New edition, completely reset and contains the full text of these two essays which first appeared in the pages of the Forschungen Zur Judenfrage series of volumes prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.
Written by two of Germany's most prominent biologists, the essays analyze the origin and nature of the Jewish people from a historical and biological perspective.
Drawing heavily upon racial anthropology, the authors conclude that the Jews are a composite race, although always still strongly showing a common genetic base.
Fischer shows how the Jews were created in Palestine from four sources: the Orientalid race as its main component, the Mediterranean race as an admixture, the Near Eastern race as a strong second component, and Nordic elements mixed in now and then.
Verschuer provides a detailed anthropological description of Jews, including susceptibility to disease, mental traits (Jews are twice as likely to be schizophrenics), and other psychological traits--such as for example, their much lower drug and alcohol addiction rates.
Verschuer also discusses the evidence for negroid admixture among Jews, and ultimately agrees with Fischer's analysis, pointing out that the consistency of the mix creates certain dominant traits "which are the inherent chief components of the racial mixture."
Finally, Verschuer points out that the selective process to which Jews were subjected "stamped a whole, particular race with quite specific racial traits of a physical as well as mental-psychological kind."
