Master race: Difference between revisions

The '''master race''' ({{lang-de|link=no|'''Herrenrasse'''}}) is a [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] concept in [[Nazism|Nazi]] ideology in which the putative "[[Aryan race]]" is deemed the pinnacle of [[Race (classification of human beings)|human racial]] hierarchy.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bryant|first1=Edwin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Grpz1tmcSMC|title=The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate|last2=Bryant|first2=Edwin Francis|last3=Bryant|first3=Professor of Hinduism Edwin|date=2001-09-06|publisher=Oxford University Press, USAUS|isbn=978-0-19-513777-4|language=en}}</ref> Members were referred to as "'''''Herrenmenschen'''''" ("master humans").<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[The Historical Journal]]|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638127|volume=15|number=2|date=June 1972|pages=331–360|title=World Power Status or World Dominion? A Survey of the Literature on Hitler's 'Plan of World Dominion' (1937-19701937–1970)|first=Meir|last=Michaelis|doi=10.1017/S0018246X00002624 |jstor=2638127 |s2cid=162629479 }}</ref>

The Nazi theorist [[Alfred Rosenberg]] believed that the "[[Nordic race]]" was descended from [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]], who he believed had [[Prehistory|pre-historically]] dwelt on the [[North German Plain]] and may have ultimately originated on the lost island of [[Atlantis]].<ref>[[Alfred Rosenberg|Rosenberg, Alfred]], ''[[The Myth of the 20th Century]]''. The term ''Atlantis'' is mentioned two times in the whole book; the term ''Atlantis-hypothesis'' is mentioned just once. Rosenberg (pagep. 24): "It seems to be not completely impossible, that at parts where today the waves of the Atlantic ocean murmur and icebergs move along, once a blossoming land towered in the water, on which a creative race founded a great culture and sent its children as seafarers and warriors into the world; but if this Atlantis-hypothesis proves untenable, we still have to presume a prehistoric Nordic cultural center." Rosenberg (pagep. 26): "The ridiculed hypothesis about a Nordic creative center, which we can call Atlantis – without meaning a sunken island – from where once waves of warriors migrated to all directions as first witnesses of Nordic longing for distant lands to conquer and create, today becomes probable." Original: "''Es erscheint als nicht ganz ausgeschlossen, dass an Stellen, über die heute die Wellen des Atlantischen Ozeans rauschen und riesige Eisgebirge herziehen, einst ein blühendes Festland aus den Fluten ragte, auf dem eine schöpferische Rasse große, weitausgreifende Kultur erzeugte und ihre Kinder als Seefahrer und Krieger hinaussandte in die Welt; aber selbst wenn sich diese Atlantishypothese als nicht haltbar erweisen sollte, wird ein nordisches vorgeschichtliches Kulturzentrum angenommen werden müssen. ... Und deshalb wird die alte verlachte Hypothese heute Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass von einem nordischen Mittelpunkt der Schöpfung, nennen wir ihn, ohne uns auf die Annahme eines versunkenen atlantischen Erdteils festzulegen, die Atlantis, einst Kriegerschwärme strahlenförmig ausgewandert sind als erste Zeugen des immer wieder sich erneut verkörpernden nordischen Fernwehs, um zu erobern, zu gestalten.''"</ref> The [[Nazis]] declared that the [[Aryan race|Aryan]]s were superior to all other races, and believed they were entitled to expand territorially.<ref name="hitler1925">[[Adolf Hitler|Hitler, Adolf]] ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' 1925</ref> The actual policy that was implemented by the Nazis resulted in the [[Aryan certificate]]. This document, which was required by law for all citizens of the Reich, was the "Lesser Aryan certificate" (''Kleiner Ariernachweis'') and could be obtained through an ''[[Ahnenpass]]'', which required the owner to trace their lineage through [[baptism]], birth certificates, or certified proof thereof that all grandparents were of "Aryan descent".

The [[Slavs]], [[Romani people|Roma]], and Jews were defined as being racially inferior and non-Aryan "''[[Untermenschen]]''", and were thus considered to be a danger to the Aryan or [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] master race.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=241}} According to the Nazi secret [[Hunger Plan]] and ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'', the Slavic population was to be removed from Central Europe through expulsion, enslavement, starvation, and extermination,{{sfn|Snyder|2010|pp=162–163162–63, 416}} except for a small percentage who were deemed to be non-Slavic descendants of Germanic settlers, and thus suitable for [[Germanisation]].<ref name = THE>

| pages = 7–33, 164–178164–78

| location = Warsaw, Poland

Gobineau's influence was slight at first. In his letters to [[Alexis de Tocqueville]], he complained that his book was being hushed up in France and was having a real effect only in the United States. Tocqueville, who rejected the book in spite of his friendship with Gobineau, pointed out to him that this was because the book was in accord with the [[Slavery in the United States|slave owners']] interests in the Southern states.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4179816/mod_resource/content/1/THE%20DESTRUCTION%20OF%20REASON.pdf |title=Lukács, György (1952), ''The Destruction of Reason'', pp. 670-1670–71}}</ref> However, in the 1880s the book gained popularity in Germany thanks to the efforts of [[Cosima Wagner]]. In 1899, [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], a [[Germanophile]] Englishman and Cosima Wagner's son-in-law, published ''[[The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century]]''. Expanding upon Gobineau's earlier theories, he argued that [[Western culture|Western civilization]] is deeply marked by the influence of the [[Teutons|Teutonic]] peoples. Chamberlain grouped all European peoples—notpeoples{{snd}}not just Germans, but [[Celts]], [[Slavs]], [[Greeks]], and [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]]—into{{snd}}into the "[[Aryan race]]", a race built on the ancient [[Proto-Indo-European]] culture. At the helm of the Aryan race, and, indeed, all races, he saw the [[Nordic race|Nordic]] or Teutonic peoples.

The "''[[Übermensch]]''" (German) ("Overman" or "Superman") is a [[concept]] in the [[Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche|philosophy of]] German philosopher [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]—he{{snd}}he posited the "''Übermensch''" as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]'' ({{lang-de|link=no|Also Sprach Zarathustra}}). However, Nietzsche never developed the concept on racial grounds. Instead, the "''Übermensch''" "seems to be the ideal aim of spiritual development more than a biological goal".<ref>{{cite book|last=Solomon|first=Robert C.|author-link=Robert C. Solomon|author2=Higgins, Kathleen M.|author2-link=Kathleen Higgins|title=What Nietzsche Really Said|publisher=Schocken Books, a division of Random House, Inc.|year=2000|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780805241570/page/47 47]|isbn=0-8052-4157-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780805241570/page/47}}</ref> [[Nazism]] distorted the concept's real meaning in order to make it fit its 'master race' view.

[[Eugenics]] came to play a prominent role in this racial thought as a way to improve and maintain the [[Racial purity|purity]] of the Aryan master race. Eugenics was a concept adhered to by many thinkers in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, such as [[Margaret Sanger]],<ref>Margaret Sanger, quoted in {{cite book|last=Katz|first=Esther|author2=Engelman, Peter|title=The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Champaign, IL|year=2002|page=319|isbn=978-0-252-02737-6|quote=Our ... campaign for Birth Control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical in ideal with the final aims of Eugenics}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Franks|first=Angela|title=Margaret Sanger's eugenic legacy|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, NC|year=2005|page=30|isbn=978-0-7864-2011-7|quote=...&nbsp;her commitment to eugenics was constant ... until her death}}</ref> [[Marie Stopes]], [[H. G. Wells]], [[Woodrow Wilson]], [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[Madison Grant]],<ref>Grant, Madison. ''The Passing of the Great Race'', Scribner's Sons, 1922.</ref> [[Émile Zola]], [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[John Maynard Keynes]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Opening remarks: The Galton Lecture|journal=[[The Eugenics Review]]|author=Keynes, John Maynard|volume=38|number=1|year=1946|pages=39–40}}</ref> [[John Harvey Kellogg]], [[Linus Pauling]],<ref>Everett Mendelsohn, Ph(March–April 2000).D. [http://harvardmagazine.com/2000/03/the-eugenic-temptation.html "Pauling's Eugenics],: ''The Eugenic Temptation", '', Harvard Magazine, Mar–April 2000''.</ref> and [[Sidney Webb]].<ref>{{cite book

The Nazis took this concept to an extreme by [[Lebensborn|establishing a [[Lebensborn|program]] to systematically genetically enhance]] the Nordic Aryans themselves through a program of [[Nazi eugenics]], based on the [[Eugenics in California|eugenics laws]] of the US state of California,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Eugenics-and-the-Nazis-the-California-2549771.php|title=Eugenics and the Nazis – the California connection|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=November 9, 2003|first= Edwin|last= Black|department=Opinion-editoral}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=this is an opinion piece in the editorial section of a newspaper.|date=April 2017}} to create a [[super race]].<ref name="hitler1925"/>

The modern concept of the ''master race'' is generally derived from a 19th-century [[racial theory]], which posited a [[hierarchy]] of races that was based on darkness of [[Human skin colour|skin colour]]. This 19th-century concept was initially developed by Count [[Arthur de Gobineau|Joseph Arthur De Gobineau]]. Gobineau's basic concept, as further refined and developed in [[Nazism]], placed black [[Indigenous Australians]] and [[Black people|Equatorial Africans]] at the bottom of the hierarchy, while white Northern and Western Europeans (which consisted of [[Germans]], [[Swedes]], [[Icelanders]], [[Norwegians]], [[Danes]], British, Irish, [[Dutch people|Dutch]], [[Belgians|Belgian]] and Northern French) were placed at its top; [[olive skin]]ned white Southern Europeans (who consisted of Southern French, [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]], [[Spaniards]], Italians, [[Romanians]], and [[Greeks]], i.e., those who were called the [[Mediterranean race]], were regarded as another sub-race of the [[Caucasian race]]) and placed in its upper middle ranks; and the [[Semitic race|Semitic]] and [[Hamitic race]]s (supposed sub-races of the Caucasian race) were placed in its lower-middle ranks (because the Jews, were [[Semitic people|Semites]], the Nazis believed their cleverness made them extremely dangerous—theydangerous{{snd}}they had their own plan for [[Jewish world domination]], a [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy]] which needed to be opposed by all thoughtful Aryans).<ref name="hitler1925"/> [[Slavs]] such as [[Polish people|Poles]] and [[Russians]] were not considered Aryans;{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=241}} and neither were the members of the [[Mongoloid race]] (including its offshoots such as [[Malayan race|Malayans]], [[American Indian race|American Indians]]) and [[Multiracial|mixed-race]] people such as [[Eurasianswikt:Eurasian#Adjective|Eurasian]]s, the [[Bronze race|bronze]] [[Mestizos]], [[Mulatto]]s, [[Afro-Asian]]s, and [[Zambo]]s were placed in its lower middle ranks. However, the Japanese were considered [[honorary Aryan]]s.<ref>Snyder (1976). ''Encyclopedia of the Third Reich'', p. 170.</ref>

In their attempt to scientifically prove the racial inferiority of [[Slavs]], German (and Austrian) racial scientists were forced to gloss over their findings which consistently proved that Early Slavs were [[Cephalic index|dolicocephalic]] and fair haired, i.e., "Nordic", while the South Slavic "Dinaric" sub-race was often viewed favourable.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wingfield|first=Nancy Meriwether |title=Creating the Other: Ethnic Conflict and Nationalism in Habsburg Central Europe|year=2003|publisher=Berghahn Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1-57181-385-5|page=203}}</ref> Nazis used the term "Slavic race", and considered Slavs to be non-Aryan.<ref>{{cite book|author = Mark Mazower|title = Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe|date = 7 March 2013|publisher = Penguin Books LimitedLtd.|isbn = 978-0-14-191750-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fischel|first=Jack R.|title=Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust|year=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, MarylandMD|isbn=978-0-8108-7485-5|page=175|quote=The policy of Lebensraum was also the product of Nazi racial ideology, which held the view that the Slavic peoples of the east were inferior to the Aryan race.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Stephenson|first=Jill|title=Hitler's Home Front: Wurttemberg Under the Nazis|year=2006|publisher=Hambledon Continuum|location=London; New York|isbn=978-1-85285-442-3|page=135|quote=Other non-'Aryans' included Slavs, Blacks and Roma.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Levine|first=Alan J.|title=Race Relations Within Western Expansion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DN5w7wPHi6kC|date=1 January 1996|publisher=Greenwood|location=Westport, CT|isbn=978-0-275-95037-8|page=98|quote=Preposterously, Central European Aryan theorists, and later the Nazis, would insist that the Slavic-speaking peoples were not really Aryans}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Timm|first=Annette F.|title=The Politics of Fertility in Twentieth-Century Berlin|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge; New York|isbn=978-0-521-19539-3|page=118|quote=The Nazis' singleminded desire to "purify" the German race through the elimination of non-Aryans (particularly Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs)}}</ref> The concept of a Slavic "[[Untermensch]]" accompanied their political goals, and it was particularly aimed at [[Polish people|Poles]] and [[Russians]]. Germany's immediate goal was ''[[Drang nach Osten]]'' or expansion into the East, which was the first phase in its ultimate plan to conquer Europe, and [[Ukraine]]'s "[[chernozem]]" (black earth) soil was regarded as a particularly desirable zone for colonization by the "'''''Herrenvolk'''''" ({{Audio|De-herrenvolk.ogg|listen}}) ("master people").

{{blockquote|In the hierarchy of Nazi racism, the "Aryans" were the superior race, destined to rule the world after the destruction of their racial arch-foe, the Jews. The lesser races over whom the Germans would rule included the Slavs —– Poles, Russians, Ukrainians.&nbsp;... Hitler's racial policy with regard to the Slavs, to the extent that it was formulated, was "depopulation." The Slavs were to be prevented from procreating, except to provide the necessary continuing supply of slave laborers."<ref>[[Lucy Dawidowicz]], ''The Holocaust and the Historians'', p.10 :10.</ref>}}

<blockquote>There has been in Virginia as earnest a desire to abolish slavery as exists any where at this day. It commenced with the Revolution, and many of our ablest and most influential men were active in recommending it, and in devising plans for the accomplishment of it. The Legislature encouraged and facilitated emancipation by the owners, and many slaves were so emancipated. The leaning of the courts of justice was always ''in favorem libertatis''. This disposition continued until the impracticability of effecting a general emancipation, without incalculable mischief to the master race, and danger of utter destruction to the other, and the evils consequent on partial emancipations, became too obvious to the Legislature, and to the great majority of the people, to be longer disregarded.<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ll/llrd/022/0100/01000191.tif Gales &amp; Seaton's Register, 1836, p191p. 191]</ref></blockquote>

By 1860 Virginian author [[George Fitzhugh]] was using the "challenging phrase 'master race', which soon came to mean considerably more than the ordinary master-slave relationship".<ref>Wish, Harvey ''George Fitzhugh: propagandist of the Old South'' Louisiana State University Press (1943) p270p. 270</ref> Fitzhugh, along with a number of southern writers, used the term to differentiate Southerners from Northerners, based on the [[dichotomy]] that Southerners were supposedly descendants of [[Normans]] / [[Cavaliers]] whereas Northerners were descendants of [[Anglo-Saxons]] / [[Puritans]].<ref>see Watson jr, Ritchie Devon ''Normans and Saxons: Southern Race Mythology and the Intellectual History of the American Civil War'' Louisiana State University Press (2008)</ref>

In 1861, the Southern press bragged that Northern soldiers would "encounter a master race" and knowledge of this fact would cause Northern soldiers' "knees to tremble".<ref>quoted in Grant and Lee: victorious American and vanquished Virginian Praeger (2008) p15p. 15</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Daniel |first=John Moncure |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTRcAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22The+consciousness+of+this+fact+will+cause+their+knees+to+tremble%22&pg=PA24 |title=The Richmond Examiner During the War; Or the Writings of John M. Daniel. With a Memoir of His Life, by His Brother, Frederick S. Daniel |date=1868 |publisher=C. A. Alvord |isbn=978-0-608-42800-0 |pagespage=24 |language=en |quote=The [[First Battle of Bull Run|battle of Manassas]] demonstrated, at once and forever, the superiority of the Southern soldiers, and there is not a man in the army, from the humblest private to the highest officer, who does not feel it. Now, this piece of information is extensivelt diffused in the camp of the enemy. They know now that when they go forth to the field they will encounter a master race. The consciousness of this fact will cause their knees to tremble beneath them on the day of battle. It will demoralize them. It has already done so.}}</ref> The ''[[Richmond Whig]]'' in 1862 proclaimed that "the master race of this continent is found in the southern states",<ref>quoted in Conkling, Henry ''An Inside View of the Rebellion: An American Citizen's Textbook'' (1864) p7p. 7</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Abbott |first=John Stevens Cabot |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z8ALAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22the+master+race+of+this+continent+is+found+in+the+southern+states%22&pg=PA420 |title=The History of the Civil War in America: Comprising a Full and Impartial Account of the Origin and Progress of the Rebellion ... |date=1863 |publisher=G. Bill |pages=419–420 |language=en |quote=The whole experience of the war is an attestation of the truth long since discovered by impartial observers, that the master race of this continent is found in the Southern States. Of a better stock, originally, and habituated to manlier pursuits and exercises, they have ruled in affairs of State by force of the stronger will and larger wisdom that pertain to and distinguish superior races of men, while on the field of battle they have in every contest held a priority of place, conceded to them by their present adversaries.}}</ref> and in 1863 the ''[[Richmond Examiner]]'' stated that "there are slave races born to serve, master races born to govern".<ref>quoted in Senate documents, otherwise publ. as Public documents and Executive documents: 14th Congress, 1st session-, 48th congress, 2nd session and special session (1869) p670p. 670</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1863-06-03 |title=The Apostles of Slavery. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1863/06/03/archives/the-apostles-of-slavery.html |access-date=2023-05-05 |issn=0362-4331 |quote=The Richmond Examiner evidently means to prepare the world for the new gospel of slaveholding which the Confederacy is to preach and practice to the conversion of nations, in the article in question, one paragraph of which we reprint as a specimen of the whole: "The establishment of the Confederacy is verily a distinct reaction against the whole course of the mistaken civilization of the age. For ' Liberty Equality, Fraternity,' we have deliberately substituted Slavery, Subordination and Government. Those social and political problems which rack and torture modern society we have undertaken to solve for ourselves, in our own way, and upon our own principles. That among equals equality is right;' among those who arc naturally unequal, equality is chaos; that there are slave races born to serve, master races born to govern. Such are the fundamental principles which we inherit from the ancient world, which we lifted up in the face of a perverse generation that has forgotten the wisdom of its fathers; by those principles we live and in their defence we have shown ourselves ready to die. Reverently we feel that our Confederacy is a God-sent missionary to the nations, with great truths to breach. We must speak them boldly; and whose hath ears to hear let him hear."}}</ref>

In the works of [[John H. Van Evrie]], a Northern supporter of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]], the term was interchangeable with [[white supremacy]], notably in ''White Supremacy and Negro Subordination, Or, Negroes a Subordinate Race and (so-called) slavery its normal condition'' (1861). In ''Subgeneation: the theory of the normal relations of the races; an answer to miscegenation'' (1864) Van Evrie created the words "subgen" to describe what he considered to be the "inferior races" and "subgeneation" to describe the ‘normal’ relation of such inferior races to whites, something which he considered to be the "very [[Cornerstone Speech|corner-stone]] of democracy";<ref>''Subgeneation'' p42p.42</ref> but these words never entered the dictionary.

{{cite journal| author = Losurdo, Domenico| author-link = Domenico Losurdo| others = Translated by Marella & Jon Morris| year = 2004| title = Toward a Critique of the Category of Totalitarianism| journal = [[Historical Materialism (journal)|Historical Materialism]]| publisher = [[Brill Publishers|Brill]]| volume = 12| issue = 2| pages = 25–55, here p. [50]| issn = 1465-4466| doi = 10.1163/1569206041551663| url = http://www.pssp.org/bbs/data/document/1/Losurdo___Critique_of_Totalitarianism_%282004%29.pdf| format = PDF, 0.2 MB}}</ref> An advocate of the U.S. immigration laws that favored Northern Europeans, Stoddard wrote primarily on the alleged dangers posed by "[[coloured]]" peoples to white civilization, with his most famous book ''[[The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy]]'' in 1920. [[Alfred Rosenberg]] was the leading Nazi who attributed the concept of the East-European "under man" to Stoddard. As the Nazi Party's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg oversaw the construction of a human racial "ladder" that justified Hitler's racial and ethnic policies. Referring to Russian communists, Rosenbeg wrote in his ''[[Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts]]'' (1930) that "this is the kind of human being that [[Lothrop Stoddard]] has called the 'under man.'" ["...den Lothrop Stoddard als 'Untermenschen' bezeichnete."]<ref>

The Nazi racial theorist [[Hans F. K. Günther]] first defined "Nordic thought" in his programmatic book ''Der Nordische Gedanke unter den Deutschen''. The fact that Germans were not purely Nordic was acknowledged by Günther in his book ''[[Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes]]'' ("Racial Science of the German People") from 1922, in which he described the German people as being made up of all five of his European racial categories: Nordic, Mediterranean, [[Dinaric race|Dinaric]], [[Alpine race|Alpine]], and [[East Baltic race|East Baltic]].<ref name=Maxwell150 >Anne Maxwell. Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics, 1870–1940. Eastbourne, England: UK; Portland, Oregon, USA: SUSSEXSussex ACADEMICAcademic PRESSPress, 2008, 2010. Pp. 150.</ref> Most official Nazi comments on the Nordic race were based on Günther's works, and Alfred Rosenberg presented Günther with a medal for his work in anthropology.

The term [[Aryan]] is derived from the [[Sanskrit]] word (ā́rya), which is derived from ''arya'', the original [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] [[endonym|autonym]]. Also, [[Name of Iran|the word ''Iran'']] (from [[Middle Persian]] ''Ērān'', "[[Iranian peoples|the ''Ēr''s]]") is the [[Farsi language|Persian]] word for [the land/place of] the ''Aryans''.<ref name="autogenerated1996">Wiesehofer, Joseph ''Ancient Persia''. New York: 1996 I.B. Tauris</ref>

In [[Nazi Germany]], the [[Nuremberg Laws|Nuremberg Race Laws]] of 1935 forbade [[Anti-miscegenation laws#Nazi Germany|sexual relations and marriage]] between an "Aryan" and a "non-Aryan" in order to maintain the purity of the Aryan race. Such relations became a punishable crime which was known as ''[[Rassenschande]]'' or "racial shame".<ref name="Burleigh1991">{{cite book | author = Michael Burleigh | title = The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945 | url = https://archive.org/details/racialstate00mich | url-access = registration | date = 7 November 1991 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-39802-2 | page = [https://archive.org/details/racialstate00mich/page/49 49]}}</ref> The [[League of German Girls]] was particularly required to instruct girls to avoid ''[[Rassenschande]]'' because according to Nazism, maintaining racial purity was particularly important for young females.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/fink.htm|title=The Jewish Question in Education|first=Randall|last=Bytwerk}}</ref> Aryans found guilty of this crime could face incarceration in a concentration camp, while non-Aryans could even face the death penalty.<ref name="rupp125">[[Leila J. Rupp]], ''Mobilizing Women for War'', p. 125, {{ISBN|0-691-04649-2}}</ref> The Nazis recognized the Germanic people as the master race, and several policies were implemented in order to improve and maintain the Germanic-Nordic ubermenschen Aryan "master race," including the practice of [[eugenics]]. In order to eliminate "defective" citizens and rid the country of the [[intellectual disability|intellectually disabled]] or those who were born with [[genetic deficiencies]], as well as those who were deemed racially inferior, the [[T-4 Euthanasia Program]] was administered by [[Karl Brandt (Nazi physician)|Karl Brandt]], one of Hitler's personal physicians. Additionally, a program of [[compulsory sterilisation]] was also implemented and as a result of it, forced operations were performed on hundreds of thousands of individuals. Many of these [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|policies]] are generally seen as being related to what eventually became known as [[the Holocaust]].<ref name="THE"/>

The Nazis also undertook measures to increase the number of Nordics in Germany. The [[Lebensborn]] program was only open to German women who fit the Nordic profile. During the Nazi [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|occupation of Poland]], the Nazis took young Nordic-looking Polish children who were classified as being descended from ethnic German settlers in order to determine whether or not they were "racially valuable". If that were the case, the young children were taken back to these [[Lebensborn]] houses so they could be raised as Germans.<ref name="Bendersky2013">{{cite book | author = Joseph W. Bendersky|title = A Concise History of Nazi Germany | date = 11 July 2013 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | isbn = 978-1-4422-2270-0 | page = 180}}</ref>

For the "Greater Aryan certificate" Germans had to prove that as far back as January 1, 1800 "none of their paternal nor their maternal ancestors had Jewish or coloured blood".<ref>Quotation in German: "''wer unter seinen Vorfahren väterlicherseits oder mütterlicherseits kein jüdisches oder farbiges Blut hat"''; in: Isabel Heinemann. "Rasse, Siedlung, deutsches Blut", Wallstein Verlag, 1999, {{ISBN|3-89244-623-7}}, p. 54</ref> [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] officers had to prove this reaching back to 1750.

Introduction: Race and Empire in Meiji Japan|first=Ayelet|last=Zohar|publisher=The Asia-Pacific Journal|date=October 15, 2020|accessdate=November 12, 2023}}</ref> In July 1943, promotion of Yamato racial superiority was further affirmed by the Japanese government with the publishing of the ''[[An Investigation of Global Policy with the [[Yamato people|Yamato Race]] as Nucleus]]''.<ref>{{citation| title= Ethnic Engineering: Scientific Racism and Public Opinion Surveys in Midcentury Japan| last=Morris-Suzuki| first= Tessa | publisher=Duke University Press| volume=8 |number=2 | date= Fall 2000| pages=499–529}}</ref>

[[Charles Gabriel Seligman]] also stated that "it must, I think, be recognised that the Mediterranean race has actually more achievements to its credit than any other race, since it is responsible for by far the greater part of Mediterranean civilisation, certainly before 1000 BC (and probably much later), and so shaped not only the [[Aegean civilization|Aegean cultures]], but those of Western as well as the greater part of [[Eastern Mediterranean]] lands, while the culture of their near relatives, the [[Hamites|Hamitic]] pre-dynastic [[Egyptians]], formed the basis of that of [[Egypt]]."<ref>''The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', Vol. 54. (January – June, 1924), p. 30.</ref>

The Nazis explained this by pointing outclaiming that the original [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] and [[Greeks]] were [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] Nordic tribes which had migrated into Italy and [[Greece]], respectivelyduring the Iron Age era. The Nazis also claimed that the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese Empire]]s were examples of Nordic power since, at the time, their governments were run by the descendants of the Germanic [[Visigoths]] who invaded Spain and [[Portugal]] fifteen centuries earlier.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the original ''[[Buck Rogers]]'' stories and [[Comic strip|newspaper cartoons]], Buck Rogers, in his adventures in the 25th century that takes place on Earth, depicts him fighting for ''[[European Americans|Aryan-Americans]]'' from the liberated zone around [[Niagara, New York]], against the ''Red Mongol Empire,'' a Chinese empire of the future which rules most of North America.<ref>''The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'' 1969 Chelsea House—IntroductionHouse{{snd}}Introduction by [[Ray Bradbury]]—Reprints{{snd}}Reprints of the original [[Buck Rogers]] comic strips</ref>