Larry Lewallen book links Jim Crow to Nazi racial law

Larry Lewallen’s new book argues that Nazi lawyers studied American Jim Crow statutes, eugenics programs and race science when building the Nuremberg Laws. The documented history follows that connection from slavery’s end through the Holocaust and into the present.

Why it matters: - The book argues that U.S. racial systems were not only a domestic injustice, but also part of the legal and intellectual background that informed Nazi racial policy. - The central claim links American segregation, eugenics and race science to the Nuremberg Laws, adding a transatlantic dimension to how the Holocaust is studied and remembered. - The work also pushes readers to reconsider how postwar memory can omit uncomfortable American influence.

What happened: - Larry Lewallen published FROM JIM CROW TO NUREMBERG: America’s Contribution to the Nazi Holocaust, a documented historical account. - The book examines the relationship between America’s racial regime and the legal architecture of the Third Reich. - Lewallen places the history of slavery’s end, Jim Crow, eugenics and Nazi racial policy in one continuous narrative. - The book is available now on Barnes & Noble as the full listing.

The details: - The book says Nazi lawyers studying the Nuremberg Laws looked to American Jim Crow statutes as a template. - It also says those lawyers studied U.S. eugenics programs and race science while drafting Third Reich legislation. - Lewallen treats Jim Crow, eugenics and race science as connected tools of racial governance rather than separate topics. - The book follows the story from slavery’s end through the Holocaust and extends the timeline to the present. - The closing section catalogs 38 ethnic cleansings since 1830. - The catalog broadens the book’s frame beyond the United States and Nazi Germany to a longer record of organized violence against ethnic populations.

Between the lines: - The book’s argument challenges a common separation between U.S. racial history and Nazi racial law. - Its focus on documentation and institutional patterns fits Lewallen’s background in military service, manufacturing, healthcare and federal leadership. - The framing suggests the book is as much about historical memory as it is about legal history.

What's next: - Lewallen is offering review copies, interviews and additional information through BrightKey PR. - The book is his second title, following the novel The Unraveling. - Lewallen, a U.S. Army veteran and retired Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, lives in Columbus, Georgia, with his wife, Barbara.

The bottom line: - The book argues that America’s racial past helped shape Nazi racial law, and that the historical record of that influence has been underestimated.