The Anthropology Of Genocide - WNLibrary

justifying genocide 101
Figure 4.2. Diagram Showing the Origins and Diffusion of the Swastika as a Symbol
(after Lechler 1934). The central position of the Germanic “core area” and the subsidiary
role of the Mediterranean world are clearly indicated here. This relationship is repeated
in other contexts as well; this is just one example.
the founder of the Holy Roman Empire. He was frequently vilified by the National
Socialists for his campaigns against the tribes in northern Germany, which earned
him the sobriquet “Carl the Saxon Slaughterer.” As Charlemagne, he was a potent
national symbol for the French, yet another reason for his disapprobation by the
Nazi Party. In Figure 4.1, the period beginning with Charlemagne’s crowning as
Holy Roman Emperor is designated by the entries Fränkische Eroberung (Frankish
Conquest) and Überfremdung (Foreign Infiltration). The link between “non-Nordic”
political domination and genetic adulteration is made quite explicit here.
All of these cultural phases witnessed the movement of peoples into and out of
west-central Europe; neither the linguistic nor the archaeological records show any
evidence of “Germanic” peoples until the end of the last of these cultural phases,
the late Iron Age. The “renaming” of these cultural phases by National Socialist prehistorians
then was ideologically and politically significant. The denial of cultural or
genetic change is an example of what has been called “pseudo-” or “social speciation”
(Erikson 1996:53). This is one of the preconditions of genocide, as well as other
forms of intraspecies violence. In the words of Kai Erikson: “At its worst...social
speciation is a process by which one people manages to neutralize the humanity of
another to such an extent that the inhibitions which normally prevent creatures of
the same species from killing one another wantonly are relaxed” (1996:55). The Ger