Nazism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Nationalism and racialism === {{further|Nazism and race|Racial policy of Nazi Germany}} Nazism emphasised German nationalism, including both [[irredentism]] and [[expansionism]]. Nazism held racial theories based upon a belief in the existence of an Aryan master race that was superior to all other races. The Nazis emphasised the existence of racial conflict between the Aryan race and others—particularly Jews, whom the Nazis viewed as a mixed race that had infiltrated multiple societies and was responsible for exploitation and repression of the Aryan race. The Nazis also categorised [[Slavs]] as ''[[Untermensch]]'' (sub-human).<ref>Steve Thorne. ''The Language of War''. London: Routledge, 2006, p. 38. {{ISBN|978-0-415-35867-5}}</ref> Wolfgang Bialas argues that the Nazis' sense of morality could be described as a form of procedural [[virtue ethics]], as it demanded unconditional obedience to absolute virtues with the attitude of social engineering and replaced common sense intuitions with an ideological catalogue of virtues and commands. The ideal Nazi new man was to be race-conscious and an ideologically dedicated warrior who would commit actions for the sake of the German race while at the same time convinced he was doing the right thing and acting morally. The Nazis believed an individual could only develop their capabilities and individual characteristics within the framework of the individual's racial membership; the race one belonged to determined whether or not one was worthy of moral care. The Christian concept of [[self-denial]] was to be replaced with the idea of self-assertion towards those deemed inferior. Natural selection and the struggle for existence were declared by the Nazis to be the most divine laws; peoples and individuals deemed inferior were said to be incapable of surviving without those deemed superior, yet by doing so they imposed a burden on the superior. Natural selection was deemed to favour the strong over the weak and the Nazis deemed that protecting those declared inferior was preventing nature from taking its course; those incapable of asserting themselves were viewed as doomed to annihilation, with the right to life being granted only to those who could survive on their own.<ref>Bialas, Wolfgang, and Lothar Fritze, eds. ''Nazi Ideology and Ethics.'' Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, pp. 15–57 {{ISBN|978-1443854221}}</ref> ==== Irredentism and expansionism ==== {{further|Lebensraum}} [[File:Bundesarchiv R 49 Bild-0131, Aussiedlung von Polen im Wartheland.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|left|Beginning of ''Lebensraum'', the [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|Nazi German expulsion of Poles]] from [[Reichsgau Wartheland|central Poland]], 1939]] At the core of the Nazi ideology was the bio-geo-political project to acquire ''[[Lebensraum]]'' ("living space") through territorial conquests.<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |title=Hitler's Geographies: The Spatialities of the Third Reich |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-226-27442-3 |editor-last=Giaccaria, Minca |editor-first=Paolo, Claudio |location=Chicago, USA |pages=37 |chapter=1: For a Tentative Spatial Theory of the Third Reich}}</ref> The German Nazi Party supported German irredentist claims to Austria, [[Alsace-Lorraine]], the region of [[Sudetenland]], and the territory known since 1919 as the [[Polish Corridor]]. A major policy of the German Nazi Party was ''Lebensraum'' for the German nation based on claims that Germany after World War I was facing an overpopulation crisis and that expansion was needed to end the country's overpopulation within existing confined territory, and provide resources necessary to its people's well-being.<ref name="Stephen J. Lee 1945, p. 237">Stephen J. Lee. ''Europe, 1890–1945'', p. 237. {{ISBN?}}</ref> Since the 1920s, the Nazi Party publicly promoted the expansion of Germany into territories held by the Soviet Union.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31">Peter D. Stachura. ''The Shaping of the Nazi State'', p. 31.</ref> In ''Mein Kampf'', Hitler stated that ''Lebensraum'' would be acquired in Eastern Europe, especially Russia.<ref>Joseph W. Bendersk, A History of Nazi Germany: 1919–1945, p. 177</ref> In his early years as the Nazi leader, Hitler had claimed that he would be willing to accept friendly relations with Russia on the tactical condition that Russia agree to return to the borders established by the German–Russian peace agreement of the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] signed by [[Grigori Sokolnikov]] of the [[Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic|Russian Soviet Republic]] in 1918 which gave large territories held by Russia to German control in exchange for peace.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31"/> In 1921, Hitler had commended the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as opening the possibility for restoration of relations between Germany and Russia by saying: [[File:Trial of the Nazis of the Klaipėda Region – priest Theodor Freiherr von Sass, veterinarian Ernst Neumann, and others in Kaunas, 1935.jpg|thumb|The [[Trial of Neumann and Sass|first trial of the Nazis in Europe]], which took place in [[Kaunas]] in 1935. The accused claimed that the [[Klaipėda Region]] should be part of Germany, not [[Lithuania]], and spread propaganda, prepared for an armed uprising.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gliožaitis |first1=Algirdas |title=Neumanno-Sasso byla |trans-title= The Case of Neumann-Sass |url=https://www.mle.lt/straipsniai/neumanno-sasso-byla |website=Mažosios Lietuvos enciklopedija |access-date=12 February 2022 |language=lt}}</ref>]] {{blockquote|Through the peace with Russia the sustenance of Germany as well as the provision of work were to have been secured by the acquisition of land and soil, by access to raw materials, and by friendly relations between the two lands.|Adolf Hitler<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31"/>}} From 1921 to 1922, Hitler evoked rhetoric of both the achievement of ''Lebensraum'' involving the acceptance of a territorially reduced Russia as well as supporting [[Russian nationalism|Russian nationalists]] in overthrowing the [[Bolsheviks]] and establishing a new [[White movement|White Russian]] government.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31"/> Hitler's attitudes changed by the end of 1922, in which he then supported an alliance of Germany with Britain to destroy Russia.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31"/> Hitler later declared how far he intended to expand Germany into Russia: {{blockquote|Asia, what a disquieting reservoir of men! The safety of Europe will not be assured until we have driven Asia back behind the Urals. No organized Russian state must be allowed to exist west of that line.|Adolf Hitler<ref name="André Mineau 2004, p. 36">André Mineau. ''Operation Barbarossa: Ideology and Ethics Against Human Dignity''. Rodopi, 2004, p. 36</ref>}} {{quote box | title = Hitler's doctrine of ''Lebensraum''|"For the future of the German nation the 1914 frontiers are of no significance. They did not serve to protect us in the past, nor do they offer any guarantee for our defence in the future. With these frontiers the [[German people]] cannot maintain themselves as a compact unit, nor can they be assured of their maintenance. ... Against all this we, National Socialists, must stick firmly to the aim that we have set for our foreign policy; namely, that the German people must be assured the territorial area which is necessary for it to exist on this earth. ... The right to territory may become a duty when a great nation seems destined to go under unless its territory be extended. And that is particularly true when the nation in question is not some little group of negro people but the Germanic mother of all the life which has given cultural shape to the modern world." | author = — [[Adolf Hitler]] | source = — ("''[[Mein Kampf]]''", Volume 2, Chapter 14: "Germany's policy in Eastern Europe")<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hitler |first=Adolf |date=1939 |title=Mein Kampf |publisher=Hurst & Blackett Ltd.|chapter= XIV: Germany's policy in Eastern Europe|pages=498, 500}}</ref> | align = right | width = 25em }} Policy for ''Lebensraum'' planned mass expansion of Germany's borders to eastwards of the [[Ural Mountains]].<ref name="André Mineau 2004, p. 36"/><ref>[[Rolf-Dieter Müller]], [[Gerd R. Ueberschär]]. ''[[Hitler's War in the East 1941−1945|Hitler's War in the East, 1941–1945: A Critical Assessment]]''. Berghahn Books, 2009, p. 89.</ref> Hitler planned for the "surplus" Russian population living west of the Urals to be deported to the east of the Urals.<ref>Bradl Lightbody. ''The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis''. London; New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 97.{{ISBN?}}</ref> Historian Adam Tooze explains that Hitler believed that lebensraum was vital to securing American-style consumer affluence for the German people. In this light, Tooze argues that the view that the regime faced a "[[Guns versus butter model|guns or butter]]" contrast is mistaken. While it is true that resources were diverted from civilian consumption to military production, Tooze explains that at a strategic level "guns were ultimately viewed as a means to obtaining more butter".{{sfn|Tooze|2008|pp=161–162}} While the Nazi pre-occupation with agrarian living and food production are often seen as a sign of their backwardness, Tooze explains this was in fact a major driving issue in European society for at least the last two centuries. The issue of how European societies should respond to the new [[World economy|global economy]] in food was one of the major issues facing Europe in the early 20th century. Agrarian life in Europe (except perhaps with the exception of Britain) was incredibly common—in the early 1930s, over 9 million Germans (almost a third of the work force) were still working in agriculture and many people not working in agriculture still had small allotments or otherwise grew their own food. Tooze estimates that just over half the German population in the 1930s was living in towns and villages with populations under 20,000 people. Many people in cities still had memories of rural-urban migration—Tooze thus explains that the Nazis obsessions with agrarianism were not an atavistic gloss on a modern industrial nation but a consequence of the fact that Nazism (as both an ideology and as a movement) was the product of a society still in economic transition.{{sfn|Tooze|2008|pp=166–167}} [[File:Europe topography map.png|thumb|upright=1.25|Topographical map of Europe: the Nazi Party declared support for ''[[Drang nach Osten]]'' (expansion of Germany east to the Ural Mountains), that is shown on the upper right side of the map as a brown diagonal line.]] The Nazis obsession with food production was a consequence of the First World War. While Europe was able to avert famine with international imports, blockades brought the issue of [[food security]] back into European politics, the [[Blockade of Germany (1914–1919)|Allied blockade of Germany]] in and after World War I did not cause an outright famine but chronic malnutrition did kill an estimated 600,000 people in Germany and Austria. The economic crises of the interwar period meant that most Germans had memories of acute hunger. Thus Tooze concludes that the Nazis obsession with acquiring land was not a case of "turning back the clock" but more a refusal to accept that the result of the distribution of land, resources and population, which had resulted from the imperialist wars of the 18th and 19th centuries, should be accepted as final. While the victors of the First World War had either suitable agricultural land to population ratios or large empires (or both), allowing them to declare the issue of living space closed, the Nazis, knowing Germany lacked either of these, refused to accept that Germany's place in the world was to be a medium-sized workshop dependent upon imported food.{{sfn|Tooze|2008|pp=167–168}} According to Goebbels, the conquest of ''Lebensraum'' was intended as an initial step<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhEFAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Whoever+dominates+Europe+will+thereby+assume+the+leadership+of+the+world.+%22|title=The Goebbels Diaries, 1942–1943|first=Joseph|last=Goebbels|date=1970|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-8371-3815-2|via=Google Books}}</ref> towards the final goal of Nazi ideology, which was the establishment of complete German global hegemony.<ref name="Weinberg">Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1995) ''Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in modern German and world history'' [[Cambridge University Press]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=9OfrTvu7CNYC&q=world+peace&pg=PA28 p. 36]</ref> [[Rudolf Hess]] relayed to [[Walter Hewel]] Hitler's belief that [[world peace]] could only be acquired "when one power, the [[Racial supremacism|racially best one]], has attained uncontested supremacy". When this control would be achieved, this power could then set up for itself a world police and assure itself "the necessary living space. [...] The lower races will have to restrict themselves accordingly".<ref name="Weinberg"/> ==== Racial theories ==== In its [[Race (human categorization)|racial categorisation]], Nazism viewed what it called the Aryan race as the [[master race]] of the world—a race that was superior to all other races.<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79">George Lachmann Mosse. Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social Life in the Third Reich, p. 79.</ref> It viewed Aryans as being in racial conflict with a mixed race people, the Jews, whom the Nazis identified as a dangerous enemy of the Aryans. It also viewed a number of other peoples as dangerous to the well-being of the Aryan race. In order to preserve the perceived racial purity of the Aryan race, a set of race laws was introduced in 1935 which came to be known as the Nuremberg Laws. At first these laws only prevented sexual relations and marriages between Germans and Jews, but they were later extended to the "[[Romani people|Gypsies]], [[Black people|Negroes]], and their bastard offspring", who were described by the Nazis as people of "alien blood".<ref name=RGallately>{{cite book |author=S.H. Milton |chapter="Gypsies" as social outsiders in Nazi Germany|title=Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany |editor1=Robert Gellately |editor2=Nathan Stoltzfus |year=2001 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-08684-2 |pages=216, 231}}</ref><ref name="Burleigh1991">{{cite book |author=Michael Burleigh |title=The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945 |date=1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-39802-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/racialstate00mich/page/49 49] |url=https://archive.org/details/racialstate00mich/page/49}}</ref> Such relations between Aryans (cf. [[Aryan certificate]]) and non-Aryans were now punishable under the race laws as ''[[Rassenschande]]'' or "race defilement".<ref name=RGallately /> After the war began, the race defilement law was extended to include all foreigners (non-Germans).{{sfn|Majer|2003|p=180}} At the bottom of the racial scale of non-Aryans were Jews, Romanis, Slavs<ref name="Mineau, André 2004 p. 180">Mineau, André (2004). ''Operation Barbarossa: Ideology and Ethics Against Human Dignity''. Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, p. 180. {{ISBN|90-420-1633-7}}.</ref> and blacks.<ref name="Simone Gigliotti 2005. Pp. 14">Simone Gigliotti, Berel Lang. ''The Holocaust: a reader''. Malden, MA; Oxford, England; Carlton, Victoria, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 2005, p. 14.</ref> To maintain the "purity and strength" of the Aryan race, the Nazis eventually sought to [[Genocide|exterminate]] Jews, Romani, Slavs and the [[Physical disability|physically]] and [[Developmental disability|mentally disabled]].<ref name="Mineau, André 2004 p. 180"/><ref name="Simone Gigliotti 2005, p. 14"/> Other groups deemed "[[Social degeneration|degenerate]]" and "[[Asociality|asocial]]" who were not targeted for extermination, but were subjected to [[Social exclusion|exclusionary treatment]] by the Nazi state, included [[Homosexuality|homosexuals]], [[Black people in Nazi Germany|blacks]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] and political opponents.<ref name="Simone Gigliotti 2005, p. 14"/> One of Hitler's ambitions at the start of the war was to [[Generalplan Ost|exterminate, expel or enslave]] most or all Slavs from [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] in order to acquire [[Lebensraum|living space]] for German settlers.<ref name="google"/> [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-16748, Ausstellung "Wunder des Lebens".jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|A "poster information" from the exhibition "''Miracle of Life''" in Berlin in 1935]] A Nazi-era school textbook for German students entitled ''Heredity and Racial Biology for Students'' written by Jakob Graf described to students the Nazi conception of the Aryan race in a section titled "The Aryan: The Creative Force in Human History".<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79"/> Graf claimed that the original Aryans developed from Nordic peoples who invaded [[Ancient India]] and launched the initial development of Aryan culture there that later spread to [[ancient Persia]] and he claimed that the Aryan presence in Persia was what was responsible for its development into an empire.<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79"/> He claimed that [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek culture]] was developed by Nordic peoples due to paintings of the time which showed Greeks who were tall, light-skinned, light-eyed, blond-haired people.<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79"/> He said that the [[Roman Empire]] was developed by the [[Italic peoples|Italics]] who were related to the [[Celts]] who were also a Nordic people.<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79"/> He believed that the vanishing of the Nordic component of the populations in Ancient Greece and [[Ancient Rome]] led to their downfall.<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79"/> The [[Renaissance]] was claimed to have developed in the [[Western Roman Empire]] because of the [[Migration Period]] that brought new Nordic blood to the Empire's lands, such as the presence of Nordic blood in the [[Lombards]] (referred to as Longobards in the book); that remnants of the [[Visigoths]] were responsible for the creation of the [[Spanish Empire]]; and that the heritage of the [[Franks]], [[Goths]] and [[Germanic peoples]] in [[France]] was what was responsible for its rise as a major power.<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79" /> He claimed that the rise of the Russian Empire was due to its leadership by people of [[Normans|Norman]] descent.<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79" /> He described the rise of Anglo-Saxon societies in [[North America]], [[South Africa]] and [[Australia]] as being the result of the Nordic heritage of [[Anglo-Saxons]].<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79"/> He concluded these points by saying: "Everywhere Nordic creative power has built mighty empires with high-minded ideas, and to this very day [[Indo-European languages|Aryan languages]] and cultural values are spread over a large part of the world, though the creative Nordic blood has long since vanished in many places".<ref name="George Lachmann Mosse p79"/> [[File:Buchenwald Corpses 60623.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|A wagon piled high with corpses outside the crematorium in [[Buchenwald concentration camp]]]] In Nazi Germany, the idea of creating a master race resulted in efforts to "purify" the ''Deutsche Volk'' through [[Nazi eugenics|eugenics]] and its culmination was the [[compulsory sterilisation]] or the [[involuntary euthanasia]] of physically or mentally disabled people. After World War II, the euthanasia programme was named [[Action T4]].<ref>Sandner (1999): 385 ([http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1999_3.pdf 66 in PDF]) Note 2. The author claims that the term Aktion T4 was not used by the Nazis and that it was first used in the trials of the doctors and later included in the historiography.</ref> The ideological justification for [[euthanasia]] was Hitler's view of [[Sparta]] (11th century – 195 BC) as the original ''völkisch'' state and he praised Sparta's dispassionate destruction of congenitally deformed infants in order to maintain racial purity.<ref name="pathological"/><ref name="Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860–1945: nature as model and nature as threat"/> Some non-Aryans enlisted in Nazi organisations like the Hitler Youth and the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'', including Germans of African descent<ref name="experiences"/> and Jewish descent.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bryan Mark Rigg|title=Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story Of Nazi Racial Laws And Men Of Jewish Descent In The German Military|date=2004|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=978-0-7006-1358-8}}</ref> The Nazis began to implement "racial hygiene" policies as soon as they came to power. The July 1933 "[[Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring]]" prescribed [[Compulsory sterilization|compulsory sterilisation]] for people with a range of conditions which were thought to be hereditary, such as [[schizophrenia]], [[epilepsy]], [[Huntington's chorea]] and "[[Intellectual disability|imbecility]]". Sterilization was also mandated for chronic [[alcoholism]] and other forms of [[Deviance (sociology)|social deviance]].{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=507}} An estimated 360,000 people were sterilised under this law between 1933 and 1939. Although some Nazis suggested that the programme should be extended to people with physical disabilities, such ideas had to be expressed carefully, given the fact that some Nazis had physical disabilities, one example being one of the most powerful figures of the regime, Joseph Goebbels, who had a deformed right leg.<ref>This was the result of either a [[club foot]] or [[osteomyelitis]]. Goebbels is commonly said to have had [[club foot]] (''talipes equinovarus''), a congenital condition. [[William L. Shirer]], who worked in Berlin as a journalist in the 1930s and was acquainted with Goebbels, wrote in ''[[The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich]]'' (1960) that the deformity was caused by a childhood attack of [[osteomyelitis]] and a failed operation to correct it.</ref> Nazi racial theorist [[Hans F. K. Günther]] argued that European peoples were divided into five races: [[Nordic race|Nordic]], [[Mediterranean race|Mediterranean]], [[Dinaric race|Dinaric]], [[Alpine race|Alpine]] and [[East Baltic race|East Baltic]].<ref name="Baum2006_156" /> Günther applied a [[Nordicism|Nordicist]] conception in order to justify his belief that Nordics were the highest in the racial hierarchy.<ref name="Baum2006_156" /> In his book ''[[Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes]]'' (1922) ("Racial Science of the German People"), Günther recognised Germans as being composed of all five races, but emphasised the strong Nordic heritage among them.<ref name="Maxwell150">Anne Maxwell (2010 [2008]). ''Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics, 1870–1940''. Eastbourne, England; Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press p. 150. {{ISBN?}}</ref> Hitler read ''Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes'', which influenced his racial policy.<ref>John Cornwell. ''Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact''. Penguin, 2004. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5bA2vTgvobAC&dq=hitler+gunther+aryan&pg=PT68]</ref> Gunther believed that Slavs belonged to an "Eastern race" and he warned against Germans mixing with them.<ref>Racisms Made in. Germany (Racism Analysis |Yearbook 2 – 2011) Ed. by Wulf D. Hund, Christian Koller, Moshe Zimmermann p. 19</ref> The Nazis described Jews as being a racially mixed group of primarily [[Armenoid race|Near Eastern]] and [[Arabid race|Oriental]] racial types.<ref name="Weinreich111">Max Weinreich. ''Hitler's Professors: The Part of Scholarship in Germany's Crimes Against the Jewish People''. Yale University Press, 1999, p. 111.</ref> Because such racial groups were concentrated outside Europe, the Nazis claimed that Jews were "racially alien" to all European peoples and that they did not have deep racial roots in Europe.<ref name="Weinreich111" /> Günther emphasised Jews' Near Eastern racial heritage.{{sfn|Steinweis|2008|p=28}} Günther identified the mass conversion of the [[Khazars]] to [[Judaism]] in the 8th century as creating the two major branches of the Jewish people: those of primarily Near Eastern racial heritage became the [[Ashkenazi Jews]] (that he called Eastern Jews) while those of primarily Oriental racial heritage became the [[Sephardi Jews]] (that he called Southern Jews).{{sfn|Steinweis|2008|pp=31–32}} Günther claimed that the Near Eastern type was composed of commercially spirited and artful traders, and that the type held strong [[psychological manipulation]] skills which aided them in trade.{{sfn|Steinweis|2008|p=28}} He claimed that the Near Eastern race had been "bred not so much for the conquest and exploitation of nature as it had been for the conquest and exploitation of people".{{sfn|Steinweis|2008|p=28}} Günther believed that European peoples had a racially motivated aversion to peoples of Near Eastern racial origin and their traits, and as evidence of this he showed multiple examples of depictions of satanic figures with Near Eastern physiognomies in European art.{{sfn|Steinweis|2008|p=29}} [[File:Der_Untermensch.jpg|thumb|Cover of the racist booklet "''Der Untermensch''" published by [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] in 1942. 4 million copies of the brochure were printed by Nazi Germany and distributed across occupied territories. The pamphlet depicted the [[Slavs|Slavic]] and Jewish inhabitants of [[Eastern Europe]] as primitive people.<ref>Sources: * {{cite book |last1=Müller, R. Ueberschar |first1= Rolf-Dieter, Gerd |title= Hitler's war in the East, 1941-1945 |publisher= Berghahn Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-84545-501-9 |location= 150 Broadway, New York, NY 10038, United States |pages=245}} * {{Cite journal |title=Der Untermensch |url=https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1077/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126075206/https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1077/ |archive-date=26 November 2020 |journal=Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection|date=January 1942 }} * {{cite book |last1=E. Aschheim |first1= Steven |title=The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-520-08555-8 |location= Los Angeles, California, United States |pages=236, 237 |chapter=8: Nietzsche in the Third Reich}}</ref>]] Hitler's conception of the Aryan ''[[Herrenvolk]]'' ("Aryan master race") excluded the vast majority of Slavs from Central and Eastern Europe (i.e. [[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles|Poles]], [[Russians]], [[Ukrainians]], [[Belarusians]], etc.). They were regarded as a race of men not inclined to a higher form of [[civilisation]], which was under an instinctive force that reverted them back to nature. The Nazis also regarded the Slavs as having dangerous Jewish and Asiatic, meaning [[Mongols|Mongol]], influences.<ref>André Mineau. ''Operation Barbarossa: Ideology and Ethics Against Human Dignity''. Rodopi, 2004. pp. 34–36.</ref> Because of this, the Nazis declared Slavs to be ''Untermenschen'' ("subhumans").<ref>Steve Thorne. ''The Language of War''. London: Routledge, 2006, p. 38.</ref> Nazi anthropologists attempted to scientifically prove the historical admixture of the Slavs who lived further East and leading Nazi racial theorist [[Hans F. K. Günther|Hans Günther]] regarded the Slavs as being primarily Nordic centuries ago but he believed that they had mixed with non-Nordic types over time.<ref name="Wendt2010">{{cite book|author=Anton Weiss-Wendt|author-link = Anton Weiss-Wendt|title=Eradicating Differences: The Treatment of Minorities in Nazi-Dominated Europe|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-2449-1|page=63}}</ref> Exceptions were made for a small percentage of Slavs who the Nazis saw as descended from German settlers and therefore fit to be Germanised and considered part of the Aryan master race.<ref>[[Wendy Lower]]. ''Nazi Empire-building and the Holocaust In Ukraine''. The University of North Carolina Press, 2005, p. 27.</ref> Hitler described Slavs as "a mass of born slaves who feel the need for a master".<ref>Marvin Perry. Western Civilization: A Brief History. Cengage Learning, 2012, p. 468.</ref> Himmler classified [[Slavs]] as "bestial ''untermenschen''" and Jews as the "decisive leader of the ''Untermenschen''".<ref>{{cite book |last1=E. Aschheim |first1= Steven |title=The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-520-08555-8 |location= Los Angeles, California, United States |pages=236, 237 |chapter=8: Nietzsche in the Third Reich}}</ref> These ideas were fervently advocated through [[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|Nazi propaganda]], which had a massive impact on the indoctrination of the German population. "''Der Untermenschen''", a racist brochure published by the SS in 1942, has been regarded as one of the most infamous pieces of [[Anti-Slavic sentiment#Nazi Germany|Nazi anti-Slavic propaganda]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Müller, R. Ueberschar |first1= Rolf-Dieter, Gerd |title= Hitler's war in the East, 1941-1945 |publisher= Berghahn Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-84545-501-9 |location= 150 Broadway, New York, NY 10038, United States |pages=245}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=E. Aschheim |first1= Steven |title=The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-520-08555-8 |location= Los Angeles, California, United States |pages=236 |chapter=8: Nietzsche in the Third Reich}}</ref> The Nazi notion of Slavs as inferior served as a legitimisation of their desire to create ''Lebensraum'' for Germans and other Germanic people in eastern Europe, where millions of Germans and other Germanic settlers would be moved into once those territories were conquered, while the original Slavic inhabitants were to be annihilated, removed or enslaved.<ref name="Bendersky">{{cite book|last=Bendersky|first=Joseph W.|title=A Concise History of Nazi Germany|year=2007|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.|location=Plymouth, England|isbn=978-0-7425-5363-7|pages=161–62}}</ref> Nazi Germany's policy changed towards Slavs in response to military manpower shortages, forcing it to allow Slavs to serve in its armed forces within the occupied territories in spite of the fact that they were considered "subhuman".<ref>Norman Davies. ''[[Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory]]''. Pan Macmillan, 2008. pp. 167, 209.</ref> Hitler declared that racial conflict against Jews was necessary in order to save Germany from suffering under them and he dismissed concerns that the conflict with them was inhumane and unjust: <blockquote>We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany we have achieved the greatest deed in the world. We may work injustice, but if we rescue Germany then we have removed the greatest injustice in the world. We may be immoral, but if our people is rescued we have opened the way for morality.<ref name="koenigsberg"/></blockquote> Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels frequently employed antisemitic rhetoric to underline this view: "The Jew is the enemy and the destroyer of the purity of blood, the conscious destroyer of our race."<ref name="thosedamnednazis"/> {{clear}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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