Nazi Racial Doctrine

[Sharwood]

In response to questions raised in this thread, and the fact that I've explained this a few times in other threads, briefly, and am apparently the only guy on the boards who has a thorough understanding of Nazi racial doctrine due to my contacts with neo-Nazis in my journalistic fantasy days, I'm going to let everyone in on what I recall of Nazi racial doctrine, specifically what is known as the Hierarchy of Race. Bear in mind I have no references for any of this, although some people might be able to find it if you visit neo-Nazi websites, but it's fallen out of favour, with simple white supremacism taking over the neo-Nazi movement. Most of it is the product of earlier Aryan theorists, whom Hitler is supposed to have studied. Can't know for sure, but it seems likely.

While not reference, all of this comes straight from the mouths of of unreconstructed Nazis living in Australia, including Josef Mangele's purported grandson. And since Mangele had an Australian daughter, it's likely he really is.

The Hierarchy is as follows:

1. Nordic/Aryan/Germanic
2. Persian/Iran
3. Japanese
4. Tibetan
5. Mediterranean Peoples, ie, Greeks and Italians
6. Central Asians, including Mongols and Turks
7. East Asians, excluding Japanese
8. Semites, excluding Jews
9. Slavs
10. Jews
11. Negros
12. Gypsies

Conspicuous by their absence are Indians, and the native peoples of most of the New World and Japan.

Nazi doctrine posits that the entire Northern part of the world, that is all of Eurasia outside of India, and according to some North Africa and the Americas, was once under the rule of a great empire (Reich), that of the Aryan race. This Aryan race was tall, around 6'3"-4", blond-haired, white-skinned and blue-eyed. This empire achieved greatness because of its racial purity, because it had evolved to a higher level than all other races of humanity, of which the number varied according to the theorist.

This empire began to collapse due to the fact that the Aryan people interbred with the inferior races, thus losing their natural evolutionary gifts. Without these gifts they stagnated, but pockets of people with a great deal of Aryan blood remained. Finally, the empire collapsed, and the Aryans split, with some going to India.

Reasons for list placements follow:

1-4: Ubermensch (Overmen, Supermen)

1. Nordic/Aryan/Germanic

Nordic means Northern, a pretty apt description of where Germanic people are located in the world.It may be noted that another name for this group is Aryan. That is because Scandinavia, particularly Norway, was either the homeland of the Aryans, or the very last place they settled, depending on the theorist. Either way, they were almost pure Aryans genetically, with little outsider blood.

Their superiority is logical because of the fact that the German people were never conquered, except by other Germans. At the time these theories came into vogue, people of Nordic descent, that is, German, Scandinavian, British, French, Dutch, and Austrian people, ruled most of the planet.

2. Persian/Iran

Iran is actually another word for Aryan. The Aryan people, who are known to have historically existed, though not in the manner, invaded India, destroying the Indus Valley culture, and ruled for close to a millenia, helping establish the caste system, before they were kicked out. They went to Persia, now known as Iran. Hence the name.

Proof of Persian superiority is evidenced by the continued survival of Persia in some form or other over millenia, the greatness of the former Persian Empire, its seperate language and culture from surrounding states, and the fact that it's the only place where the Aryan people are actually known to have resided since the fall of the empire.

3. Japanese

The Japanese are an isolated people, living on a group of islands. Their religion is the worship of nature and their ancestors, and their ruler is a quasi-divine emperor. This is the same pattern followed by the great Aryan empire of old.

Additionally, their superiority is evidenced by the fact that Japan has never been conquered, and especially by their victory over Russia in 1904-05. Only a truly superior race could defeat a European empire of Russia's size. Also, the Japanese warrior culture, bushido, is clearly derived from the old Aryan warrior structure.

4. Tibetan

The Tibetans are a proud, strong people. Contrary to Western belief, the religion of the Tibetans is not peaceful, but a violent warrior religion. Tibet has the same sort of warrior aristocracy as Japan, but it is more religious in nature. This priestly aristocracy is even closer to the old Aryan social structure than Japan, but Tibet has been defeated several times throughout its history, and appears to have been growing weaker over time.

Another example of Tibetan superiority is their ability to survive in their part of the world. The inhabitants of the roof of the world need Aryan blood to survive in such a harsh environment, and their spiritual pursuits, including the ability to seperate their minds from their bodies, are a sign that they retain the Aryan spark.

5-8 Humans

5. Mediterranean Peoples

These peoples once ruled great empires and established a culture which spread across much of the globe, but through interbreeding with inferior peoples they have been weakened. Were once ubermensch, but no more. Still retain a spark of brilliance, evidenced by their skills in art, philosophy and architecture. Suitable for mid-level positions under ubermensch leadership, but not for incorporation into the Reich.

6. Central Asians

The same as above, substituting their skill in warfare for that of art.

7. East Asians

Do not hold much if any Aryan blood, but also do not hold the blood of sub-humans. Their blood is clean, but not pure. Very skillful with money, and intelligent, but weak, sensual and cowardly. Untrustworthy, yet cunning. Suitable for acting as the working class under ubermensch leadership, but not for inclusion in the Reich.

8. Semites

These Semites are cousins of the Jews, but not evil like they are. through interbreeding with superior races, such as the Persians and the formerly Nordic Mediterraneans, have actually improved as a race. Suitable for menial positions under the leadership of other humans, but not for inclusion in the Reich.

9-12. Sub-humans

9. Slavs

An inferior subspecies of humanity, as evidenced by the fact that they have been preyed upon by stronger races, both human and ubermensch, since their existence became known. Also, their embracing of Bolshevism, a Jewish construction, further proves their mental deficiency. Suitable only for slave labour, and eventual extermination when lesser humans are ready to take their place.

10. Jews

Jews are responsible for the destruction of the Aryan empire, through encouraging the Aryans to interbreed with their inferiors. The Jews are highly intelligent, cunning, and manipulative, but cowardly. They could have been valuable servants to the Reich, but instead desire to supplant it. To do so, they have created Bolshevism, and sought to take over the world in the manner described by the wholly factual Protocols of the Elders of Zion. As such, they are the sworn enemy of the Reich, and suitable solely for extermination. Not even slavery is good enough for them, they are simply too dangerous.

11. Negroes

This barbaric race, descended from Ham, the youngest and most sinister of the children of Adam and Eve, are barely above the apes, and unsuitable for anything but extermination. They may be used as slaves until no longer necessary, their mental weakness makes them pliable enough for this purpose, as evidenced by their history of slavery.

12. Gypsies

This race is so inferior as to not even possess any of the arts of civilisation. They are nothing but parasites, and suitable for extermination, no less. Not even worthy of slavery.

That right there is Nazi racial theory in a nutshell. I could go into more detail, but I've already spent an hour or so writing this. Some of it is highly contradictory. There's a reason for that: Nazism is f***ing stupid. It doesn't make any sense, why should it's doctrines?

Not really a discussion thread per se, but feel free to comment.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Some of it is highly contradictory.

Just for fun, can you list some contradictions here?

 

[Morten]

While this does seem somewhat systematic and does perhaps reflect the views of some racist scholars, I sincerely doubt that this was the consensus amongst them, especially in the Germany of the late 1930's. Surely the Nordic version of Aryans was leagues above any other race in their minds.

 

[~Corsair#01~]

There is no real Nazi philosophy, only Hitlerism and whatever random ideas Hitler grabbed at as time passed. He was wildly temperamental. Just compare his policies to Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia on one hand, to the Serbs and Czechs on the other, and then finally to the Soviets and Poles. All these people are Slavs, but one group were valued allies, another was occupied territory to be subdued and exploited and the final group was slated for total extermination.

Add in the support for the Chinese and later the Japanese and it should rapidly become clear that Hitler was more interested in politics and good old-fashioned violent nationalism than a serious and coherent racial policy.

 

[luiz]

Gotta agree with Corsair. There is hardly a coherent nazi racial doctrine, just like there is hardly a coherent nazi doctrine in general. It's quite clear that at least before the war Hitler greatly admired Mussolini and I doubt he would rank the italians below the japanese or the tibetans. Maybe after Italy's fiasco he would, though.

Also, not all nazis believed in that "creator race" crap. That was mostlt Himmler and his mystical quest for the aryan holy grail. Others laughed at this concept, even if they were highly racist as well.

 

[Arwon]

One particularly interesting application of this was in the brief period when Franquist Spain thought about throwing its lot in with Nazi Germany.

Basically there was a lot of bollicksing on both sides about constructing the "Visigothic" roots of the Spanish people. The Falangists, in particular, wanted to avoid being designated as mixed-race barbarians or untermensch or anything disastrous like that, so they strenuously sought to define Spain's Arabic, Jewish, and Mediterranean/Latin/Roman heritage out of the picture in favour of the brief Visigothic interlude between Roman Hispania and the Caliphate.

 

[Sharwood]

Of course, I'm not saying this is what Hitler, or even most Nazis believed. And bear in mind the source I got this from claims direct descent from the man voted the most evil in the 20th century. He's obviously more into the doctrine than most. This is the theory behind the Nazi system of beliefs, I think it's fairly obvious Hitler and others didn't believe it in the least.

I recall a documentary where they read the diary of a party official, who wrote of Hitler's anger at Himmler's archaeological digs. "It's bad enough that the Romans were building aqueducts and monuments when we were still living in mud huts, now Himmler wants to dig up those mud huts." So I think that's fairly obvious evidence that even Hitler didn't buy it. And Goering and other high-ranking Nazis weren't even racist, they just used it as a means to power.

My sole point is that this is the doctrine the more radical of the party followed. hitler obviously believed some parts of it, namely the Jews being the enemy of the Nordic race part, but most Nazis wouldn't even have known the doctrine, let alone followed it.

 

[7ronin]

I'm sure that if Japan had not been a signer of the Tripartite Pact they would have been much further down the list.

 

[Tee Kay]

^ Indeed. Allies of Germany are considered as "honourary Aryans". The Germans agreed to work with even the hated Slavs. There were Ukrainian guards at the Nazi Death Camps IIRC.

Some Jews escaping the Holocaust in Europe found their way to Japan and China, where the Japanese allowed them to stay. One story was when the Jews were approached by the Japanese authorities they cited the Nazi Aryan concept, and pointed out that does not include the Japanese, even though they are then Germany's allies.

 

[RedRalph]

AFAIK Himmler once speculated that Norweigians were probably more purely Nordic than Germans and thus could be higher up the hierarchy.

 

[Sharwood]

Japan famously tried to set up Jewish settlements in mainland China, but I think their rise to as high a spot on the hierarchy as they have had more to do with their defeat of Russia than anything else. That impressed some of these theorists. And yeah, I'm pretty sure Himmler did say something like that once, much to Hitler's annoyance.

 

[Verbose]

Well, it's an attempt at systematizing what was after all a bunch of pretty muddle-headed notions. Not a bad one at all as such, just that as said (and as Sharwood obviously knows) it wasn't quite as systemtic as all that when the Nazis themselves did it.

Warning: Long post ahead.
(This stuff interests me like hell.)

Like with most things about Nazi ideology, what you get depends a fair bit on where you go looking. I mean, the SS Ahnenerbe had weird notions about the odd Jewish sect living on the Crimean penninsula in actual fact being descendants of the old Gothic population of the place, and thus Nordic and Aryan, and not Jewish and Semitic at all. Not that any of that mattered when the ordinary SS went through the Crimea and killed these people alongside every other Jew they found.

The hub of the whole "racial science" would after all be the SS, the Ahnenerbe in particular. Himmler really believed all that stuff, including the reality of the grand Jewish World Conspiracy (wanted to save his skin in the end by trying to find them to cut a deal, not that he could to his great surprise), while there are some Hitler quotes that might indicate that he though most of this race-thing was more of a useful political tool than something deeply felt, aside from the visceral hate for Jews of course.

There was the weird case of the German occupation of Poland where the Poles were to be vetted racially for whether they would be Aryan enough for incorporation into the German nation; in one half some racially believening person moved heaven and earth to really, really find out what the Poles in his charge were, which took forever, while in the other half the man in charge just put his name on a paper, and presto! all the Poles in that region were OK for germanization, and everyone could get on with doing more useful things.

The whole being blond and blue eyed thing could also be taken too far. At some point in the 30's it was decided to cut back on the harping on these supposed "Nordic" features since it was making lots of excellent Nazis feel bad about themselves for being brown eyed and dark haired. That wasn't too hard, considering one of the major inspirations behind the racial ideas of Nazism was Houston Stewart Chamberlain's "Grundlagen der 19. Jahrhundert" (Wagner's son in law). Chamberlain didn't define races; he was completely anti-science and held that the way to do all this was through intuition. Back in the late 19th c. he was particularily insenced that the German physical anthropologists of the day held that a Jewish race could not be defined. That was BS according to Chamberlain, as in his opinion any pure-blooded German child could define a Jew as it would instinctively realise what it had encountered, and literally run screaming in the other direction.

So, while the Nazis did rely on the supposedly scientific minded racial biologists of the time, most importantly Hans F. K. Günther but also Eugen Fischer, who became head of the big racial biology research center in Berlin already in Weimar times (and who actually had scientific chops, besides the racist convictions), the Nazis also - when it suited them - could invoke Chamberlain and his notions about "race" as some kind of internal mystic thing impossible for mere crude science to grasp.

There's also a problem surrounding the whole "Aryan" thing. "Aryanism" was vigorously pushed by the Wagner circle in Bayreuth, in particular by Hans von Wolzogen ("der Bayreuther", editor of the group's journal "Bayreutische Blätter", i.e. the job Wagner originally intended for his best mate Nietzsche, until the two had a falling out specifically over Wagner's antisemitism, which Nietzsche found unacceptable) - and by Ludwig Scheman, who made it his life's work to promote the ideas of the French diplomat and novelist Arthur de Gobineau, who wrote the "Bible" of aryan ideology, the "Essai sur l'inégalité des races humanines" (1853-1855).

The thing is, while Wolzogen, Scheman, and later Chamberlain who was also part of the Bayreuth circle, believed Aryans to be blonde and blue eyed and generally "Nordic", the based this purely on history, esthetics, intuition, and generally didn't have much truck with science.

At the same time there were groups who were trying to explain why blond and blue eyed people were "Aryans" and superior "scientifically" for it. The biggest group has been labeled "the Freiburg circle", concetrated around the engineer turned publicist, the newspaper editor Otto Ammon, who did huge surveys of German army conscripts in the 1890's. Aside from Ammon there was his assitant the MD Ludwig Wilser (who fought a decades long battle with the Austrian Karl Penka, bestseller writer in the genre of the "Aryan race", over presedence as to which one of them had first in the 1880's made the call that "Aryans" were blond and blue eyed, a completely nonsense conflict), and the "dead young genious" of the group Ludwig Woltmann (died already in 1907), who quickly wrote a whole range of books explaining that anyone who had ever been anything in European history had been a blond and blue eyed "Aryan" Nordic (it's easy when you have a schtick like that).

That group had an uneasy relationship with actually scientifically trained professional physicians and biologists who did physcial anthropology and eventually eugenics and racial biology. Even when they agreed on blond and blue eyed people being supoerior, they tended to be at loggerheads about the whole "Aryan" business. In the end the racial biologists like Alfred Ploetz (coined the term "Rassenbiologie", co-founder of the German society for racial biology with) Ernst Rüdin, Schallmayer, Eugen Fischer, Hans F. K. Günther, Egon von Eickstedt et alia just ignored the whole "Aryan" thing and concentrated on the Germans being "Nordic", and superior to all other kinds of humanity by virtue of that alone. (The founding text for them actually was the 1899 "The Races of Europe" by the American national economist William Zebina Ripley.)

The most systematic treatement of purported human races and their relations one can find with the racial biologists like Günther, Fischer, but also the big text-book "Rassenkunde und Rassengeschichte der Menschheit" published in 1934 by Egon von Eickstedt.

That last one was actually published in Germany in new editions all the way up to 1968, with just the odd seriously affronting chapter from the 1934 original dropped. Eickstedt's star pupil Ilse Schwidetsky has been active in German academia way into the 1990's too - though there was a bit of a stink in the end when it was uncovered that these studies of Gypsy children she had made had ended with her filling in the paperwork to send them to the concentration camps, something she had denied doing.

 

[dannyshenanigan]

Out of morbid curiosity I wonder where Celts, Finns and Magyars would be. Maybe Aryan, but they were all historically under Germanic dominance.

 

[cool3a2]

I wonder where ... Magyars would be

Yeah, that would interest me as well. I wouldn't wonder if those nazi idiots would consider Finns to be Aryans by calling them Nordics and thus would consider Magyars as Aryans as well as they are far relatives of the Finns. I wouldn't wonder as well if that was one reason for the hungarian elite to support the finn-ugric theory, I think I even heard something like this. Anyways, I think I also heard that Hitler called Hungarians Skyths or Avars, not sure which.

 

[Verbose]

Culling relevant parts of Wikipedia (looks credible all things considered) this is what the Nazis came up with, Himmler's "solution" to how to germanize the conquered Poles, elevated to a general system for categorising people:

The 1939 "Volksliste":

Category I: Volksdeutsche—Persons of German descent who had engaged themselves in favour of the Reich before 1939.

Category II: Deutschstämmige—Persons of German descent who had remained passive.

Category III: Eingedeutschte—indigenous persons considered by Nazis as partly Polonized (mainly Silesians and Kashubs); refusal to join this list could lead to deportation to a concentration camp

Category IV: Rückgedeutschte—Persons of Polish nationality considered "racially valuable", supportive of the Reich (e.g., collaborators)

All four categories were OK for germanization, and sufficiently "Aryan", even if it was designed as a caste system based on assumed relative racial "value".



Now, applied to the rest of Europe this gets you, in descending order of privilege in the Nazi racial caste system:

Germans from Germany (Reichdeutsche) - Nordic Germans are said most favorable, but all German citizens are in the top category.

Germans from outside, active ethnic Germans, honorary "Aryans" from axis European countries in Volksliste category 1 and 2.

Germans from outside, passive Germans and members of families, handicapped, political dissidents, common criminals in Volksliste category 3 and 4.

Other Germanic peoples closely related to Germans (Norwegians, Danes, English, Swedes, and Dutch) but treated as categories 1 and 2 in most privileges, especially pro-Nazi sympathizers. Until 1942, the Greeks were included in this category by virtue of their being descendants of the ancient Greeks.

Italians (particularly from regions North of Rome, e.g. Tuscany, Lombardy, etc.), Spaniards (particularly Basques) and Portuguese were treated as category 1 and 2, especially pro-Nazi sympathizers (e.g. Fascist Italy and Francoist Spain diplomats). Some Southern Italians were treated as least (Suspicion of miscegenation with African and Semitic peoples), but within the same category. The Greeks are included in this category after 1943, due to their strong anti-Nazi resistance movement.

Britons from the British islands. Includes Irish, Scots and Welsh (The English would be treated as Germanic people).

French people in France (except German speaking Alsatians, and pro-Nazi French supporters in categories 1 and 2).

Highlanders (Goralenvolk): an attempt to split the Polish nation by using local collaborators.

Hungarians, Estonians, and Finns (despite their non Indo-European origins) as well as Baltic peoples (Lithuanians and Latvians).

Poles, Czechs and Slovaks (from West Slavic) group, and Croats and Slovenes (from South Slavic group) were considered to be much more 'Europeanized' than their easterns counterparts).

Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians (from East Slavic group), Serbs, Slavic Muslims, Bulgarians, Romanians, Macedonians and Turks.



Then there were the "Untermenschen":

Jews-divided into various degrees of religious denomination, Mischlinge or of half/part-Jewish ancestries (esp. of one Jewish parent, highly illegal under the race laws) and Rassenschande or "Aryan" Germans found as converts into Judaism.

"Untermenschen" (lit. "Under-human"). It included the Gypsies/Roma, also subject to extermination during Porrajmos. Includes minuscule numbers of darker-skinned German nationals: non-whites from colonial African, Middle Eastern, Asiatic and Latin American origin - if of evident non-European ancestries, residing in Germany at the time. Homosexuals and disabled people (based on physical and mental illnesses) were also considered to be part of this category, and subject to eugenics policies, including compulsory sterilization, internment and deportation. Also non Slavic Russians (i.e of Turkic/Caucasian/Central Asian and Siberian/East Asian origins) were listed.



I.e. if you're broadly speaking "European", you're mostly OK, as long as there's nothing else "wrong" with you (ideologically, physically, mentally).

If you're a Jew or non-European, uh-oh... but then again with exception for the Japanese (10 000 Japanese were cleared as "honorary Aryans" for living in Germany), and Chinese.

The "Untermenschen" comes out as being various indigenous "natives" of the world; South American natives, Australian aborigines, black Africans, colonised South East Asians, central Asian tribesmen, arctic natives, including the Laplanders of Scandinavia.

Bit unclear about the status of Muslims Arabs. Could be white enough, or might be to "native"; otoh the Nazi regime did buddy up to the Great Mufti of Jerusalem, and they did raise an SS "Arab legion" of their own during WWII, so probably the Arabs go as "white enough" most of the time.

Same problem with the colonised Indians, with a possible split between "Aryan" Indians and non-Aryan south Indian Tamils. British India was one of Hitler's great inspirations when thinking about how Germany would rule the vast lands conquered in the east when the war was won; doesn't rule out most Indians being Aryan enough though.

 

[RedRalph]

Just goes to show how nonsensical it all was, even from their warped POV

 

[Sharwood]

Just goes to show how nonsensical it all was, even from their warped POV

Exactly. As Verbose pointed out, there was a long history, and many of the theorists outright disagreed with each other. Then there was the fact that Hitler almost certainly didn't believe in any of it himself, although he had almost certainly studied it. This lack of belief led to him changing many of the categories, or those under him being forced to change them by his actions. As I said in the first post, almost everything they said directly contradicted something else they said. Worse than the damn Bible.

 

[Lockesdonkey]

AFAIK Himmler once speculated that Norweigians were probably more purely Nordic than Germans and thus could be higher up the hierarchy.

That didn't keep them from sneering at Quisling.

 

[Verbose]

Exactly. As Verbose pointed out, there was a long history, and many of the theorists outright disagreed with each other. Then there was the fact that Hitler almost certainly didn't believe in any of it himself, although he had almost certainly studied it. This lack of belief led to him changing many of the categories, or those under him being forced to change them by his actions. As I said in the first post, almost everything they said directly contradicted something else they said. Worse than the damn Bible.

Could be that the most consistent, official version of the Nazi theory of race could be the one taught the kiddies in the Hitlerjugend, and Bund deutscher Mädel, in their "Rassenkunde" classes. That would be the way a lot of Germans at the time learned what was supposed to be what.

 

[Sharwood]

Could be that the most consistent, official version of the Nazi theory of race could be the one taught the kiddies in the Hitlerjugend, and Bund deutscher Mädel, in their "Rassenkunde" classes. That would be the way a lot of Germans at the time learned what was supposed to be what.

Almost certainly. Unfortunately I've never read it.