Did the nazis believe their own theories?

I don't know how much the ordinary German thought about the idea of a supreme Aryan race, but its pretty clear that Hitler himself believed it absolutely.

Well who are 'they'? The leaders or Hitler himself? I'd imagine the Nazi's attracted many opportunists who saw the benefits of being the 'in' crowd in a totalitarian regime. They perhaps were manipulative (I don't know enough about the Nazi leadership to comment on who may have fallen into that category) Hitler and those closest to him certainly did not believe it for manipulative purposes. Maybe Goebbels... Who knows.

There is an abundance of literature on this subject... hard to say what has happened in the minds of the party... I am sure that most people  in the party didn't believe them - and some opportunists "believed" for the sake of believing, to further their own gains, such things that humans are fond of throughout history. That at least is a summary of some viewpoints that may have been shared by the individuals that were in and around the party.

I think that most Nazis and German citizens at the time DID believe in it.

Actually, the Nazi theory of a superior "Aryan race" was nothing new at the time. throughout the 19th century the belief of distinct biological races was firmly entrenched in the minds of Europeans (it is even today among certain sectors of the population). Not only in Germany, but also in Britain, Sweden, Belgium, France...

The only difference between the Nazis and the racialist policies of the European colonial empires was their belief in "exterminating" the inferior races, instead of "subjugating them".

Originally posted by Etnad believed all of this, or did they just use it as a way to power?

Like any violent movements, the NAZI movement was a mix of motives and varying degrees of belief in the stated ideology.

Edited by Cryptic - 08-Jun-2009 at 17:02

This is a fact that Germans were originally an Aryan people but after Nazi Racism, Germans themselves don't like to believe this fact!

Aryan is just a sub-group of Indo-European, someone can be an Aryan who calls himself/herself Aryan too, for example from very ancient times we see Persians have always called themselves Aryan, Darius the Great says "I am a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage" or Ardeshir I, the founder of Sassanid empire, says just Aryan, not even Persian:

Originally posted by Inah Swedish Race Biology, the foundation for Nazi beliefs ?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3juX8ASLns0

Not really, they were quite different. The Swedish institution, created in the 1920s was based on American and English predecessors and the aim was originally to get rid of hereditary deceases, not to prove any übermenschen theories. It did however attract some rather dubious individuals: Herman Lundborg was kicked out after people realized he had Nazi ideas and replaced by Dahlberg, who was openly hostile to the Nazis. However, they did some really nasty things, like sterlisiation of mentally retarded (which was relatively popular in several "civilized" nations in the West ), but it wasn't Nazism. The aryan superiority nonsense started appearing in the end of the 19th century in England and Germany and is a different matter.

The word "race" has so bad connotations nowadays it gives you a slightly wrong perception. I might add that the name of the institution was changed to "Genetical Research Institution" or somesuch in the 50s and continued to work. Genetical research is actually quite similar to what those guys were trying to do, albeit with modern technology and different name.


Edited by Styrbiorn - 09-Jun-2009 at 15:59