Resisting Nazi Racism in Post-Habsburg Spaces: Connecting the Debates in Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Yugoslavia in the Early 1930s

Abstract

After the Nazis rose to power in Germany, post-Habsburg Central Europe became a major site of resistance against Nazi racial theories. So far, historians have treated these voices as isolated cases. My paper focuses on several texts discussing race, racism, and eugenics that were written in Czechoslovakia in the early 1930s. I contextualize these texts and trace their circulation in post-Habsburg spaces, particularly in Yugoslavia and Austria. Mapping the publications of individuals such as Hugo Iltis, Vladislav Růžička, Mirko Kus-Nikolajev, Božo Škerlj, Irene Harand, and Viktor Lebzelter, I demonstrate that these initiatives were entangled and enabled by shared knowledge and networks. Crucially, I argue that Habsburg imperial legacies played a vital role in making these exchanges possible.