Everyone knows that according to the racial theory taken by Hitler as the basis of the ideology of National Socialism, there are racially valuable and racially inferior people. Everyone who has watched films about the Great Patriotic War and read books about this page of history has heard the expressions “Untermensch”, “true Aryan”, “Nordic race”.
It is clear that the “Untermensch”, that is, “subhumans”, are us, the Slavs, as well as Jews, Gypsies, Negroes, Mongoloids, and so on. But who, in this case, are the “true Aryans”, in other words “Ubermensch” - “superman”? Who, besides themselves, did the German fascists consider to be racially valuable?
Gunther's racial theory
First, you need to figure out where these fabrications about “true Aryans” came from. The idea belongs to the German theorist Gunther, who in 1925 developed a theory of the unequal value of races, their ability to develop, work and, conversely, their tendency to degradation. He divided people according to anthropological characteristics: the shape and size of the skull, the color of hair, skin and eyes, attributing to each type, in addition to purely external characteristics, mental and mental qualities. It was he who identified the “Nordic type” (“Nordic race”) in the Caucasian race. These people are characterized by tall stature, a narrow long face, fair skin, and hair pigmentation ranging from light to brown. In terms of mental talent, Gunther put representatives of the Nordic type in first place. Representatives of the Nordic type live in northern Germany, Holland, Latvia, Scandinavia, eastern England, and along the entire Baltic coast.
"True Aryans"
Ideas of this kind were very fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century in Europe and the USA. Racism was not a prohibited theory then; its clear signs can be found, for example, in some of the works of Jack London. Hitler also really liked this theory. It must be said that such ideas often become popular in countries whose residents consider themselves disadvantaged at the present time. They draw hope for a glorious future from myths about the glorious past. This in itself is commendable until the “bearers of glorious traditions” begin to consider themselves exceptional, and representatives of other nations as “subhuman”. This is exactly what happened in Germany, which suffered defeat in the First World War and was in a state of deep crisis when Hitler came to power. It is not surprising that Hitler's ideas about “Nordic conquerors” and “true Aryans” were very much to the liking of most of the German public. Researchers called Aryans the ancient peoples who spoke languages belonging to the eastern branch of the Indo-European family and belonged to the northern racial type. The word "aire" is of Celtic origin and means "chief", "to know". According to the creators of racial theory, modern heirs of the ancient Aryans should be tall, blond and blue-eyed. However, it is enough to look at Hitler and his closest associates to see how little this ideal portrait corresponds to the external appearance of the leaders of the Third Reich. Clearly understanding this, the ideologists of National Socialism paid more attention not to appearance, but to the “Nordic spirit,” which, in their opinion, was characteristic not only of representatives of the German peoples, but even, in part, of the Japanese.
Ubermenshi - who are they?
Who, from the point of view of Hitler’s ideologists, could be considered a “racially valuable”, “true Aryan”, “carrier of the Nordic spirit”? We are, of course, talking about representatives of the Germanic peoples. But even here, not everything is so simple. “Purity of blood” was of decisive importance. The Germans had the purest blood. Next came the Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and Dutch, whom Hitler considered, although Aryans, but still not quite “Ubermensch.” It is not entirely clear why the blue-eyed and fair-haired Scandinavians did not please him. Hitler strongly disliked the inhabitants of the more southern regions of Europe, various French and Spaniards, considering them “mestizo with an admixture of Negroid blood.” However, he still considered the Italians to be carriers of the “Nordic spirit”, thanks to their ideological closeness to Mussolini. “True Aryans” and other “bearers of the Nordic spirit,” according to the ideologists of racial theory, should have taken great care of the purity of their blood, not allowing it to mix with the blood of lower races, and especially with Jewish blood. This is important because, according to the ideologists of fascism, only the “Nordic race” is capable of creativity and development, only representatives of the “Nordic race” created all the great civilizations and cultural achievements. For this reason, the responsibility of “true Aryans” and “carriers of the Nordic spirit” is to maintain physical health, because a “true Aryan” is not only creative abilities, but also a powerful body. For this same reason, by the way, purebred Germans who suffered from mental illness, epilepsy, etc. were declared “Untermensch” and subject to destruction. The blatant scientific groundlessness of this theory did not prevent it from spreading widely and finding followers not only among the Germans, but also among representatives of those peoples whom Hitler declared “racially inferior,” including among the Russians. And this is a very disturbing fact.
It must be said that despite all his written and oral rhetoric on the “racial issue,” Adolf Hitler’s views do not fit into the framework of “mere” racism (in the sense that there is the Aryan race and all the others, and the Aryan race is hurray and seals, and all others are subject to destruction). No doubt he thought so, but that was not his basic worldview. The fact is that at the heart of his views - the word "doctrine" is inappropriate, he never presented his views holistically - was not just a race, but a struggle between races. And in this struggle for living space the strongest race wins regardless whether it is “right” or “wrong”, superior or inferior, and the losing race with necessity must die. This conclusion can be drawn both from the material in his book “My Struggle” and, in particular, from his statements, actions and orders during the last period of the war, when he directly said that the Germans were unworthy of the title of superior race and should perish with him and his the Reich (and gave the corresponding orders to destroy the industrial potential and infrastructure of Germany, right down to the water pipelines). He talked a lot about culture, about the state, about the nation, about everything - but all these were just attributes that meant little in what he really wanted - devoid of any conventions and boundaries of free struggle between races.
As for the races themselves - let's go up a notch - then yes, he literally had three types of races. He distinguished the creators of the Kulturbegrunder culture, the carriers of the Kulturträger culture and the destroyers of the Kulturzerstörer culture. The fact is that for him, in discussions about the properties of races, the aspect of creating culture was, perhaps, the most important (based at least on his own tastes - he was an expert in architecture, painting, music, especially opera, and as a Fuhrer he built in German cities before total opera houses). Therefore, he endowed the superior race with the ability to create culture, even civilization. Of course, such a race was the Aryan, which he reduced primarily to the Germanic. True, in practice this led to contradictions (like everything in Nazi Germany) - despite the fact that the Nazi doctrinaires did not see the Aryans in the Slavs (Hitler’s arguments about the inability of the Slavs for state building, as well as the fact that the arena of racial struggle the Slavic east of Europe was to become the living space), in practice, citizens of the Reich of Polish, Russian and other origins were considered Aryans, and during the war, the Gauleiter of West Prussia and Danzig A. Forster easily distributed German passports to the Polish residents of his Gau.
The second position was occupied by races that, in his opinion, did not themselves create civilization, but were able to perceive it and become its carriers. These included the peoples of the East, primarily the Japanese, and in general all peoples capable of accepting the cultural achievements generated by it from the superior race. The third category, of course, was assigned to the Jews - “a race, but not people,” the absolute destroyers of civilization. Next to them are all those lower peoples who are unable to accept civilization and contribute to the gradual destruction of the superior race - these are African peoples, gypsies, etc. In addition, many peoples were “under suspicion” among the Germans, but a selective approach was practiced here - for example, the French were considered racially inferior, but at the same time the allied Italians were considered Aryans.
Everyone knows that according to the racial theory taken by Hitler as the basis of the ideology of National Socialism, there are racially valuable and racially inferior people. Everyone who has watched films about the Great Patriotic War and read books about this page of history has heard the expressions “Untermensch”, “true Aryan”, “Nordic race”.
It is clear that the “Untermensch”, that is, “subhumans”, are us, the Slavs, as well as Jews, Gypsies, Negroes, Mongoloids, and so on. But who, in this case, are the “true Aryans”, in other words “Ubermensch” - “superman”? Who, besides themselves, did the German fascists consider to be racially valuable?
Gunther's racial theory
First, you need to figure out where these fabrications about “true Aryans” came from. The idea belongs to the German theorist Gunther, who in 1925 developed a theory of the unequal value of races, their ability to develop, work and, conversely, their tendency to degradation. He divided people according to anthropological characteristics: the shape and size of the skull, the color of hair, skin and eyes, attributing to each type, in addition to purely external characteristics, mental and mental qualities. It was he who identified the “Nordic type” (“Nordic race”) in the Caucasian race. These people are characterized by tall stature, a narrow long face, fair skin, and hair pigmentation ranging from light to brown. In terms of mental talent, Gunther put representatives of the Nordic type in first place. Representatives of the Nordic type live in northern Germany, Holland, Latvia, Scandinavia, eastern England, and along the entire Baltic coast.
"True Aryans"
Ideas of this kind were very fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century in Europe and the USA. #Racism was not a prohibited theory then; its clear signs can be found, for example, in some of the works of Jack London. Hitler also really liked this theory. It must be said that such ideas often become popular in countries whose residents consider themselves disadvantaged at the present time. They draw hope for a glorious future from myths about the glorious past. This in itself is commendable until the “bearers of glorious traditions” begin to consider themselves exceptional, and representatives of other nations as “subhuman”.
This is exactly what happened in Germany, which suffered defeat in the First World War and was in a state of deep crisis when Hitler came to power. It is not surprising that Hitler's ideas about “Nordic conquerors” and “true Aryans” were very much to the liking of most of the German public. Researchers called Aryans the ancient peoples who spoke languages belonging to the eastern branch of the Indo-European family and belonged to the northern racial type. The word "aire" is of Celtic origin and means "chief", "to know".
According to the creators of racial theory, modern heirs of the ancient Aryans should be tall, blond and blue-eyed. However, it is enough to look at Hitler and his closest associates to see how little this ideal portrait corresponds to the external appearance of the leaders of the Third Reich. Clearly understanding this, the ideologists of National Socialism paid more attention not to appearance, but to the “Nordic spirit,” which, in their opinion, was characteristic not only of representatives of the German peoples, but even, in part, of the Japanese.
Ubermenshi - who are they?
Who, from the point of view of Hitler’s ideologists, could be considered a “racially valuable”, “true Aryan”, “carrier of the Nordic spirit”? We are, of course, talking about representatives of the Germanic peoples. But even here, not everything is so simple. “Purity of blood” was of decisive importance. The Germans had the purest blood. Next came the Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and Dutch, whom Hitler considered, although Aryans, but still not quite “Ubermensch.” It is not entirely clear why the blue-eyed and fair-haired Scandinavians did not please him.
Hitler strongly disliked the inhabitants of the more southern regions of Europe, various French and Spaniards, considering them “mestizo with an admixture of Negroid blood.” However, he still considered the Italians to be carriers of the “Nordic spirit”, thanks to their ideological closeness to Mussolini. “True Aryans” and other “bearers of the Nordic spirit,” according to the ideologists of racial theory, should have taken great care of the purity of their blood, not allowing it to mix with the blood of lower races, and especially with Jewish blood. This is important because, according to the ideologists of fascism, only the “Nordic race” is capable of creativity and development, only representatives of the “Nordic race” created all the great civilizations and cultural achievements.
For this reason, the responsibility of “true Aryans” and “carriers of the Nordic spirit” is to maintain physical health, because a “true Aryan” is not only creative abilities, but also a powerful body. For this same reason, by the way, purebred Germans who suffered from mental illness, epilepsy, etc. were declared “Untermensch” and subject to destruction. The blatant scientific groundlessness of this theory did not prevent it from spreading widely and finding followers not only among the Germans, but also among representatives of those peoples whom Hitler declared “racially inferior,” including among the Russians. And this is a very disturbing fact.
The first racial theories arose in antiquity. Famous philosophers of those times openly discussed the supposedly naturally determined evil inclinations and lack of courage among “barbarian” peoples.
However, the real surge of racism occurred much later - during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe against the backdrop of the Great Geographical Discoveries. Thus, Voltaire, without mincing words, criticized Christianity for its claims about the common origin of all races. The French philosopher called the “inhabitants of the shores of the South Sea” “abominable,” compared them to animals and did not believe that they could have common ancestors with Europeans. Racist theories provided the ideological basis for slavery and the genocidal policies that European colonialists carried out in Africa, America, Australia and Oceania.
- Slavery in the British Empire, antique engraving
In the 19th century, the French sociologist Joseph Arthur de Gobineau formulated his racial theory. The subject of the historical process, in his opinion, was an ethnic group, which he called a race. According to Gobineau, races are not equal to each other, and among white peoples, Aryans occupy a priority position. Moreover, the main criterion is intelligence. Gobineau spoke disparagingly about the Slavs, considering them to be descendants of Aryans who had “degenerated” and mixed with “inferior” races. It was Gobineau’s theory that was largely adopted by the Nazis in the 20th century.
“The political culture of National Socialism is based on the foundation created in the 19th century by the Völkische movement, a highly romanticized view of Germany’s past. As a result, the special role of the Germans in world history and culture, the sacred past and great future of this nation, and its imminent conquest of world space were spoken of absolutely seriously. And in the same way, plans were made to create a state that would last at least a thousand years,” said German historian and writer Sergei Kormilitsyn in a conversation with RT.
Nazi racial policy
Written by Adolf Hitler in the mid-1920s, Mein Kampf is filled with racist and anti-Semitic ideas. The future Nazi Fuhrer contrasted Aryans with Jews and criticized the “Slavicization” of Austria.
In the early 1930s, the German anthropologist Hans Friedrich Karl Gunther met the leadership of the Nazi Party, who shortly before formulated the concept of Nordism, in which the Germans were extolled and the Semites were condemned. Gunther also opposed interracial marriage. The anthropologist's ideas were to the liking of SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, who began to actively implement them.
The fact that these ideas took root so quickly in society was partly facilitated by historical circumstances, experts note. Sergei Kormilitsyn, in particular, recalled that during the First World War, German military propaganda worked excellently. The Germans were confident in the invincibility of their army, in their right to expand their living space: the German Empire, created by Otto von Bismarck, was a country that was “late to the party” - by that time, other European states had long divided their colonies among themselves.
“The Germans perceived defeat in the war as something impossible. Moreover, the troops at the fronts at the time of surrender had not lost their fighting spirit and were eager to fight. This gave rise to the notorious “legend of a stab in the back with a dagger” in the popular imagination.
Who called loudest for an end to the war at any cost, for sabotage of military supplies? Representatives of left parties. And they were the ones to blame. And since their most active representatives were not Germans, but foreigners, both the returning front-line soldiers and those who remained in the rear began to hate them,” Kormilitsyn said in an interview with RT.
Immediately after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, all Jews, with the exception of those who fought in the First World War, were dismissed from government service, and in churches, in order to find out the origins of every resident of the country, mass copying of birth records began, starting with those that were made in the 18th-19th centuries.
In 1934, Rudolf Hess, one of Hitler's closest associates, created a special department for the study of kinship under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Later it received imperial status and became subordinate to the SS and the Ministry of Justice of the Third Reich.
A year later, the so-called Nuremberg racial laws were adopted, regulating issues of citizenship, personal rights and family life in Hitler's Germany - the Reich Citizen Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor.
The fight for “blood purity”
“The Nazi state was originally built on the basis of racial theory. Race was declared to be the basis of his existence. The German population was divided into different categories based on race,” writer and historian Konstantin Zalessky said in an interview with RT.
According to the expert, all races in the minds of the Nazis were built depending on their blood proximity to the Aryans, which, in addition to the Germans, included some Western European peoples. According to the Nazis, the Slavs were at the lowest level of development and did not have the ability to create, so they had to submit to the Aryans.
As for the Jews and Gypsies, according to the historian, in the view of the Nazis they should have been. Based on these considerations, the aforementioned Nuremberg Laws were adopted, which represented the essence of the Nazi regime and were intended to preserve the “purity” of Aryan blood.
Laws of 1935 completely prohibited marriages and personal relations between Germans and Jews. Special government bodies monitored the origins of the bride and groom and did not give permission to create family unions that were objectionable to the Nazis. Previously existing “undesirable” marriages were not dissolved at first, and the Nazis treated Jews related to Germans more loyally than other representatives of this race.
- Aftermath of Kristallnacht, Germany, November 10, 1938
- Wikipedia
However, after the outbreak of World War II, the vast majority of them were sent anyway. Residents of Germany who violated the laws of 1935 faced imprisonment and forced labor for a period of one year. Separately, the laws stipulated the issue of citizenship: a Jew could not be a citizen of the Reich in principle.
“Although there were exceptions. Hitler’s comrade-in-arms, driver and bodyguard Emil Maurice, for example, was the holder of an “honorary Aryan” certificate, and Goering’s phrase “In my ministry, I myself decide who is a Jew and who is not” has become a joke,” noted Kormilitsyn.
“There was no global reaction from the German population to the Nuremberg Laws. This was considered a personal problem for everyone. True, it should be noted that among the German population who were not members of the Nazi Party, the level of anti-Semitism was initially even lower than in some other European states. Ordinary residents of Austria, for example, participated in Jewish pogroms much more actively than the Germans,” emphasized Konstantin Zalessky.
On June 7, 1938, the Nuremberg Laws officially extended to the territory of annexed Austria, which the Nazis called the Ostmark.
Soon, German women who had close relationships with Jews began to be sent to concentration camps.
"Thousand Year Reich"
“Hitler was going to build a “thousand-year Reich,” which was based on the idea that the “superior race,” the German people-master, should rule the world and have their own living space, which, by the way, was planned to include part of our country. And there should be many representatives of this “superior race,” Zalessky noted in a conversation with RT.
- Adolf Hitler
- globallookpress.com
- Knorr + Hirth
The historian recalled that in the minds of the Nazis, the ideal German family should have had many children. It was hoped that thanks to this, the Aryans would occupy their living space, in which not a single Jew should have remained, as quickly as possible. The Slavs were assigned only the role of servants and laborers.
“German soldiers were allowed intimate relationships in the occupied territories only on the condition that children would not be born from these relationships. Hitler believed that all Eastern European peoples had a drop of Aryan blood in them. And the bearers of this blood, in his opinion, could then become the national elite and raise the local population to revolt against the Reich. Therefore, the Nazi leadership planned to assimilate all Slavic children who externally fit Aryan standards - blond and blue-eyed,” the expert said.
- Lebensborn Children's Home
- Scherl
In Germany, in 1935, the Lebensborn organization was founded, subordinate to the SS and providing assistance to German single mothers who gave birth to children from Aryans. Adoptions were also carried out through Lebensborn.
In particular, according to historians, through orphanages belonging to Lebensborn, several tens of thousands of children abducted in Eastern Europe, including the USSR, were transferred to childless German families. Some of them were only five days old at the time of removal from their families. Many remained in Germany, still not knowing about their true origin and considering themselves Germans by nationality.
“Every person in the Reich, in addition to basic documents, was also required to have a racial passport, filled out for several generations. If someone joined the SS, their ancestry was traced back to 1800. And if an SS man got married, his bride was checked in the same way. Therefore, for example, members of the SS were not recommended to marry German women who grew up in Russia - their origin was often impossible to trace,” said Zalessky.
At the same time, according to him, the Nazis treated Christian or even ordinary marriage morality without due reverence. The Nazis viewed extramarital affairs between Germans with loyalty.
“During the war, due to the mass death of men at the front in the Third Reich, even a project arose to legalize polygamy. It was developed by the people of Bormann and Himmler. The first proposed making this a general German practice and even wanted to introduce the position of domina, senior wife, in every family. The second demanded that only war heroes be allowed to have several wives. As we see, the morality of the Nazis was very far from Christian. However, all these plans were not destined to become a reality, since the “thousand-year Reich” did not take place,” the historian concluded.
On June 7, 1938, Nazi laws on the “protection of German blood” came into force in Austria. The population of the annexed country was prohibited from marrying non-Aryans. In Germany, similar rules have been in place for almost three years. Historians note that the strict regulation of personal life was explained by Hitler’s desire to build a “thousand-year Reich” based on the dominant race.
However, the matter was not limited to marriage bans. The Nazis kidnapped children from occupied countries who fit the Aryan standard of appearance, and were even going to introduce polygamy. About the racial policy of the Third Reich - in the RT material.
At the origins of racism
The first racial theories arose in antiquity. Famous philosophers of those times openly discussed the supposedly naturally determined evil inclinations and lack of courage among “barbarian” peoples.
However, the real surge of racism occurred much later - during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe against the backdrop of the Great Geographical Discoveries. Thus, Voltaire, without mincing words, criticized Christianity for its claims about the common origin of all races. The French philosopher called the “inhabitants of the shores of the South Sea” “abominable,” compared them to animals and did not believe that they could have common ancestors with Europeans. Racist theories provided the ideological basis for slavery and the genocidal policies that European colonialists carried out in Africa, America, Australia and Oceania.
Slavery in the British Empire, antique engraving
In the 19th century, the French sociologist Joseph Arthur de Gobineau formulated his racial theory. The subject of the historical process, in his opinion, was an ethnic group, which he called a race. According to Gobineau, races are not equal to each other, and among white peoples, Aryans occupy a priority position. Moreover, the main criterion is intelligence. Gobineau spoke disparagingly about the Slavs, considering them to be descendants of Aryans who had “degenerated” and mixed with “inferior” races. It was Gobineau’s theory that was largely adopted by the Nazis in the 20th century.
“The political culture of National Socialism is based on the foundation created in the 19th century by the Völkische movement, a highly romanticized view of Germany’s past. As a result, the special role of the Germans in world history and culture, the sacred past and great future of this nation, and its imminent conquest of world space were spoken of absolutely seriously. And in the same way, plans were made to create a state that would last at least a thousand years,” said German historian and writer Sergei Kormilitsyn in a conversation with RT.
Nazi racial policy
Written by Adolf Hitler in the mid-1920s, Mein Kampf is filled with racist and anti-Semitic ideas. The future Nazi Fuhrer contrasted Aryans with Jews and criticized the “Slavicization” of Austria.
In the early 1930s, the German anthropologist Hans Friedrich Karl Gunther met the leadership of the Nazi Party, who shortly before formulated the concept of Nordism, in which the Germans were extolled and the Semites were condemned. Gunther also opposed interracial marriage. The anthropologist's ideas were to the liking of SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, who began to actively implement them.
The fact that these ideas took root so quickly in society was partly facilitated by historical circumstances, experts note. Sergei Kormilitsyn, in particular, recalled that during the First World War, German military propaganda worked excellently. The Germans were confident in the invincibility of their army, in their right to expand their living space: the German Empire, created by Otto von Bismarck, was a country that was “late for the holiday” - by that time, other European states had long divided their colonies among themselves.
“The Germans perceived defeat in the war as something impossible. Moreover, the troops at the fronts at the time of surrender had not lost their fighting spirit and were eager to fight. This gave rise to the notorious “legend of a stab in the back with a dagger” in the popular imagination.
Who called loudest for an end to the war at any cost, for sabotage of military supplies? Representatives of left parties. And they were the ones to blame. And since their most active representatives were not Germans, but foreigners, both the returning front-line soldiers and those who remained in the rear began to hate them,” Kormilitsyn said in an interview with RT.
Immediately after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, all Jews, with the exception of those who fought in the First World War, were dismissed from government service, and in churches, in order to find out the origins of every resident of the country, mass copying of birth records began, starting with those that were made in the 18th-19th centuries.
In 1934, Rudolf Hess, one of Hitler's closest associates, created a special department for the study of kinship under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Later it received imperial status and became subordinate to the SS and the Ministry of Justice of the Third Reich.
A year later, the so-called Nuremberg racial laws were adopted, regulating issues of citizenship, personal rights and family life in Hitler's Germany - the Reich Citizen Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor.
The fight for “blood purity”
“The Nazi state was originally built on the basis of racial theory. Race was declared to be the basis of his existence. The population of Germany was divided into different categories based on race,” writer and historian Konstantin Zalessky said in an interview with RT.
According to the expert, all races in the minds of the Nazis were built depending on their blood proximity to the Aryans, which, in addition to the Germans, included some Western European peoples. According to the Nazis, the Slavs were at the lowest level of development and did not have the ability to create, so they had to submit to the Aryans.
As for the Jews and Gypsies, according to the historian, in the view of the Nazis they should have completely disappeared from public life. Based on these considerations, the aforementioned Nuremberg Laws were adopted, which represented the essence of the Nazi regime and were intended to preserve the “purity” of Aryan blood.
Laws of 1935 completely prohibited marriages and personal relations between Germans and Jews. Special government bodies monitored the origins of the bride and groom and did not give permission to create family unions that were objectionable to the Nazis. Previously existing “undesirable” marriages were not dissolved at first, and the Nazis treated Jews related to Germans more loyally than other representatives of this race.
However, after the outbreak of World War II, the vast majority of them were still sent to death camps. Residents of Germany who violated the laws of 1935 faced imprisonment and forced labor for a period of one year. Separately, the laws stipulated the issue of citizenship: a Jew could not be a citizen of the Reich in principle.
“Although there were exceptions. Hitler’s comrade-in-arms, driver and bodyguard Emil Maurice, for example, was the holder of an “honorary Aryan” certificate, and Goering’s phrase “In my ministry, I myself decide who is a Jew and who is not” has become a joke,” noted Kormilitsyn.
“There was no global reaction from the German population to the Nuremberg Laws. This was considered a personal problem for everyone. True, it should be noted that among the German population who were not members of the Nazi Party, the level of anti-Semitism was initially even lower than in some other European states. Ordinary residents of the same Austria participated in the Jewish pogroms during Kristallnacht much more actively than the Germans,” emphasized Konstantin Zalessky.
On June 7, 1938, the Nuremberg Laws officially extended to the territory of annexed Austria, which the Nazis called the Ostmark.
Soon, German women who had close relationships with Jews began to be sent to concentration camps.
"Thousand Year Reich"
“Hitler was going to build a “thousand-year Reich,” which was based on the idea that the “superior race,” the German people-master, should rule the world and have their own living space, which, by the way, was planned to include part of our country. And there should be many representatives of this “superior race,” Zalessky noted in a conversation with RT.
Adolf Hitler globallookpress.com © Knorr + Hirth
The historian recalled that in the minds of the Nazis, the ideal German family should have had many children. It was hoped that thanks to this, the Aryans would occupy their living space, in which not a single Jew should have remained, as quickly as possible. The Slavs were assigned only the role of servants and laborers.
“German soldiers were allowed intimate relationships in the occupied territories only on the condition that children would not be born from these relationships. Hitler believed that all Eastern European peoples had a drop of Aryan blood in them. And the bearers of this blood, in his opinion, could then become the national elite and raise the local population to revolt against the Reich. Therefore, the Nazi leadership planned to assimilate all Slavic children who outwardly fit Aryan standards - blond and blue-eyed,” the expert said.
Lebensborn Children's Home © Scherl
In Germany, in 1935, the Lebensborn organization was founded, subordinate to the SS and providing assistance to German single mothers who gave birth to children from Aryans. Adoptions were also carried out through Lebensborn.
In particular, according to historians, through orphanages belonging to Lebensborn, several tens of thousands of children abducted in Eastern Europe, including the USSR, were transferred to childless German families. Some of them were only five days old at the time of removal from their families. Many remained in Germany, still not knowing about their true origin and considering themselves Germans by nationality.
“Every person in the Reich, in addition to basic documents, was also required to have a racial passport, filled out for several generations. If someone joined the SS, their ancestry was traced back to 1800. And if an SS man got married, his bride was checked in the same way. Therefore, for example, SS members were not recommended to marry German women who grew up in Russia - their origin was often impossible to trace,” said Zalessky.
At the same time, according to him, the Nazis treated Christian or even ordinary marriage morality without due reverence. The Nazis viewed extramarital affairs between Germans with loyalty.
“During the war, due to the mass death of men at the front, the Third Reich even arose a project to legalize polygamy. It was developed by the people of Bormann and Himmler. The first proposed making this a general German practice and even wanted to introduce the position of domina, senior wife, in every family. The second demanded that only war heroes be allowed to have several wives. As we see, the morality of the Nazis was very far from Christian. However, all these plans were not destined to become a reality, since the “thousand-year Reich” did not take place,” the historian concluded.
