The Nazi Party's Racial Ideology:     

The scientific basis for the ideaology derives from German social darwinists in the late 19th centruy. Like the darwinists before them, the Nazis believed that people can be classified through races solely based on specific recurring characteristics that a respective 'race' has. These characteristics tied directly with a race's physical appearance, intellectual capability, ways of life, cultural sophistication, strength, and even military prowess. The Nazis also adopted the Darwinist ideology of 'survival of the fittest' where survival depended on a race's ability to reproduce quickly, adapt to changes, keep the gene pool pure, and preserve racial characteristics. This helped justify the Nazi's cause to war: races had to expand to survive. Cross-breeding could not be done either as it would create impure gene pools: degeneration. Because Earth's resources are finite, an infinite and external struggle for conquest and extermination of other races was the only means for survival. Any race that failed to expand would disappear or face extermination.

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| German Soldiers marching through newly annexed Vienna, Austria. |

| Courtesy of AP Photo, File |

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| Jewish children being kept in the Auschwitz concentration camp. |

| Courtesy of Getty Images |

| Nazi poster comparing 'superior' Aryan children to 'inferior' Jewish children. |

| Courtesy of the Library of Congress |

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"As long as there have been men on the Earth, the struggle between man and the subhuman will be the historic rule; the Jewish-led struggle against the mankind, as far back as we can look, is part of the natural course of life on our planet. One can be convinced with full certainty that the struggle for life and death is just as much a law of nature as is the struggle of an infection to corrupt a healty body."

- Reichfurer-SS Heinrich Himmler

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What does this mean for Racial groups

throughout the world?

The Nazis believed it was their duty to preserve

the purity of the Aryan gene pool and

exterminate all biologically inferior races that

threatened this purity. This resulted in the

persecution of physically ‘inferior’ beings such

as the disabled, mentally retarded, and those

with genetic flaws. Apart from physically

‘inferior’ beings, the Nazis also sought to

complete the exterminations of subhuman races

(untermenschen) such as Roman gypsies, Slavics,

Asiatic races, and most importantly the Jews. ​​​​​​​

This mass racial, cultural, and ethnic 

cleansing became known to the world as the

Holocaust.

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