Editing Master race (section)

===Hierarchy===
The modern concept of the ''master race'' is generally derived from a 19th-century [[racial theory]], which posited a [[hierarchy]] of races that was based on darkness of [[Human skin colour|skin colour]]. This 19th-century concept was initially developed by Count [[Arthur de Gobineau|Joseph Arthur De Gobineau]]. Gobineau's basic concept, as further refined and developed in [[Nazism]], placed black [[Indigenous Australians]] and [[Black people|Equatorial Africans]] at the bottom of the hierarchy, while white Northern and Western Europeans (which consisted of [[Germans]], [[Swedes]], [[Icelanders]], [[Norwegians]], [[Danes]], British, [[Irish people|Irish]], [[Dutch people|Dutch]], [[Belgians|Belgian]] and Northern French) were placed at its top; [[olive skin]]ned white Southern Europeans (who consisted of Southern French, [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]], [[Spaniards]], Italians, [[Romanians]], and [[Greeks]], i.e., those who were called the [[Mediterranean race]], were regarded as another sub-race of the [[Caucasian race]]) and placed in its upper middle ranks; and the [[Semitic race|Semitic]] and [[Hamitic race]]s (supposed sub-races of the Caucasian race) were placed in its lower-middle ranks (because the Jews, were [[Semitic people|Semites]], the Nazis believed their cleverness made them extremely dangerous{{snd}}they had their own plan for [[Jewish world domination]], a [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy]] which needed to be opposed by all thoughtful Aryans).<ref name="hitler1925"/> [[Slavs]] such as [[Polish people|Poles]] and [[Russians]] were not considered Aryans;{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=241}} and neither were the members of the [[Mongoloid race]] (including its offshoots such as [[Malayan race|Malayans]], [[American Indian race|American Indians]]) and [[Multiracial|mixed-race]] people such as [[wikt:Eurasian#Adjective|Eurasian]]s, the [[Bronze race|bronze]] [[Mestizos]], [[Mulatto]]s, [[Afro-Asian]]s, and [[Zambo]]s were placed in its lower middle ranks. However, the Japanese were considered [[honorary Aryan]]s.<ref>Snyder (1976). ''Encyclopedia of the Third Reich'', p. 170.</ref>

[[File:No entrance for poles1.jpeg|thumb|German warning in Nazi-occupied Poland 1939 – "[[Nur für Deutsche|No entrance for Poles]]!"]]
In their attempt to scientifically prove the racial inferiority of [[Slavs]], German (and Austrian) racial scientists were forced to gloss over their findings which consistently proved that Early Slavs were [[Cephalic index|dolicocephalic]] and fair haired, i.e., "Nordic", while the South Slavic "Dinaric" sub-race was often viewed favourable.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wingfield|first=Nancy Meriwether |title=Creating the Other: Ethnic Conflict and Nationalism in Habsburg Central Europe|year=2003|publisher=Berghahn Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1-57181-385-5|page=203}}</ref> Nazis used the term "Slavic race", and considered Slavs to be non-Aryan.<ref>{{cite book|author = Mark Mazower|title = Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe|date =  2013|publisher = Penguin Books Ltd.|isbn = 978-0-14-191750-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fischel|first=Jack R.|title=Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust|year=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=978-0-8108-7485-5|page=175|quote=The policy of Lebensraum was also the product of Nazi racial ideology, which held the view that the Slavic peoples of the east were inferior to the Aryan race.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Stephenson|first=Jill|title=Hitler's Home Front: Wurttemberg Under the Nazis|year=2006|publisher=Hambledon Continuum|location=London; New York|isbn=978-1-85285-442-3|page=135|quote=Other non-'Aryans' included Slavs, Blacks and Roma.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Levine|first=Alan J.|title=Race Relations Within Western Expansion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DN5w7wPHi6kC|date=1996|publisher=Greenwood|location=Westport, CT|isbn=978-0-275-95037-8|page=98|quote=Preposterously, Central European Aryan theorists, and later the Nazis, would insist that the Slavic-speaking peoples were not really Aryans}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Timm|first=Annette F.|title=The Politics of Fertility in Twentieth-Century Berlin|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge; New York|isbn=978-0-521-19539-3|page=118|quote=The Nazis' singleminded desire to "purify" the German race through the elimination of non-Aryans (particularly Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs)}}</ref> The concept of a Slavic "[[Untermensch]]" accompanied their political goals, and it was particularly aimed at [[Polish people|Poles]] and [[Russians]]. Germany's immediate goal was ''[[Drang nach Osten]]'' or expansion into the East, which was the first phase in its ultimate plan to conquer Europe, and [[Ukraine]]'s "[[chernozem]]" (black earth) soil was regarded as a particularly desirable zone for colonization by the "'''''Herrenvolk'''''" ({{Audio|De-herrenvolk.ogg|listen}}) ("master people").

In relation to the Nazis' belief in [[Racial hygiene|racial purity]], author and historian [[Lucy Dawidowicz]] wrote:

{{blockquote|In the hierarchy of Nazi racism, the "Aryans" were the superior race, destined to rule the world after the destruction of their racial arch-foe, the Jews. The lesser races over whom the Germans would rule included the Slavs – Poles, Russians, Ukrainians.&nbsp;... Hitler's racial policy with regard to the Slavs, to the extent that it was formulated, was "depopulation." The Slavs were to be prevented from procreating, except to provide the necessary continuing supply of slave laborers."<ref>[[Lucy Dawidowicz]], ''The Holocaust and the Historians'', p. 10.</ref>}}