Name Otto Reche | ||
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Education Humboldt University of Berlin Born 24 May 1879 (age 86) Died March 23, 1966 (aged 86), Groshansdorf, Germany | ||
Otto Carl Reche (24 May 1879 – 23 March 1966) was a Nazi German anthropologist and professor from Glatz (Kłodzko), Prussian Silesia. He was active in researching whether there was a correlation between blood types and race. During the Second World War he openly advocated the genocide of ethnic Poles. Once a member of the Nazi Party, he remained active in anthropological issues following the downfall of Nazi Germany.
Contents
- Education and career
- Blood type research and conclusions
- Support for genocide of Poles
- Life after the war
- References
Education and career
Reche was educated at the University of Breslau (now the University of Wrocław), the University of Jena and the University of Berlin.
In his career, Reche served as the director of the Departments of Anthropology at the University of Vienna and then the University of Leipzig, and also taught at the University of Hamburg. Among the organizations he was involved in were the Nazi Party and the German Society for Blood Group Research (which he founded along with Paul Steffan). In 1928, Reche and Steffan founded Zeitschrift für Rassenphysiologie, a magazine on the subject.
Blood type research and conclusions
Reche's work with blood types, involving studies in northwestern Germany, was an attempt to prove a correlation between which blood type a person had and whether they were of German ancestry. He claimed that the three blood types, A, B, and O, were each originally attached to European, Asian, and Native American races, but that interracial marriage had diluted this over the centuries.
Support for genocide of Poles
During Second World War Otto Reche became director of Institute for Racial and Ethnic Sciences in Lipsk. In this position he wrote about ethnic Poles that they "unfortunate mixture" consisting among others of Slavs, Balts and Mongolians, and they should be eliminated to avoid possible mixing with German race When Germany invaded Poland he wrote "We need Raum(space), but no Polish lice on our fur"
Life after the war
On April 16, 1945, Reche was arrested by American forces for membership in the Nazi Party but was released after sixteen months of detainment.
In 1959, Reche was chosen by a German court investigating the claims of Anna Anderson that she was Anastasia Nikolaevna, a Russian royal thought to have been murdered along with the rest of the royal family. He concluded that Anna Anderson was either the Grand Duchess herself or an identical twin. After Anderson's death, however, it was concluded based on DNA evidence that she was not Anastasia.
Reche died near Hamburg in 1966.