Building Hitler's 'new Europe': Ethnography and racial research in Nazi-occupied Estonia

This article argues that the local discourse concerning the biological health of the Estonian nation was far more attuned to the views of German, and later Nazi racial experts than had previously been assumed. The relatively lax occupation regime introduced by the Nazis in Estonia and the idea of Finno-Ugrian ethnographic order influenced a substantial number of Estonian scientists and scholars to both intellectually and practically contribute to the Nazis radical reshaping of Europe. By advancing racial research and participating in in population transfers, prominant members of the Estonain scientific and academic elite unwittingly contributed to the building of Hitler's New Europe.