Adolf Hitler and the ideology of the Nazi regime were shaped by various influences, including ideas about race, eugenics, and nationalism. A lesser-known but significant factor was how Nazi racial policies were informed and motivated by American practices of racism, segregation, and eugenics in the early 20th century. This connection has been explored by historians such as James Q. Whitman in Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law. American Influence on Nazi Racial Policies Jim Crow Laws and Racial Segregation: Hitler admired the United States’ system of racial segregation under Jim Crow laws, which codified the exclusion and subjugation of African Americans in the southern states. In Mein Kampf, Hitler praised the United States for its immigration restrictions, particularly the 1924 Immigration Act, which severely limited immigration from non-European countries and explicitly prioritized "Nordic" populations. He viewed this as a model for preserving racial purity, something central to Nazi ideology.
Eugenics and Sterilization: The United States was a global leader in the eugenics movement during the early 20th century, advocating for forced sterilizations to prevent the "unfit" from reproducing. By the 1930s, over 30 U.S. states had eugenics laws targeting individuals with disabilities, mental illnesses, and those deemed socially undesirable, including poor and non-white populations. The Nazis borrowed heavily from these policies. In fact, American scientists and legal experts were cited during the development of Nazi sterilization programs, which eventually escalated into the Holocaust's systematic genocide. Manifest Destiny and Racial Hierarchies: Hitler’s concept of Lebensraum (living space) was inspired by the United States’ westward expansion under the ideology of Manifest Destiny. He admired how white settlers displaced and exterminated Indigenous populations to claim land. For Hitler, this provided a precedent for how Germany could colonize Eastern Europe and subjugate Slavic peoples, whom the Nazis deemed racially inferior. Anti-Miscegenation Laws: The U.S. had strict anti-miscegenation laws prohibiting interracial marriage, and these served as a template for the Nuremberg Laws, which banned marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Aryans. Nazi legal scholars studied these American laws closely, seeing them as evidence that racial separation could be enforced through legal systems. Hitler’s Perception of American Racism Hitler’s admiration for American racial policies was grounded in his belief that the United States had successfully institutionalized white supremacy. While he ultimately regarded Americans as racially "impure" due to the presence of non-European populations, he believed the U.S. had taken significant steps toward creating a racially stratified society. This provided both a practical model and ideological validation for his vision of an Aryan-dominated Europe. Key Differences Despite these influences, there were significant differences between American and Nazi racism. American racism was largely built on maintaining economic and social hierarchies, whereas Nazi ideology sought the absolute elimination of entire groups, such as Jews, through genocide. However, the parallels between the two systems highlight how ideas of racial superiority and exclusion circulated globally and were not confined to one country or regime. Legacy The link between American racism and Nazi ideology underscores the global interconnectedness of racial ideas in the 20th century. It also forces a reckoning with the darker aspects of U.S. history and how those policies shaped broader systems of oppression. Recognizing these connections is essential not to conflate the two systems but to understand how systemic racism and eugenics were legitimized and weaponized across national borders.
