Editing Master race (section)

==Aryanism and Nazism==
{{Main|Aryanism|Aryan race|Nazi racial theories|Racial policy of Nazi Germany}}
{{see also|Aryanization|The Myth of the Twentieth Century}}
The term [[Aryan]] is derived from the [[Sanskrit]] word (ā́rya), which is derived from ''arya'', the original [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] [[endonym|autonym]]. Also, [[Name of Iran|the word ''Iran'']] (from [[Middle Persian]] ''Ērān'', "[[Iranian peoples|the ''Ēr''s]]") is the [[Farsi language|Persian]] word for [the land/place of] the ''Aryans''.<ref name="autogenerated1996">Wiesehofer, Joseph ''Ancient Persia''. New York: 1996 I.B. Tauris</ref>

Following the ideas of Gobineau and others, the Nazi theorist [[Alfred Rosenberg]] determined that these people, who, he claimed, were originally from [[Atlantis]], were a dynamic [[warrior people]] who dwelt in northern climates on the [[North German Plain]] in [[Prehistory|prehistoric times]], from which they migrated southeast by riding their [[chariots]], eventually reaching [[Ukraine]], [[Iran]], and then India. They were supposed to be the ancestors of the ancient [[Germanic tribes]], who shared their warrior values. Rosenberg opposed Christianity because to him, it was an alien [[Semitic people|Semitic]] [[master-slave morality|slave-morality]] which was inappropriate for the warrior Aryan master race and in its place, he supported a melange of aspects of [[Hindu]] [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic]] and [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] teachings (both of these religions were organised by Aryans), along with pre-Christian European [[Odinism|Odinistic paganism]], which he also considered distinctively Aryan in character.<ref name="ReferenceA">[[Alfred Rosenberg|Rosenberg, Alfred]] ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century|Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts]]'', 1930 ("The Myth of the 20th Century")</ref>

In [[Nazi Germany]], the [[Nuremberg Laws|Nuremberg Race Laws]] of 1935 forbade [[Anti-miscegenation laws#Nazi Germany|sexual relations and marriage]] between an "Aryan" and a "non-Aryan" in order to maintain the purity of the Aryan race. Such relations became a punishable crime which was known as ''[[Rassenschande]]'' or "racial shame".<ref name="Burleigh1991">{{cite book | author = Michael Burleigh | title = The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945 | url = https://archive.org/details/racialstate00mich | url-access = registration | date =  1991 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-39802-2 | page = [https://archive.org/details/racialstate00mich/page/49 49]}}</ref> The [[League of German Girls]] was particularly required to instruct girls to avoid ''[[Rassenschande]]'' because according to Nazism, maintaining racial purity was particularly important for young females.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/fink.htm|title=The Jewish Question in Education|first=Randall|last=Bytwerk}}</ref> Aryans found guilty of this crime could face incarceration in a concentration camp, while non-Aryans could even face the death penalty.<ref name="rupp125">[[Leila J. Rupp]], ''Mobilizing Women for War'', p. 125, {{ISBN|0-691-04649-2}}</ref> The Nazis recognized the Germanic people as the master race, and several policies were implemented in order to improve and maintain the Germanic-Nordic ubermenschen Aryan "master race," including the practice of [[eugenics]]. In order to eliminate "defective" citizens and rid the country of the [[intellectual disability|intellectually disabled]] or those who were born with [[genetic deficiencies]], as well as those who were deemed racially inferior, the [[T-4 Euthanasia Program]] was administered by [[Karl Brandt (Nazi physician)|Karl Brandt]], one of Hitler's personal physicians. Additionally, a program of [[compulsory sterilisation]] was also implemented and as a result of it, forced operations were performed on hundreds of thousands of individuals. Many of these [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|policies]] are generally seen as being related to what eventually became known as [[the Holocaust]].<ref name="THE"/>

The Nazis also undertook measures to increase the number of Nordics in Germany. The [[Lebensborn]] program was only open to German women who fit the Nordic profile. During the Nazi [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|occupation of Poland]], the Nazis took young Nordic-looking Polish children who were classified as being descended from ethnic German settlers in order to determine whether or not they were "racially valuable". If that were the case, the young children were taken back to these [[Lebensborn]] houses so they could be raised as Germans.<ref name="Bendersky2013">{{cite book | author = Joseph W. Bendersky|title = A Concise History of Nazi Germany | date =  2013 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | isbn = 978-1-4422-2270-0 | page = 180}}</ref>

In Nazi Germany, the [[Aryan certificate]] was an official document which certified that its owner was an Aryan. Aryan certificates could also be obtained by citizens of other countries. In its section which is titled ''Racial Tenet'' (''Rassegrundsatz''), the Aryan certificate states:

{{blockquote|In line with national socialist thinking which does full justice to all other peoples, there is never the expression of superior or inferior, but alien racial admixtures.<ref>German: "Dem Denken des Nationalsozialismus entsprechend, jedem anderen Volke volle Gerechtigkeit widerfahren zu lassen, ist dabei niemals von höher- oder minderwertigen, sondern stets nur von fremden Rasseneinschlägen die Rede."</ref>}}

For the "Greater Aryan certificate" Germans had to prove that as far back as January 1, 1800 "none of their paternal nor their maternal ancestors had Jewish or coloured blood".<ref>Quotation in German: "''wer unter seinen Vorfahren väterlicherseits oder mütterlicherseits kein jüdisches oder farbiges Blut hat"''; in: Isabel Heinemann. "Rasse, Siedlung, deutsches Blut", Wallstein Verlag, 1999, {{ISBN|3-89244-623-7}}, p. 54</ref> [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] officers had to prove this reaching back to 1750.

During a speech he made in 1936, Nazi Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] said:

{{blockquote|Today arises in young and old, high and low, poor and rich, the will that the German nation must again be a world people. All of us are convinced of it: we must participate in the ruling of the world. We must become a master race, and therefore we must educate our people to be a master race. This must begin with the smallest child, who must be educated in this master-ethic.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Eberhard Aleff|author2=Walter Tormin|author3=Friedrich Zipfel|title=Das Dritte Reich|year=1970|publisher=Verlag für Literatur und Zeitgeschehen|page=129|language=de|quote=Heute steckt in jung und alt, in hoch und niedrig, in arm und reich der besessene Wille, die deutsche Nation wieder zu einem Weltvolk emporzuführen. Jedermann bei uns ist davon überzeugt: Wir müssen an der Beherrschung der Welt teilnehmen. Wir müssen deshalb ein Herrenvolk werden, und deshalb müssen wir unser Volk zum Herrenvolk erziehen. Das muß schon beim kleinsten Pimpf anfangen, der schon in dieser Herrenmoral erzogen werden muß.}}</ref>}}

In 1943, ''Reichskommissar'' for Ukraine [[Erich Koch]] reminded Germans:

{{blockquote|We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here.<ref>{{cite book|author=Horst Von Maltitz|title=The Evolution of Hitler's Germany: The Ideology, the Personality, the Moment|year=1973|publisher=McGraw-Hill|isbn=978-0-07-067608-4|page=53}}</ref>}}