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The master race (German: Herrenrasse) is a pseudoscientific concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative "Aryan race" is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy.[1] Members were referred to as "Herrenmenschen" ("master humans").[2]
The Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg believed that the "Nordic race" was descended from Proto-Indo-Europeans, who he believed had pre-historically dwelt on the North German Plain and may have ultimately originated on the lost island of Atlantis.[3] The Nazis declared that the Aryans were superior to all other races, and believed they were entitled to expand territorially.[4] 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, 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 master race.[5] 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,[6] except for a small percentage who were deemed to be non-Slavic descendants of Germanic settlers, and thus suitable for Germanisation.[7]
- ^ Bryant, Edwin; Bryant, Edwin Francis; Bryant, Professor of Hinduism Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate. Oxford University Press, US. ISBN 978-0-19-513777-4.
- ^ Michaelis, Meir (June 1972). "World Power Status or World Dominion? A Survey of the Literature on Hitler's 'Plan of World Dominion' (1937–1970)". The Historical Journal. 15 (2). Cambridge University Press: 331–360. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00002624. JSTOR 2638127. S2CID 162629479.
- ^ 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 (p. 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 (p. 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."
- ^ Hitler, Adolf Mein Kampf 1925
- ^ Longerich 2010, p. 241.
- ^ Snyder 2010, pp. 162–63, 416.
- ^ Janusz Gumkowski and Kazimierz Leszczynski. "Hitler's Plans for Eastern Europe". Warsaw: Polonia Publishing House. pp. 7–33, 164–78. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011.