SS membership was vetted by a Race Commission judging appearance.

Evidence

Himmler originally selected the candidates of the SS from photographs. Later a Race Commission, before which the applicant had to appear in person, approved or disapproved of his racial appearance. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2697

Categorization

• XREF: The bureaucratic codification of racial appearance judgment is a concrete instance of race-thinking institutionalized — connects to the reader’s race-thinking and statelessness toolkit.
• QUESTION: How did the Race Commission operationalize ‘racial appearance’ — what protocols or physiognomic criteria did they use?