Well they obviously hated Jews and Gypsies, but what did they think of the English, French, Norwegian etc? I know they thought of the Russians as being sub-human, but I’m wondering what they thought about the other Europeans they fought: were they “racially inferior” too?
Yes; they called them mongrels for one thing. I don’t know what they thought of nationalities that were blonder than Germans.
Well, I suppose you could look at the text of Mein Kampf, especially the chapter “Nation and Race” and see in his own (translated) words what Hitler thought about them.
But he’s really not very specific there. In general, it seems that the more ‘germanic’ the nationality was, the better he thought they were. The eastern europeans, like Poles, russians, etc. (slavs) were all sub-human to him, for example. But the English & North Americans were semi-germanic, so not so bad. (South Americans were worse, because they had inter-bred with the natives, he thought.) Not really sure what he thought about the French. But then, it’s pretty hard to find much logic in his thinking at all!
Ethnic Scandinavians were classified as fellow Aryans by the Nazis, and yes, that had some practical consequences. Children born to Scandinavian mothers and German soldier fathers, for instance, could be sent to orphanages in Germany where they were classified as Lebensborn. And after a student protest at the University of Oslo, the male students were arrested and deported, but treated surprisingly well considering we’re talking about a regime that thought nothing of a few hundred summary executions to put a little fear into the populace.
On the other hand, those accused of participating in the civilian or military resistance were not spared because they were Aryan; even when it came to their own people, after all, we’re talking about a regime that thought nothing of a few hundred summary executions to put a little fear into the populace.
What about other, non-European races, like the Japanese?
And, as I recall, didn’t the Nazis declare that the Iroquois were “racially pure,” after finding out that some high-ish up Nazi official had an indian great-grandfather, or something?
The Nazi racial hierachy was not really based upon logic but was generally molded to fit the prejudices of the Nazis an often used as a matter of convience. the Scandavians, Dutch, Flemish, Swiss, Austrian, English, etc. were all regarded as Germanic thus were generally treated better. The French were regarded as at least partly Germanic. The Italians, Spanish, Greeks, Bretons, Irish, etc. were also thought of as Ayrans and were not subject to racial extermination. The Slavs too were thought of as Ayrans and despite poor treatment were expected to eventually take their place in an ‘Ayran empire’ ruled over by the ‘Germanic tribes’.
Gypsies who spoke an Indo-European language and orginated from Northern India (from where the term ‘Ayran’ orginated) presented a problem to the prejudices Nazi racial ‘scientists’, thus it was decided that most Gypsises were not ‘pure Gypsies’ but the result of intermixing between the orginal Gypsies with Turkic people and criminals. A few hundred Gypsies were designated as pure Gypsies and allowed to carry on their lifestyle.
I’m not sure exactly what the Nazis thought oftheir Japanese allies, but there did exist a Japanese Nazi party.
There were also various smaller ethnic groups on Nazi-occupied territories that were designated Ayran, but treatment of different peoples varied wildly and followed no real logical pattern.
Are you sure about this? To my understanding Lebensborn was a special program to breed Ayrans. The mothers (blond and all) and the fathers (usually some SS-members in good physical shape) were especially selected, then the children taken away from them to orphanages.
Maybe a Norwegian mother (blond and all) and a German soldier might qualify, but I don’t think it was practiced.
Ohh well, flodnak, maybe I should start searching the net * before* I post. According to this you were completely right. There were about 12000 Norwegian children in Lebensborn orphanages. As compared to 8000 German ones!
According to this link, also children from eastern Europe were kidnapped to the orphanages if they looked ayran!
Hitler’s racial thoughts roughly compared to the division made by several American and German biologists and social scientists: that the ‘white’ race was actually composed of three different types- the Nordics, the Alpine, and the Mediterrenean.
Nordics were the Swedish and Germanic stock, strong of body and mind- this would include the British, who were Anglo-Saxons; Alpines were lesser, though still strong peoples, who made up the body of France; Mediterreneans were the worst, short, stocky, and hereditarily lazy and dishonest, and made up most of southern France, Spain, Italy and Greece, though it was also believed that the Celts of old (and thus the Irish) were of this stock. The Slavs who made up Eastern Europe were not, in this mindset, whites, but rather Orientals, as their stock had been ‘corrupted’ by Mongols.
For better details on this, read “The Passing of the Great Race” by Madison Grant, which Hitler referred to as his “bible”; or read Edwin Black’s latest book “War Against The Weak”, in which he shows how the eugenics movement of the Victorian era fostered scientific racism which led validity and cover to the Nazi Party.
No big deal that you didn’t know that, T. Mehr! It’s only recently that Norwegians were willing to talk about the fate of the thousands of Norwegian/German children born during the war. It’s still a sore spot for many people.
Hitler saw the rest of Western Europe as a mixture of Aryan stock and lesser races, with a varying degree of Jewish contamination.
If another country was amenable to Nazi policy, well, that showed their Aryan goodness rising to the surface.
If they werent, then that showed their racial degenaracy and/or the influence of Jews.
For example:
He admired Britain as fellow Aryans, and originally hoped for an alliance - and blamed Anglo-German hostility on Jewish influences.
The Russian masses were sub-human: Russian achievements were due to an aryan aristocracy (which the revolution replaced with a Jewish elite)
While the Jews are always a scapegoat for their different beliefs and refusal to assimilate, there is no telling where Hitler would have stopped with the genecide. The cold truth is that the Nazis would have had no tolerance for anyone deemed “different”. Once they were done with the Jews, who knew who was next? I refer you to a famous quote by a non-Jew witness to the hysteria:
Although not a direct quote, the words were effectively:
When they came for the Jews, I didn’t speak out because it didn’t concern me, and when they came for the Catholics, I didn’t speak out, and when they came for the…I didn’t speak out. Now, who will speak out now that they come for me? (I may have a reference book with the exact quote which I’ll re-post.) Maybe some SDoper has the exact quote?
You get the point? (Was South Africa any different? Bosnia? How many genecides must one man witness before you can call him a man?) The Nazis had a no-tolerance policy all stemming from one little disgruntled, self-absorbed art student who couldn’t handle rejection! Also, let us not forget how Hitler killed his own top dogs who brought him into power because “they knew too much”. This bloody night was known as “The Night of the Long Knives”. (did you expect there to be honor amongst thieves?) With a madman in power, you can trust him as far as you can throw him. In some ways, this sick thinking is parallel to France’s reign of terror. Everyone was suspect, and a history text I was just reading stated that 80% of those killed in the French Revolution were commoners wrongfully accused or victims of circumstances.
Perhaps, Hitler might have started rounding up all those deemed to lack a German connection in the lands he occupied. Of course, Hitler was quick to pardon himself for having Jewish blood in his own family tree! …Although the OP calls for some conjecturing, I think the cold hard facts speak for themselves. - Jinx
The quote was from Martin Niemoller.
Hitler was very pro-British and wanted to carve up the world with us - Germany gaining Lebensraum from the Slavs in the west while we kept our empire.
The British weren’t too keen on him.
The slavs in the East…
Oswald Mosley excepted…
Edward VIII too…
…and Lord Beaverbrook (cue chorus of ‘Blame Canada’)…
In general though, the British didn’t really take to the man who copied Chaplin’s moustache…
I think that for reasons of political expediency, the Japanese were designated as “Yellow Aryans” and considered vastly superior to other Asians. There’s no real logical set of rules for all of this, just a combination of insane prejudices and political necessities.
500th post! And it only took me two and a half years!
Actually, as long as it appeared that Hitler’s primary target was the USSR, which it was, the British ruling class was perfectly content with him.
You don’t need to tell Anni-Frid Lyngstad that. Mind you, her fate wasn’t so bad, was it?
The Working and Middle classes weren’t so content, apart from a relatively few number of Mosley’s Blackshirts.
Von Ribbentrop wasn’t exactly a hit with the ruling classes, despite his best efforts to integrate (cite: Shirer’s 'Rise and fall…) The British never had to make the choice between Communism and Nazism though…