Something that has long puzzled me about Hitler’s racial superiority philosophy.
Unless I’m recalling wrongly, he was of the opinion that the superior man has blonde hair and blue eyes, wasn’t he? Seeing as how that described neither his own features nor that of Eva Braun…did he intend to not reproduce? How, after convincing all these German Aryans to be proper Nazi racists, did none of them say, “We should be commanding him!” How did his own superiority in Germany not belie his purported beliefs? Were there any German Aryans who tried to oust Hitler based on that (only to find themselves put down by the secret police or some such)?
**cmkeller[/B, the short answer is that an Aryan was not formally defined as being blond or blue-eyed.
Blalron, Hitler defined the German nation as the cultures that spoke German, hence his idea of a Greater Germany, and his justification for the occupation of Austria and the German-speaking portion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Hitler, a native of Austria, did become a German citizen before becoming Chancellor.
Further answer: Hitler gave his ideas on the history and character of the Aryan people most directly in the Nation and Race chapter of Mein Kampf. In it, the only reference he makes to the physical characteristics of Aryans is lighter skin (“After a thousand years and more, the last visible trace of the former master people is often seen in the lighter skin color which its blood left behind in the subjugated race, and in a petrified culture which it had originally created”).
In Cecil’s article Was Hitler part Jewish?, he references historian John Toland’s statement that Hitler had the Nazi laws defining Jewishness written to exclude himself and Jesus Christ from that definition. Although it is not the same as defining an Aryan, this may be what Little Nemo is thinking of.
Yes, I remeber a quote from one of the Nazi leaders (who IIRC was involved in the adminstration of territiories on the Eastern Front) which went along the lines of: "If I looked like Himmler I wouldn’t go on so much about the ‘master race’ "
The Nuremberg Laws themselves did not define their classifications of “German and related blood” and “Jew”.
A later government ordinance defined “full Jew” as a person with three or more Jewish grandparents. Which could be have been construed as exluding Jesus as he had only two grandparents at all (St. Joachim and St. Anna). The ordinance also defined categories of people to be discriminated against to a lesser degree, including persons with two and one Jewish grandparents - Jesus clearly qualifying.
To mention Hitler by name would have been too blatant - would have made people wonder, obviously.
BTW sorry to disappoint, but in Germany blonds are in the minority - are now, were then. I haven’t any cite but looking at groups of middle-aged German men (excluding women and teenagers for obvious reasons) I’d estimate less than one in ten is blond. Probably more like one in twenty.
