According to the Germanic racial theory, the carriers of the Aryan blood had biological superiority over the rest of the nations. The reference Aryan is almost all different from others: height, color of skin, hair and eyes, and even body proportions.
Racial ladder
Racial theory is the cornerstone of the foundation of the Third Reich, and it actually distinguishes German National Socialism from Italian fascism. For the Nazis, the principle was the division of races into "higher", capable of self-organization and progress, and "lower", not capable of anything.
At the top of the hierarchical ladder, according to the German racial doctrine, is the Nordic race (Germans and Scandinavians), followed by the East Baltic, Adriatic and Romanesque races. Interestingly, the Germans considered the French "degenerate, negroidized, spoiled," and as a result - inferior.
Even lower on the racial ladder were mestizos (a cross between white and colored peoples), in the basement itself there was a place for representatives of the "black" (Negroid) and "yellow" (Mongoloid) races. The latter, as well as the Slavs, Jews and Gypsies, were scornfully called by the Nazis "untermensch" ("subhumans").
In July 1941, Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler, speaking to SS soldiers, characterized the European conflict as "a war of ideologies and a struggle of races." “On one side is National Socialism: an ideology based on the values of our Germanic, Nordic blood. On the other side there is a 180 million people, a mixture of races and peoples, whose names are unpronounceable and whose physical essence is such that the only thing that can be done with them is to shoot them without any pity or mercy, "Himmler proclaimed.
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True Aryan
The Germans often substituted the concepts of the Nordic and Aryan race, although they are different. The term "Nordic race" was borrowed by the Third Reich from the book of the French writer Joseph Gobineau "Experience on the inequality of human races" (1855), where the author characterized the Nordic subtype of the white race as fair-haired and blue-eyed people. In the same place, Gobino argued that it was the "Nordic race" that was the highest stage in the development of mankind.
The term "Aryan" was originally used to denote peoples speaking the languages of the Indo-Iranian group, and comes from the self-designation of the historical peoples of Ancient Iran and Ancient India. In Russian, this word can be translated as "respected", "worthy", "noble". The concept of "Aryan" was taken out of the traditional context by German ideologists and used solely for the purpose of promoting racial inequality.
The theory of the common Aryan origin of the Germans and Iranians is a product of the work of the Reich ideologists, first of all, Alfred Rosenberg, who on this basis created a coherent picture of history from ancient times to the present: from Aryan India and Persia through Doric Hellas and Italian Rome to “German Europe . Since 1933, race theory has become a compulsory discipline in schools and universities in Germany.
By a special decree, the Iranians were even exempted from the operation of "racial" laws. In 1934, to emphasize the role of Persia as the ancestral home of the Aryan race, with the assistance of German diplomacy, it was officially renamed Iran.
German architects also had a hand in popularizing the myth of the Aryan roots of the Germanic race, designing the building of the National Bank in Tehran in a neo-Persian style. And the SS racial government seriously considered the marriages of German girls with prominent representatives of the military-political and economic elite of Iran in order to "refresh" the blood of the Iranian leadership.
Racial standard
The anthropological, biological aspect is the defining and most graphic one in the Nazi racial theory. To express it, the Germans relied on fertile methodological material. In particular, to the works of the Austrian Catholic monk and publicist Adolf Lanz, who divided humanity into two tribes - the Aryans and the animal people. According to Lanz's views, the Aryans embodied angels, and the monkey people symbolized demons.
There was a place in the ideology of the Reich and the views of the American Egyptologists Gleeddon and Nott, who in the book "Types of Humanity" argued that blacks are closer to monkeys than to other human races, as well as the judgments of the Italian physician Cesare Lombroso, who argued that the skulls of degenerate individuals are different from the skulls of higher beings.
Fascinated by such ideas, Nazi propaganda deduces its own racial standard. The media announced that the true representatives of the Aryan race should have a special skull: with an elongated, convex nape, an oblong face, a small forehead, a narrow nose and a slightly angular chin. In the region of the temples, the skull should be narrowed, and the cheekbones should be located almost vertically.
An indigenous blue-eyed resident of the northern regions of Germany, who is distinguished by high growth (women at least 170, men at least 175 cm), light, almost snow-white skin, thick hair, the color of which varies from completely white to golden. It was believed that in those areas of the body where veins appear, the skin has a slightly bluish tint, and it should not be harmed by sun exposure.
Aryan men have narrow hips and broad shoulders, the female figure is dominated by "long" parameters, in addition, she should have narrow neck, arms and sophisticated facial features. For ideal men and women, the arm span should be 94-97% of the body length.
In addition, the Aryan's weight should be proportional to his height, and the loin should be approximately at a height of 52-53% of the total body length. The back and legs should be devoid of hair, on other parts of the body, except for the head, their manifestations should be mild. And also - symmetrically set eyes, straight and healthy teeth, lack of susceptibility to hereditary diseases, late puberty and late aging.
New generation
An integral part of Nazi racial theory was eugenics, popular in Germany under the name of racial hygiene. According to this theory, strict rules of reproduction should lead to the improvement of the Germanic race and stop the growth of the lower representatives of the human race, which multiplied much faster.
This is how the "Lebensborn" ("source of life") program appeared in the Third Reich, which was personally led by Heinrich Himmler. The main objective of this program was the training of racially pure mothers, as well as the birth and upbringing of healthy children - the future pride of the Aryan nation. Only representatives of the elite German units acted as fathers.
The requirements for the parents of the renewed race were tough: impeccable health, no criminal record and blood purity. The women selected for participation in the gene pool improvement program were placed in orphanages - “Himmler's factories for children”, where they gave birth and raised children in comfortable conditions. If the babies' hair was not light enough, they were irradiated with ultraviolet light until the desired shade was obtained.
Soon Nazi ideologists decided not to limit themselves to mothers from Germany and turned their eyes to Norwegians: blond and blue-eyed Scandinavians were the best suited for the "production" of purebred Aryans. There is information that Slavic women were also selected for the role of "Aryan mothers".
For the entire period of existence of the Lebensborn program, about 8 thousand children were born in Germany, in Norway even more - about 12 thousand. In 1938, Himmler felt that the reproduction of superchildren was too slow. A new proposal has been made to select
pregnant women with a suitable appearance. In exchange for a monetary reward, they were offered to give the babies to the state.
After the end of the war, the women participating in the Lebensborn program had a hard time. In Germany and Norway, they became real outcasts: they were humiliated, beaten, forced to do the dirtiest work. Norway tried to get rid of the children born under the German program by sending them to Germany. But there she denounced them. Several hundred "Norwegian" Aryans were accepted by Sweden, among them - the future ABBA soloist Anni-Fried Lingstad, whose father was an SS sergeant.
Taras Repin