Among the most interesting addresses delivered at the World Jewish Conference, and escaping notice for a time because of the press of other matters, was that made by Dr. Zollschan, who had been invited to attend the conference as an expert on racial questions.
Dr. Zollschan in his speech assailed the Nazi doctrine of race, aserting that it “hits us Jews far more even than the cruel deprivation of our rights in Germany.”
“It is a question of the honor of our blood, our teaching and our history. For the sake of our liberty and human dignity we must bring these race libelers before a forum, which shall fulfill the most exacting conditions of scientific reliability and objectivity.”
The race theory, Dr. Zollschan contented, is not racial research and anthropology, as is generally and erroneously believed.
FRAGILE PREMISES
Calling the Nazi racial philosophy “a cosmogony established upon premises every one of which is fragile,” he declared:
“Even though we are aware of the limited origin of the anti-Semitic motive in this doctrine, we must recognize that it has become the dominant idea with a large nation, and is accepted by intellectuals as the last word in science, and taken up by the masses with all the fervor of a religious duty.
“From these first principles this doctrine seeks to raise itself to command over everyone and everything in the world. This insolent scientific claim corresponds, within the political realm, to a ruthless and demoralizing desire for power.”
Race philosophy, race research and anthropology all have identical meaning in official Germany at the present time, Dr. Zollschan said.
“The content of this doctrine is briefly the following:
“At all times and in all places there has been and is only one race of men, to which can be traced all the real cultural contributions recorded by the history of mankind.
“All creative and organizational energy emanate from this one source. Even the present distribution of power and expansion of civilization have their origin in that unique phenomenon of a single race-bound cultural capacity.
SOLE SURVIVOR OF AGES
“It alone has survived from earliest times, and every great historical epoch has been identified with its reappearance. Its migration and the contribution of its strains coicided with the rise of peoples. A withdrawal of its strains explains the sterility of races and the dissolution of ancient cultures.
“The mission of the Nordic race is, therefore, the conservation of its potentialities and preservation from any racial mixing, which would threaten the cultural capacities of mankind, whose sole guarantee it is.
“The practical conclusions of this doctrine we are unfortunately experiencing in Germany’s internal policy of recent years.
“The self-edification of its own race has taken as opposing principle the Jew, supposed to represent everything unworthy and destructive. For, according to this judgment, the Jew cannot even be considered as an inferior race, but as a mixture of heterogeneous race elements….
“This heterogeneity of its constitution cannot help working itself out in a destructive manner.”
The race theory, the speaker said, originally was merely to explain hitherto evolution but today “has broken violently into the field of practical politics.”
He urged that the investigation planned to be undertaken by the International Anthropological Congress into the basic principles of the theory, under the auspices of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, be given full support.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
