In the Dutch national daily Trouw, Wednesday 4 February 1998, the editor for Education, Edwin Kreulen, a former student at the The Hague Waldorf school, wrote a long article, "My education towards racism".
Edwin Kreulen:
"According to page 1 of my [Waldorf] exercise book, all races originate from a kind of primeval man, who lived ten thousand years ago in the central continent of Atlantis; which, however, had to perish 'because of abuse of the divine wisdom. On the bottom of the sea, one can still find the remains of this continent as a long extensive reef'.
... 'With the first Southern races, the natural forces of earth and sun have worked to blacken their skins. With the Northern races, the inner forces of light became stronger, which made them whites.' 'The races became stuck at different stages in their development from childhood to old age.' Then comes a classification, linking the black race to childhood, the brown race to a fourteen year old, and the whites to all ages ...
In this very chart, I thought the linking with parts of the body was as least as remarkable. According to the exercise book, each race corresponds to a part of the human body. Senses and brains are linked to whites, metabolism to blacks. And only the white person has a straight face. Eg, the yellow race has 'slanted eyes, a hollow face, flat nose, and coarse black hair.'
Next, the exercise book discusses all races individually; except for us, the whites, for we obviously know about that already. ... 'All negroes still keep a childish expression on their faces for a long time. The lips are shapeless and thick, the nose somewhat flat and not yet grown up in a sense.' ... 'Their ["negroes"'] stories, their views on the world and creation are somewhat childish. In childish simplicity they worship their gods.' The chapter on the black race concludes: 'After being dominated for centuries, the negroes are now developing on their own; however, this goes with big problems and bloody wars.'
In my class, there was not a single non-European pupil. Usually, children of more highly educated and more affluent Europeans go to Waldorf school. So, I think: how would things be, had we had a black class mate, making it possible for us to test directly the theory, whether he really had 'a childish expression' on his face?
At a certain point, my defense of the school changes into pure anger. How dare they indoctrinate me with this? And why did the government and its inspectorate of education, not finish this? An anger, which only increases, when today Anthroposophists, including a former teacher, keep defending this by hook and by crook."