A minor sensation has been created here by the disclosure that three eminent German scientists and a publishing house have dared the wrath of the Nazi regime by issuing in Munich, cradle of the Nazi movement, a new edition of their standard work on race in which it is asserted that the average Jew is more intelligent than the average German.
The authors who have thus, and in a number of other equally daring conclusions which are anomalous in the Third Reich of Chancellor Hitler, risked their future status are Prof. Erwin Bauer, Prof. Eugen Fischer and Prof. Fritz Lenz, acknowledged leading authorities in this field of science.
The book is titled “Menschliche Erblehre und Rassenhygiene” (Law of Inheritance and Racial Hygiene) and its publisher is Lehmanns Verlag of Munich.
The result of research work undertaken by the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute the volume, of which this is the fourth edition, the third having been sold out after publication ten years ago, has always been regarded as a standard on the subject.
According to a report on the book by the Jewish press Committee, published in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, influential liberal daily, the new edition deals also with the Nazi racial theories.
But this part of the Work, which is covered by Prof. Lenz, while it gives evidence of great pains having been taken to do justice to the present official German ideology, nevertheless does not sacrifice scientific self-respect.
In what is described as an outstanding example of this attitude, a chapter titled simply “The Jews” presents conclusions and a point of view held unique in present day anti-Semitic Germany.
Militant anti-Semitic books are mentioned as sources for this chapter books which formerly never were to be mentioned in serious scientific writings, the report states. But the author also gives facts taken from Jewish publications, it adds.
Introducing this chapter, Prof. Lenz cautions that one should not underestimate an adversary, intellectually or morally. In this spirit while noting the Jews’ faults, the author credits them with great spiritual powers and strong will.
According to Prof. Lenz, the Jewish spirit, next to the Germanic, has been one of the fundamental powers in bringing about modern civilization.
“If it were possible to isolate the most intelligent one hundredth part of the German population,” Prof. Lenz writes, “this part would, of course, stand above the Jews intellectually. However, according to my opinion, it cannot be denied that the average Jew possesses a higher intelligence than the average German.”
Continuing in this vein, heretical according to Nazi ideology, Dr. Lenz declares:
“Jews are more strongly represented in the various fields of science than their percentage within the population warrants. Of all the Nobel prize winners for physics, chemistry and medicine up to 1933 there were eleven Jews and five half-Jews. This is about ten per cent of all Nobel prize awards, a figure which towers high above the percentage of Jews in all countries.
“Further, it cannot be denied that traits of genius are to be found among Jews, genius in the sense of higher and creative intuition. I remind the reader of Heinrich Hertz, the discoverer of electric waves. Present day radio and wireless are found on his work. In general it must be stated that in the world of learning and sciences the Jews have taken a more important role in shaping and transmitting facts than in the fundamental creative work.”
Other conclusions presented by Dr. Lenz are:
That criminality is lower among Jews than among the other parts of the German population.
That Jews have an outspoken family sense, strong community feeling and are active in charitable endeavors.
That Germans and Jews have much in common intellectually. Both have great spiritual powers and both are possessed of a strong will. Both are endowed with much self-reliance and initiative, and both show a strong urge to rule. The difference is that the German is more inclined to reach his aim by feasible means, the French craftiness. As far as business abilities are concerned, the Jews easily find their masters in Nordic Hanseats, Scots and Yankees.
That the Nordic race leads humanity intellectually, but certain Near-Eastern-Oriental elements among the Jews hold the same place in many fields, if not a higher one.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
