Tool used to classify eye color in racial studies conducted in Nazi Germany
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 0.625 inches (1.588 cm) | Width: 2.125 inches (5.398 cm) | Depth: 5.125 inches (13.018 cm)
Creator(s)
- Rudolf Martin (Designer)
- J. F. Lehmanns Verlag (Manufacturer)
- Bruno K. Schultz (Designer)
Biographical History
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.
Archival History
The eye color tool was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017 by Friedrich Rösing.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Dr. Friedrich Rösing
Scope and Content
Tool for systematically identifying eye color, used as part of eugenics studies conducted in Nazi-controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945. The original was designed in approximately 1910 by Swiss Anthropologist, Dr. Rudolf Martin, for use in the field to classify the relative “whiteness” of “mixed-race” people according to the color of their irises. In order to improve perceived functionality, the tool was redesigned twice by fellow anthropologists: Dr. Karl Saller in the early 1920s and Dr. Bruno K. Schultz in 1930. Many supporters linked eugenics, often referred to as racial hygiene, to race, and believed that “race mixing,” modern medicine, keeping the “unfit” alive to reproduce, and costly welfare programs hindered natural selection and would lead to the biological “degeneration” of society. These ideas and practices began to inform government policy, and were absorbed into the ideology and platform of the newly formed Nazi Party during the 1920s. Following Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933, a politically extreme, antisemitic variation of eugenics shaped Nazi policies and permeated German society and institutions. These policies touted the “Nordic race” as its eugenic ideal, and made efforts to exclude anyone deemed hereditarily “less valuable” or “racially foreign,” including Jews, “Slavs, Roma (gypsies), and blacks.” Racial hygiene studies assigned individuals to state-defined races, ranked from “superior” to “inferior,” based on family genealogies, anthropometric measurements, and intelligence tests. Many German physicians and scientists, who had supported racial hygiene ideas before 1933, embraced the Nazi emphasis on biology and heredity, in order to take advantage of new career opportunities and additional funding for research. Others that opposed the Nazi ideologies regarding racial hygiene often found themselves removed from posts, forced out of the field, driven to emigrate, or imprisoned in concentration camps.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Rectangular, silver-colored metal box containing 20 domed, clear glass eyes with irises tinted in a range of colors, set into the interior surfaces of the equally sized base and lid. The exterior of the box is likely nickel-plated with rounded corners, a hinge at one short end, and a hinged, tab-shaped latch at the other. The interior of the lid and base each support 10 eyes, arranged in two columns of five, set into circular holes cut into the surface of a dull metal panel, likely aluminum. When the box is fully open, this arrangement creates two columns of 10 eyes arranged in a chromatic gradient that places the blue, gray, and green shades on the left and the brown shades on the right. A small number, or number and letter combination, is engraved into the metal surface beneath each eye to identify the color. The left column is arranged from the lightest, least pigmented shade at the top to the darkest, most heavily pigmented at the bottom (1a-6). The right column reverses this arrangement with the lighter shades at the bottom and the darkest at the top (7-16). On the exterior, there are three lines of manufacturing information engraved on the lid, and a discolored, tan paper sticker with typed black text bearing the previous owner’s name on the base. The exterior of the box is scratched throughout and portions of the edges, especially on the base, are a brass color where the plating has worn away from use.
bottom, sticker, printed, black ink : NACHLASS PROF. BAUERMEISTER [Estate of Professor Bauermeister]
People
- Schultz, Bruno Kurt, 1901-
- Martin, Rudolf, 1864-1925.
Subjects
- Munich (Germany)
- Eugenics--Germany--History--20th century.
- Eugenics--History.
- Physicians--Germany.
- National socialism and medicine.
- Human experimentation in medicine--Germany--History--20th century.
- National socialism and science--Germany.
- Science and state--Germany.
- Racism--Germany--History--20th century.
- Germany.
- Genetics.
- Anthropometry--Germany.
Genre
- Equipment.
- Object
- Information Forms