial hygiene
Object
Large wall panel lithograph featuring 16 headshots of eight racial/ethnic types from outside Europe. Nazi racial policy makers idealized the Nordic race and considered other racial groups to be inferior. The chart was produced by The Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA) and edited by Dr. Bruno K. Schultz, a race specialist and SS and Nazi Party member, as a teaching tool for racial hygiene instruction. Nazi ideology sought to create a racially pure German nation. All those who did not belong to the Nordic race were to be excluded from the community. Thus citizens had to be educated to recognize the physical characteristics that revealed the racially undesirable.
Wooden school bench with desk and inkwells used in a German classroom
Object
Three-seat wooden school bench used by students in Germany during, and possibly before, the Holocaust. The bench was manufactured by the German company of Fritz Seitz, which began manufacturing school furniture around the turn of the twentieth century. The bench appears to be a modified design of the two-seat Rettig school bench, which was originally designed by Wilhelm Rettig in 1893. After Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi authorities passed new laws that dictated who could teach and be educated in the German school system. Quotas restricting the number of Jewish students who could attend public schools were established. Under the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service Act, Jewish teachers or ones considered “politically unreliable” were purged from schools, and made Nazi Party membership compulsory for all remaining teachers. At the entrance to school, students had to lift their arms and say, “Heil Hitler!” School curriculum was changed to emphasize sports, history, and racial science with the purpose of indoctrinating students with Nazi ideology. Subjects such as religion became less important, and were eventually removed from the curriculum altogether. Any textbooks used to educate students had to be approved by the party. Censors removed books that did not meet these standards from the classroom, and introduced new textbooks that taught students militarism, racism, antisemitism, obedience to state authority, and love for Hitler. Instruction aimed to produce race-conscious, obedient Germans who would be willing to die for the Führer and Fatherland. Nordic and other “Aryan” races were glorified, while Jews and other peoples were deemed inferior.
Wooden school bench with desk and three inkwell holders used in a German classroom
Object
Three-seat wooden school bench used by students in Germany during, and possibly before, the Holocaust. The bench was manufactured by the German company of Fritz Seitz, which began manufacturing school furniture around the turn of the twentieth century. The bench appears to be a modified design of the two-seat Rettig school bench, which was originally designed by Wilhelm Rettig in 1893. After Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi authorities passed new laws that dictated who could teach and be educated in the German school system. Quotas restricting the number of Jewish students who could attend public schools were established. Under the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service Act, Jewish teachers or ones considered “politically unreliable” were purged from schools, and made Nazi Party membership compulsory for all remaining teachers. At the entrance to school, students had to lift their arms and say, “Heil Hitler!” School curriculum was changed to emphasize sports, history, and racial science with the purpose of indoctrinating students with Nazi ideology. Subjects such as religion became less important, and were eventually removed from the curriculum altogether. Any textbooks used to educate students had to be approved by the party. Censors removed books that did not meet these standards from the classroom, and introduced new textbooks that taught students militarism, racism, antisemitism, obedience to state authority, and love for Hitler. Instruction aimed to produce race-conscious, obedient Germans who would be willing to die for the Führer and Fatherland. Nordic and other “Aryan” races were glorified, while Jews and other peoples were deemed inferior.
