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Nizer On What To Do With Germany
Nizer On What To Do With Germany
York: Ziff Davis Publ., 1944). I found it in the early 1980s among books being
discarded by the Wayne public library. The dust jacket reported the approving
comments of, among others, Senator Harry S. Truman: "Louis Nizer's book
'What To Do With Germany' is one of the most fascinating and informative books
I have ever read. Everyone in this country should read it." Interested to see what
was being written about Germany in the US as WW II was approaching its close,
I opened the book to find the following (pp. 3-4):
We still shudder at the hanging or electrocution of a convicted murderer. But
we lull our squeamish sensibilities by citing the religious doctrine, "An eye for an
eye--" and justify the punishment as a deterrent to others. . . . [Some], stirred to
consuming hatred by German brutalities, suggest that they be destroyed as a race
by eugenic sterilization.
They argue that if compulsory serum treatments are justified by their
benefits to the community, sterilization of the German people might similarly be
considered a protective measure to immunize the world forever against the virus of
Germanism. They point out that the surgical procedure is simple, painless and does
not even deprive the patient of normal instincts, or their gratification [i.e., sex].
Vasectomy, the operation on the male, simply requires a slight incision since the
sperm duct lies just beneath the skin. The operation takes only ten minutes to
perform and the patient may resume work immediately afterwards. Ligation of the
fallopian tubes, the operation which renders the female sterile, is more difficult but
not much more dangerous.
There are about 50 million German men and women within the procreation
ages, and it is estimated that twenty thousand surgeons performing about twentyfive operations [apiece] daily could sterilize the entire male population of Germany
within three months and the entire female population in less than three years. At
the normal death rate of two per cent per annum or one and a half million people
yearly, the German people would practically disappear within two generations.
Nizer did not advocate this draconian measure: he went on to propose a
combination of education and forced constitutional reform. But his presentation
of the above horrifying proposal implies that there were those in the United States
in 1944 who were supporting such proposals.
The following excerpt is from the introduction to Ernest Hemingway, Men at War: The
Best War Stories of All Time (New York, 1942), pp. xxiii-xxiv. I thank the
student who brought this passage to my attention. Note that Hemingway at least
does not seem to be advocating the sterilization of all Germans--just those
belonging to Nazi organizations--although the last line gives pause for thought.
Once a nation has entered into a policy of foreign wars, there is no withdrawing. If you
do not go to them then they will come to you. It was April, 1917 that ended our
isolation--it was not Pearl Harbor. When this war is won, though, Germany should be so
effectively destroyed that we should not have to fight her again for a hundred years, or, if
it is done well enough, forever.
This can probably only be done by sterilization. This act can be accomplished by
an operation little more painful than vaccination and as easily made compulsory. All
members of Nazi party organizations should be submitted to it if we are ever to have a
peace that is to be anything more than a breathing space between wars. . . . It is not wise
to advocate sterilization now as a government or allied policy since it can only cause
increased resistance. So I do not advocate it. I oppose it. But it is the only ultimate
settlement.
In the days before Hitler and Geo-politik, Clemenceau once remarked that the
Germans were a wonderful people, the only trouble was there were forty million too
many of them. The Russians, in the last two years, have reduced the numbers of
Germans greatly. If things go as planned in the next two years, this reduction of
population will be greatly increased by ourselves. But the reduction of population of a
country by war is like pruning a tree. The roots and the seed must be destroyed if there is
ever to be any lasting peace in Europe. The answer to the Nazi claim that Germans are a
superior race and other races shall be slaves is to say, and mean it, "We will take your
race and wipe it out."