# How could Hitler have promoted Aryan superiority when he doesn't look Aryan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991 "2007-07-16T16:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/41 "2007-07-17T22:42:44Z")
I don’t disagree with that at all. I just don’t buy into a categorical declaration that there is no such thing as race. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/42 "2007-07-18T04:12:48Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Be that as it may, forensic scientists have a [different consensus](http://www.pbs.org/saf/1203/teaching/teaching2.htm). [/QUOTE] Yeah, but those characteristics don’t certainly and uniquely identify a body as being of someone of a certain race. Are we really to take seriously a cite that describes a classroom exercise where the length of a bone on a living person is estimated using a meter stick and then multiplied by a factor carried out to two decimal places? There are some physical differences on average. Blacks legs tend to be slightly longer relative to their torso than Caucasions. Their skulls tend to be a little narrower as are their hips. However there is is a lot of overlap partly because there are many of mixed parentage. I doubt that any forensic pathologist would say that a skeleton with all of the above phyical traits was 100% certainly that of a black person. I’ve seen many Caucasians with long shin bones, and with narrow hips and skulls and blacks with long torsos and short legs. > [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > What was the name of the Nazi leader who was assassinated in Hungary? Heydrich? To set the record straight, Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by Czech paratroopers flown from Britain in Czechoslovakia (Prague ?) in 1942. In reprisal the Germans killed about 1600 Czechs including the entire population of the village of Lidice. Pushkin only beat me by 13 hours. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/43 "2007-07-18T04:19:49Z")
[QUOTE=David Simmons] Yeah, but those characteristics don’t certainly and uniquely identify a body as being of someone of a certain race. Are we really to take seriously a cite that describes a classroom exercise where the length of a bone on a living person is estimated using a meter stick and then multiplied by a factor carried out to two decimal places? [/QUOTE] Ok. How about [this](http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2005/2/4/newStudyLinksRaceAndDnaMaterial)? ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/44 "2007-07-18T04:33:44Z")
> [@Q.E.D.="](#): > > Ok. How about this? So you can identify common genetic traits by an exhaustive DNA analysis. I’m not sure how this allows classification by race based on external appearences. I’ll have to re read the cite but it’s possible that there’s a little more to race than has previously been thought. Of course if these guys are in any way associated with that right-wing Stanford think tank, all bets are off. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/45 "2007-07-18T04:36:42Z")
[QUOTE=David Simmons] So you can identify common genetic traits by an exhaustive DNA analysis. I’m not sure how this allows classification by race based on external appearences. [/QUOTE] Well, your statement was that “the entire concept of race is suspect.” Which is apparently not entirely correct. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/46 "2007-07-18T04:38:37Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] Well, your statement was that “the entire concept of race is suspect.” Which is apparently not entirely correct. [/QUOTE] See my edited post. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/47 "2007-07-18T04:40:00Z")
[QUOTE=David Simmons] See my edited post. [/QUOTE] Right, then. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/48 "2007-07-20T00:40:43Z")
[QUOTE=alice\_in\_wonderland] Well, ignoring his hair and eyes for a moment, there sure as hell is something wrong with the front of his pants! Is he wearing a diaper?!?! [/QUOTE] He’s wearing jodhpurs, tucked into boots. See the officer on the left side of the photo. _Re_ Hitler’s height: 5 feet 8 inches was about average for men of his generation. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/49 "2007-07-20T14:17:19Z")
That was my point, that Hitler at 5’8" was about average in height. I was replying to Atomicktom, who was apparently claiming that Hitler was 5’1’. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/50 "2007-07-20T14:30:19Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] That was my point, that Hitler at 5’8" was about average in height. I was replying to Atomicktom, who was apparently claiming that Hitler was 5’1’. [/QUOTE] Yes indeedy, but how many testicles did he have ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/51 "2007-07-20T14:45:44Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] That was my point, that Hitler at 5’8" was about average in height. I was replying to Atomicktom, who was apparently claiming that Hitler was 5’1’. [/QUOTE] I did nothing of the sort. I said, “… **as if** a guy 5’1” was running around telling people that only tall people were worthy of being in charge." (emphasis added) I believe I was attempting to make an analogy. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/52 "2007-07-20T14:46:16Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] That was my point, that Hitler at 5’8" was about average in height. I was replying to Atomicktom, who was apparently claiming that Hitler was 5’1’. [/QUOTE] He was making an analogy. He was saying that a dark haired Hitler saying that only blondes should be in charge was as silly as a leader who was 5’1" saying that only tall people should be in charge. He wasn’t claiming that Hitler himself was 5’1". ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/53 "2007-07-20T17:26:44Z")
But of course, Hitler never said that only blonds should be in charge. That is the misunderstanding here. “Aryan” does not mean “Nordic”. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/54 "2007-07-21T00:44:43Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] But of course, Hitler never said that only blonds should be in charge. That is the misunderstanding here. “Aryan” does not mean “Nordic”. [/QUOTE] You know, I don’t even know why I show up to threads… ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991/55 "2007-07-21T01:12:15Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] Nazi hostility to fringe groups like Jews and the mentally ill has almost nothing to do with their desire to create a eugenic master race. [/QUOTE] I’d really like to give you the chance to explain this comment before I open I thread in the pit over it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-hitler-have-promoted-aryan-superiority-when-he-doesnt-look-aryan/411991.md?page=2)