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The Aryan Ideal

[A term used by the Nazis to mean white Nordic European. For the Nazis, a typical Aryan was blond, blue-eyed and tall. This ideal was based on the mythical ancestors of the German people.]

A long standing sense of German pride can be traced back to the writings of numerous theorists, artists, authors, religious leaders, and philosophers. This sense of German pride, though slightly diminished, remained strong at the end of World War I. Many Germans denied responsibility for the war and believed that the terms imposed on them by the Treaty of Versailles were excessive and unnecessary. Germany may have been forced to accept defeat however, throughout the coming years German citizens maintained an enduring positive national identity. The well educated population of Germany was familiar with the ideals of an Aryan superiority. They were aware that the French diplomat and writer Arthur de Gobineau, "asserted the superiority of the white race over others and the Aryans, the Germanic peoples, as representing the summit of civilization."1 Houston Stewart Chamberlain, a naturalized German scientist, believed that, "t the helm of the Aryan race,"2 were the German people. Helping to fuel German pride was Johann Gottlieb Fichte, a German philosopher, who in 1808 delivered a series of addresses to the German Nation, in which he spoke of the superiority of Germans. Other prominent figures in history helped to shape the Aryan identity, as well as reinforce the theory that Jewish people were inferior to Germans. Wilhelm Marr, a German theorist and author coined the term Anti-Semitism. He believed that the "struggle between Jews and Germans would only be resolved by the victory of one and the ultimate death of the other."3 Martin Luther, the German religious reformer, wrote in the 1500's in Against the Jews and Their Lies that Jewish homes

should be destroyed, the synagogues burned, their money confiscated, and their liberties limited. His writings were used frequently during the Nazi regime. The German composer, Richard Wagner, believed in German superiority and wrote that Jewish compositions lacked any expression, were trivial and lacked true compassion. Wagner spoke of the "harmful influence of Jewry on the morality of the nation."4 Karl Marx's work On the Jewish Question also known as A World Without Jews, viewed Judaism as an anti-social element full of self-interest and lawlessness. Many of these words, theories, and philosophies over time helped to form the idea of the superior German identity, and were instrumental in the rise of Hitler's Aryan Ideal.

Britannica.com Joseph-Arthur comte de Gobineau www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/h/ho/houston_stewart_chamberlain.html www.antisemitism.org.il/eng/Wilhelm%20Marr www.jewishviturallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Wagner.html

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Master Race
[Nazi ideology which believed that German and Nordic people represent an ideal and "pure race".]

The goal of engineering a "perfect" society did not begin with the Nazi party. During the 19th century, theorist Herbert Spencer combined an elitist view of society with the ideas of Charles Darwin and coined the phrase "survival of the fittest." The goal was a society where the "fit" flourished and those deemed "undesirable" were prevented from reproducing and allowed to die. After World War I, eugenics (meaning "good birth"), which called for selective breeding in order to create a stronger society, became the prevailing theory in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Switzerland, and Germany. Nazi ideology embraced eugenics as a way to justify the creation of a "master race" and supported forced sterilization of minorities, the handicapped, and many other groups. In 1933, the Nazis passed the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring to legalize sterilization for individuals who were mentally disabled, mentally ill (including schizophrenia and manic depression), epileptic, blind, deaf, physically deformed, or alcoholic. Two years later, Germany passed the Marital Health Law outlawing marriages between "hereditarily healthy" individuals with those labeled genetically unfit. Hitler authorized "mercy deaths" of incurables in 1939 in what became known as Operation T-4 (named for the program's headquarters). Germany euthanized more than 200,000 of its own citizens in this clandestine operation. Determined to protect "purity of blood," the Nazis identified Aryans as the descendents of an ancient Indian race of nobles. In the 19th century, German scholars claimed that Aryans, who were blue-eyed and light-skinned, originated in ancient Germany or Scandinavia. According to the Nazis Party, Aryans were a master race

that built a thriving civilization over ten thousand years ago, which was destroyed by the mixing with inferior races. The Third Reich's goal was to rebuild this master race.