In the late 1930s, [Adof Hitler] ordered the RuSHA to compose new and more stringent criteria for SS candidates. SS Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain) Professor Bruno K. Schultz, a physical anthropologist, transmitted a set of criteria to the RuSHA Racial Commission, before which all prospective SS members had to appear for their final examinations.
Schultz divided his criteria into three parts: racial phenotype, physical condition, and “general bearing.” He aimed his set of values to favor the Nordic type. He listed five racial groupings: “pure Nordic,” “predominantly Nordic or Falic” [Falic = Brunn], “harmonious bastard [cross-breed] with slight Alpine, Dinaric or Mediterranean characteristics,” “bastards of predominantly East Baltic or Alpine origin,” and “bastards of extra-European origin.” Only those in the first three categories were eligible to join the SS.
Schultz also composed a list of nine categories of physical proportion as a guide for the physical examination of SS candidates. Candidates achieving ratings of 6-9 were passed; categories 4 and 5 were only passed after proving “Nordic qualities” in their behavior; while ratings 1-3 were failed. Himmler was adamant that his men be “of well-proportioned build; for instance there must be no disproportion between the lower leg and the thigh or between the legs and the body; otherwise an exceptional bodily effort is required to carry out long marches”. As to “Nordic bearing,” Himmler put it this way: “The point is that in his attitude to discipline the man should not behave like an underling, that his gait, his hands, everything, should correspond to the ideal which we set ourselves”.
No mention was made of intellectual or educational attainments. As Knoebel states: “No moral and intellectual achievement was refined to qualify as a Herrenmensch [a man born to be master].” explains why this had to be the case:
“Certainly the SS never could have been developed along educational or social lines. The only criterion which could serve as a uniting bond was to establish the new elite along the lines of racial selection. This would make the Schutzstaffel [SS] attractive to ambitious upstarts as well as promise continued membership in the new elite to upper bourgeoisie and especially the nobility.”
Alcoholics were rejected or expelled, as Knoebel makes clear: “Others, who qualified superbly according to the racial charts by the commission, were dismissed because they were found incapable of controlling their consumption of alcohol.” On December 31, 1931 Himmler issued a marriage law for SS men which stated that they could marry “solely if the necessary conditions of race and healthy stock were fulfilled” and only after approval by him or by RuSHA. The SS man and his fiancee had to fill out a RuSHA questionnaire, take a comprehensive physical examination administered by an SS doctor, provide photographs of themselves in bathing suits taken from three angles, and submit proof of Aryan ancestry back to 1800 (for officers, back to 1750). (The term “Aryan” as used in National Socialist laws and regulations denoted a person of non-Jewish European origin.) RuSHA would determine if both prospective spouses deserved to be entered into the SS clan book; in the case of SS leaders, Himmler would make the decision personally. To quote this order:
1. The SS is a formation of German men in the Nordic mold .
2. In keeping with National Socialist ideology and cognizant that our national future depends upon the selection and preservation of racially and hereditarily good stock, I am introducing a “marriage permit” for all single members of the SS.
3. The intended aim is (to produce) a valuable clan of German stock in the Nordic mound.
4. The marriage permit will be granted or refused solely on grounds of race and hereditary health.
5. Every SS man who intends to marry must obtain a marriage permit from the Reichsfuehrer-SS.
6. SS members who marry notwithstanding the refusal of a marriage permit will be expelled from the SS.
7. The relevant processing of marriage applications will be the task of the Racial Bureau of the SS.
8. The Racial Bureau of the SS will keep the “Clan Book of the SS,” in which the families of SS members will be entered after a marriage permit has been issued or a request for registration granted.
Jochen van Lang has reproduced the actual SS medical examination form as it stood in late 1939. It was designed to be employed for both male and female applicants. The examination was divided into five sections: “Permission for Disclosure,” “Past History of Family,” “Past Medical Treatment,” “Personal History,” and “General Findings of Examination.” Under “Past History of Family,” the only category of interest here is “precise data on chronic diseases, i.e., endocrine disturbances, allergies, alcoholism.” Family members included children, parents, siblings, children of siblings, and grandparents. Under “Personal History,” there was a question about “Mental development (schooling, career training, delinquency if any),” on which the candidate had only to secure a rating of “normal” (average), and two questions on “Character development” and “Noteworthy special giftedness.”
Section 5 was the most detailed and significant. It included a whole series of anthropometric and somatotypic measurements, as well as points on “Bearing and stride,” coloration of skin and eyes, coloration and texture of hair, and presence or absence of the Mongolian fold (inner epicanthic eyefold). The racial diagnosis followed, and then a long list of meticulous medical determinations. For women, the listing “Capability to bear children” appeared, and for men “Reproductive capability.” The nebulous listing “Degree of talent” followed, but could be passed simply by a rating of “normal.” Next followed the question, “Does the subject of the examination make a credible and frank impression?” Finally, the form requested a “Summary judgment on suitability for marriage,” and four questions were asked: “Total impression”; “Is perpetuation in racial/national sense desirable?”; “Are any conditions present that would affect medical opinion to contraindicate advisability of entering into a pregnancy?”; and “Is the subject now pregnant?” The rest of the form largely contained standard medical questions, although in greater number, detail, and specificity than one would normally expect.
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“The ultimate aim for those 11 years during which I have been the Reichsfuehrer SS has been invariably the same: to create an order of good blood which is able to serve Germany; which unfailingly and without sparing itself can be made use of because the greatest losses can do no harm to the vitality of this order, the vitality of these men, because they will always be replaced; to create an order which will spread the idea of Nordic blood so far that we will attract all Nordic blood in the world, take away the blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again, looking at it from the viewpoint of grand policy, Nordic blood, in great quantities and to an extent worth mentioning, will fight against us.”
– Heinrich Himmler
This was mentioned in passing in Robert Harris’ book ‘Fatherland’ in which a main character was categorised as ‘harmonious bastard’ and led him to be more vociferous in his claim to Nazihood, than those of a higher classification, who, by accident of birth, didn’t need to justify their position.
Fatherland is stupid and badly written fiction. There were two categories in the Third Reich: Aryan and non-Aryan. Germans didn’t walk around with their racial classifications (Nordic, Dinaric, Alpine, etc.) noted in their papers. Contrary to popular belief, you didn’t have to be racially Nordic to join the S.S. And you didn’t have to be a blue-eyed blond either. However, you did have to go back further in time to provide evidence that you didn’t have Jewish ancestry.
Harris’s whole premise is beyond ridiculous. The novel is about the victorious “Nazis” desperately trying to cover up the Holocau$t (TM) (a term invented in the ’70s, by the way) just before the Führer meets with the American President Joseph Kennedy in the early ’60s. If we accep for a minute the sandard Holocau$t (TM) narrative (i.e., bullshit “history”), the Holocau$t (TM) would be a moot point (or of no geopolitical consequence) in a world dominated by the Axis Powers. Just as Nixon didn’t care that Mao killed 50 million of the Chinese and met with him anyways (or just as Truman didn’t object to chatting face to face with Stalin), it’s doubtful whether the Holocau$t (TM) would’ve kept Joe Kennedy from meeting with Adolf Hitler in Berlin (the world’s most powerful man in that scenario). And even if he didn’t want to meet with him, so what? A nuclear Third Reich in control of Eurasia could live very well without the friendship of an American administration.