United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Fundamentals of Nazi Racial Ideology

Basic Assumptions of Nazi Racial Ideology

• There is a collective instinct for survival; every individual partakes of this collective instinct.

• Survival of the race depends on

– Race Purity

– The seizure of territory to expand population

• There is a hierarchy of races; some are more valuable than others

Excerpt from this Nazi Biology Textbook for Middle School Students:

“As we have already noted, people do not live as individuals

like animals and plants, but as peoples,which largely have come together

as ethnic states. We know something similar only with insects. Bees and ants

are not only the sum of individuals;each individual shares a united drive

in service of the entire group….The ethnic state must demand of each

individual citizen that he does everything for the good of the whole,

each in his place and with his abilities. ”

See Marie Harm and Hermann Wiehle, Lebenskunde für Mittelschulen. Fünfter Teil. (Halle: Hermann

Schroedel Verlag, 1942), pp. pp. 168-173.

The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honorof September 15, 1935

“Moved by the understanding that purity of the German Blood is the essential condition for the continued existence of the German people, and inspired by the inflexible determination to ensure the existence of the German Nation for all time, the Reichstag has unanimously adopted the following Law, which is promulgated herewith:”

A racial hygienist measures a woman's features in an attempt to determine her racial ancestry. Berlin, Germany, date uncertain.

The caption, in German, reads: "Healthy Parents have Healthy Children."

Germany, date uncertain.

German Conquests in World War II

Lebensraum

• A healthy, vigorous people expands its population base of racially healthy individuals and expands its territorial base at the expense of its neighbors.

• A dying people has a declining population, marred by race-mixing and territorial losses to its neighbors.

• History is the struggle of nations for living space and living space is about the continued existence of a race.

Basic Assumptions of Nazi Racial Ideology

Nazi View of Germany in 1930

• Germany lost World War I and had to cede territory to its neighbors

• High level of race mixing: almost 40 percent of all marriages involving Jews are interfaith marriages.

• Germans face extinction; only Hitler can save them!

Germany Must Die!

German People!...against theirWar of extermination there isOnly one solution: Fight, Work,Win

German Propaganda Poster from circa 1942.

The truth about the 8 point programOf the enemies of Germany:

The Image of Jews in Nazi Racial Ideology

• Jews are a race.• Jews were special enemies of the German

people.• Unlike other races, Jews had no living

space of their own. • Jews sought to dominate host peoples by

destroying the nation-state and establishing Jewish world domination.

• The goals of Jews, by definition, were the genetic bastardization of all peoples and the elimination of all states.

Antisemitic Propaganda

Source: Der Ewige Jude, Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., Franz Eher, Nachf., 1937

Nazi Antisemitic Book, The Eternal Jew, Published in 1937

Nazi stereotype depicting Jews as bothMoney lenders and communists.

Germans!

Defend yourselves!

Don't buy from Jews!

Members of the Storm Troopers (SA), with boycott signs,block the entrance to a Jewish-owned shop. Berlin, Germany, April 1, 1933.

Chart indicating the determination of Jewish racial ancestry in Nazi Germany.

“The peoples [of the earth] will soon realize that Germany under National Socialism does not desire the enmity of other peoples. I want once again to be a prophet. If the international Finance-Jewry inside and outside of Europe should succeed in plunging the peoples of the earth once again into a world war, the result will be not the Bolshevization of earth, and thus a Jewish victory, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.

The peoples of the earth do not want to continue to perish on the battlefield so that the rootless, international race can profit from the business of war, and satisfy their Old Testament thirst for vengeance. The Jewish slogan, "Workers of the World, Unite!" will be defeated by a higher insight, that is, "Productive members of all nations, recognize your common enemy!"

Berlin, Germany, January 30, 1939Hitler speaks before the Reichstag (German parliament).

The War Against the Race Enemy: Jews

“Aryanization”

Boycott

Kristallnacht

Ghettoization

Mass Shooting

Deportation

Killing Centers

First grade pupils, both Jewish and non-Jewish, study in a classroom in a public school in Hamburg. Germany, June 1933.

The quest for racial purityGypsies (Roma)German Disabled PersonsGermans of African Descent

The racial struggle for Europe Slavs Poles Soviet Prisoners of war

Nazi ideology and the persecution of Germans Political DissidentsJehovah’s WitnessesMale Homosexuals

“Racial Enemy”Jews

Overview of Nazi Persecution of Specific Groups

Conclusiono The Nazi conception of the world was

fundamentally racist.o They had a crusade-like vision of saving

western civilization from Jews.o They had a strategic vision of a dominant

German “Aryan” race ruling subject peoples.o They believed “superior” races had not just the

right but the obligation to subdue and even exterminate the “inferior” ones.

o To insure the racial superiority of Germany, they instituted the continual self-purge of their society.

William F. Meinecke, Jr. Ph.D.Historian, Division of EducationUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl. SWWashington, D.C. 20024-2126

Tel: 202-314-7844Wmeinecke@ushmm.org