Editing Racial policy of Nazi Germany (section)

==Policies regarding Poles, Russians, and other Slavs==
{{See also|Nazi crimes against the Polish nation|German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war|Generalplan Ost}}

As early as 1925, Hitler suggested in ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' that the German people needed ''[[Lebensraum]]'' ("living space") to achieve German expansion eastwards (''[[Drang nach Osten]]'') at the expense of the "inferior Slavs". Hitler believed that "the organization of a Russian state formation was not the result of the political abilities of the Slavs in [[Russia]], but only a wonderful example of the state-forming efficacity of the German element in an inferior race."<ref name="Mein Kampf 1">Adolf Hitler, ''Mein Kampf'', 1925  {{Page needed|date=May 2016}}</ref>

After the [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union]], Hitler expressed his future plans for the Slavs:

{{blockquote|As for the ridiculous hundred million Slavs, we will mould the best of them as we see fit, and we will isolate the rest of them in their own pig-styes; and anyone who talks about cherishing the local inhabitants and civilising them, goes straight off into a concentration camp!<ref name="Trevor-RoperWeinberg2013">{{cite book|author1=H. R. Trevor-Roper|author2=Gerhard L. Weinberg|title=Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944: Secret Conversations|date=2013|publisher=Enigma Books|isbn=978-1-936274-93-2|page=466}}</ref>}}

Nazi ideology viewed the Slavic peoples as non-Aryan ''[[Untermenschen]]'' ("sub-humans"), who were targeted for enslavement, expulsion and extermination.<ref name="Gumkowski">{{cite book|url=http://www.dac.neu.edu/holocaust/Hitlers_Plans.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110409034704/http://www.dac.neu.edu/holocaust/Hitlers_Plans.htm|archive-date=9 April 2011|chapter=Hitler's Plans for Eastern Europe|first1=Janusz|last1=Gumkowski|first2=Kazimierz|last2=Leszczynski|first3=Edward|last3=Robert|title=Poland Under Nazi Occupation|format=Paperback|page=219|publisher=Polonia Pub. House|edition=First|year=1961|asin=B0006BXJZ6|access-date=14 March 2014}}</ref> The racial status of Slavs during the Third Reich was inconsistent over time.{{sfn|Ehrenreich|2007|p=10}} Hitler viewed the Slavs as "a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master".<ref name="Welch2013">{{cite book|author=David Welch|title=Hitler: Profile of a Dictator|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-40156-5|page=74}}</ref> Nazi propaganda portrayed the Germanic peoples as "heroes" in contrast to the Jewish and Slavic "sub-humans".{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=83}} Nazi propaganda depicted Eastern Europe as racially mixed "Asiatic" that was dominated by the Jews with the aid of Bolshevism.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=241}} The Nazis considered some people in Eastern Europe to be suitable for Germanization (they were presumed to be of German descent); if they were considered racially valuable they were to be re-Germanized and forcefully taken from their families to Germany and raised as Germans.<ref name="Bendersky2013" />

The final version of ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'', essentially a grand plan for [[ethnic cleansing]], was divided into two parts: the ''Kleine Planung'' ("Small Plan"), which covered actions which were to be taken during the war, and the ''Grosse Planung'' ("Big Plan"), which covered actions to be undertaken after the war was won (to be carried into effect gradually over a period of 25–30 years). The Small Plan was to be put into practice as the Germans conquered the areas to the east of their pre-war borders. The individual stages of this plan would then be worked out in greater detail. In this way, the plan for Poland was drawn up at the end of November 1939.

[[File:Bundesarchiv R 49 Bild-0131, Aussiedlung von Polen im Wartheland.jpg|thumb|left|[[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|Mass expulsion of Poles]] in 1939 as part of the German ethnic cleansing of western Poland annexed to the Reich]]

The plan envisaged removal of the majority of the population of conquered counties, with very small and varied percentages of the various conquered nations undergoing [[Germanisation]], expulsion into the depths of Russia, and other fates, the net effect of which would be to ensure that the conquered territories would be Germanized.<ref name="Gumkowski" /> Himmler declared during the Germanization process that no drop of German blood would be lost or left behind to mingle with any "alien races".{{sfn|Overy|2004|p=543}} The ''[[Wehrbauer]]'' ("soldier-peasants") would settle in a fortified line to prevent civilization arising beyond and threatening Germany.<ref>[[Robert Cecil (British diplomat)|Robert Cecil]], ''The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology'' p. 190 {{ISBN|0-396-06577-5}}</ref>
[[File:Der_Untermensch.jpg|thumb|Cover of the racist propaganda brochure "''Der Untermensch''" published and distributed by [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] in 1942. The Nazi propaganda pamphlet depicted Russians, Jews and various inhabitants of Eastern Europe as "subhumans".{{sfn|Müller|Ueberschär|2009|p=245}} <ref>{{Cite journal |title=Der Untermensch |url=https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1077/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126075206/https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1077/ |archive-date=26 November 2020 |journal=Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection|date=January 1942 }}</ref>]]
The Nazis issued the [[Polish decrees]] on 8 March 1940 which regulated the working and living conditions of Polish laborers ([[Zivilarbeiter]]) used during World War II in Germany. The decrees set out that any Pole "who has sexual relations with a German man or woman, or approaches them in any other improper manner, will be punished by death."<ref name="Gellately2001">{{cite book|author=Robert Gellately|title=Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany|url=https://archive.org/details/backinghitlercon00gell|url-access=registration|date=8 March 2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-160452-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/backinghitlercon00gell/page/155 155]}}</ref> The [[Gestapo]] were extremely vigilant about sexual relations between Germans and Poles and pursued any case relentlessly where this was suspected.<ref name="Gellately1990">{{cite book|author=Robert Gellately|title=The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy, 1933–1945|year=1990|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-820297-4|page=224}}</ref> There were similar regulations used against the other ethnic groups brought in from Eastern Europe, including the death penalty for sexual relations with a German person.<ref name=Gellately1990/> During the war, hundreds of Polish and Russian men were executed for their relations with German women.<ref>{{cite book| title = Nazi Ideology and the Holocaust | date = January 2007 | publisher = United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | isbn = 978-0-89604-712-9 | page = 58}}</ref><ref>Diemut Majer, ''"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich'', p. 855</ref>

Heinrich Himmler, in his secret [[memorandum]] "Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East" dated 25 May 1940, expressed his own thoughts and the future plans for the populations in the East.<ref name=HimmlerEast1>{{cite book |chapter=Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East |last=Himmler |first=Heinrich |date=25 May 1940 | title=Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10 |pages=147–150, Vol. 13 | publisher=US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia}}</ref> Himmler stated that it was in the German interest to discover as many ethnic groups in the East and splinter them as much as possible, find and select racially valuable children to be sent to Germany to assimilate them and restrict non-Germans in the General Government and conquered territories to four-grade elementary school which would only teach them how to write their own name, to count up to 500 and to obey Germans.<ref name=HimmlerEast1 /> Himmler believed the Germanization process in Eastern Europe would be complete when "in the East dwell only men with truly German, Germanic blood".<ref>Mark Mazower, Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe, p. 181</ref>

After the launch of [[Operation Barbarossa]] in 1941, [[Nazi Germany]] officially described the military invasion as a "European crusade against Bolshevism" in the international arena. On the other hand, [[Nazi Propaganda|Nazi propaganda]] targeting domestic audiences vigorously depicted the war against Soviet Union as a racial struggle of Aryans against "Jewish and Slavic ''[[untermensch]]en''" to annihilate "[[Judeo-Bolshevism|Judeo-Bolsheivism]]".{{sfn|Müller|Ueberschär|2009|pp=243, 244}} [[Reich Security Main Office]] (RSHM) proliferated conspiratorial, racist propaganda themes that identified "Jewishness with Bolshevism" and vilifiied Slavs as "''[[untermensch]]en''". These tropes were key elements of Nazi ideology and propaganda throughout [[World War II]].{{sfn|Müller|Ueberschär|2009|p=245}}