Nazism
is the political doctrine of the National Socialist Party of Germany led by Adolf Hitler
who became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and who assumed absolute dictatorial power until
the defeat of Germany in 1945 at the end of World War II.
Nazism is chiefly remembered for its ideology of racial purity
and of the superiority of the so-called Aryan race.
This ideology resulted in the conquest and destruction of much
of Europe and its peoples and the mass murder of political opponents and those judged
inferior or deviant.
The greatest Nazi crimes were committed against the Jews of
Europe on whom the Nazis unleashed a Holocaust of systematic mass killing, claiming six
million victims, in the name of ‘racial purification’.
The Racial Theories of the Nazis are based on
pseudo-scientific "studies" of the 19th century. Influenced by mystic and
romantic ideas, these political currents reject the principles of equality and common
humanness advanced by the enlightenment.
National Socialist ideology took the idea "race," people of the same
"blood," sharing a common culture and territory. Races compete for territory and
power, and only the fittest survive. Only "pure" races that do not mix with
"inferior" groups are capable of creating lasting civilizations.
Nazis believed that among the "white race," the "Aryans" form the
elite, a "master race" destined to rule and enslave inferior races like the
Slavs. But in order to fulfill their historic destiny, the Germans must first shake off
"alien" political and cultural ideas and purge themselves of "inferior
blood." |