The ugly irony is that when the Nazis rejected American law, it was often because they found it too harsh. At a crucial 1934 planning meeting for the Nuremberg system, the Minister of Justice presented a memorandum on American law. According to a transcript, he led a detailed discussion of miscegenation statutes from all over the United States. Of course the Nazis did not simply do a cut-and-paste job, in part because much of American law avoided open racism. And we must not forget how tenaciously the racist rulebook that the Nazis admired held on in the United States.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 22, 2017 12:00 UTC