The Nazi Ideology and Worldview

Introduction

The Nazi ideology solely supported a racial hierarchy and rejected the idea of human equality. This placed the Jews at the bottom and the Nordic German Aryans at the top. People of all other hues were positioned in between.

Spencer contributed the idea of Survival of the Fittest to Darwin's theory of Natural Selection, which he put out to explain biological evolution. These hypotheses contributed to our knowledge of how complex species developed from simpler ones. Hitler used Darwin and Spencer's theories to fit his own worldview. Hitler desired human action to secure the eradication of other races, but Darwin and Spencer never discussed it. He believed that such races were unfit for existence and should be wiped out to make room for the Nordic German Aryans, the purest race.

The geopolitical idea of Lebensraum, or living space, was also relevant to Hitler's ideology. He was an advocate of expanding into new areas in order to extend the Nordic German Aryan race.

Creation of a Racial State

The Nazis moved fast to carry out their plan to establish an exclusive German-only ethnic enclave. They achieved this by violently eradicating everyone who was seen to be "undesirable" inside the larger empire. The only race seen to be "ideal" was the healthy, pure Nordic Aryan population. Under the Euthanasia Program, many 'undesirable' Germans were put to death. Under this practice, even those who were mentally or physically unfit were slain.

There was widespread persecution of the Jews, Russians, and Poles. The abducted citizens were made to serve as slave labour after the German takeover of Poland and a portion of Russia. The majority of them perished from famine and exhausting effort.

Jews being stereotyped

Christians have a long history of being hostile to Jews. They had a reputation for being usurpers and Christ murders. The Jewish people were prohibited from owning land until the Middle Ages. Their sole method of surviving was via trade and money lending. Persecuting the Jews frequently involved periodic coordinated violence and eviction from their homes.

The Nazis wanted the utter annihilation of Jews. Jews were forced to flee the nation between 1933 and 1938 through various forms of intimidation and isolation. The objective of the following phase (1939–1945) was to concentrate them in specific locations before murdering them in gas chambers.

The Racial Utopia

Poland was partitioned after German occupation, and a sizable portion of the northwest was taken by Germany. Poles were compelled to abandon their homes and possessions. Germans of German descent were to be brought in from occupied Europe to live there.

The General Government, the other division, received the Poles. To keep the Polish intellectually and spiritually subservient, members of the Polish intellectuals were murdered. There were also some of the biggest ghettos and gas chambers in the General Government. As a result, it also functioned as the Jewish people's mass grave.

Adolescents in Nazi Germany

Hitler believed that a powerful Nazi society could be built by instilling the Nazi ideology in youngsters.

• To spread the Nazi ideologies, all schools were "cleaned" and "purified."

• Teachers who were perceived as "politically untrustworthy" or Jews were fired.

• Youngsters of German and Jewish descent were separated, and 'undesirable children' such as Jews, physically challenged people, and Gipsies were expelled from schools. They were finally brought to the gas chambers in the 1940s.

• To successfully brainwash the 'Good German' students during a protracted period of ideological instruction, school textbooks were rewritten.

• To support the racist ideologies of the Nazis, racial science was brought into the curriculum.

• Children were indoctrinated with the hatred of Jews and the love of Hitler.

• Boxing was pushed as a sport to help pupils develop their mental toughness.

• The task of training the German young in the spirit of National Socialism was delegated to youth organisations. Jungvolk only admitted ten-year-olds. All males were required to join Hitler Youth, the Nazi youth movement, at the age of 14. They were required to enlist in the Labor Service, often at the age of 18, following a protracted and severe instruction in Nazi philosophy. After that, they were required to enlist in the military and join a Nazi group.

The Mother Cult in Nazi Germany

The men learned how to be tough, aggressive, and manly. The females were instructed to have pure-blooded Aryan children and raise them to be excellent mothers.

• The females had to keep the race pure, thus they had to keep their distance from the "undesirables."

• Women who had children of a racial nature were penalised. Women who gave birth to ethnically attractive offspring, however, received rewards.

• In addition to receiving preferential treatment, they received discounts at theatres, stores, and transportation facilities.

• Honour Crosses were given as incentives for women to have more children. Four children received a bronze cross, six received a silver cross, and eight or more received a golden cross.

• The "Aryan" lady who violated the established rule of conduct was harshly punished in front of everyone.

Using Propaganda Art

The language and media were effectively employed by the Nazi dictatorship.

• They created a number of false phrases to be used for "killing" or "murder

• The terms "special treatment," "final solution" (for the Jews), "euthanasia" (for the handicapped), "selection," and "disinfections" were used to describe mass murder

• Nazi ideology was spread via images, movies, radio, posters, catchy slogans, and other media.

• Through numerous efforts, those who fought the Nazis and the Jews were portrayed as stereotypical.

• Many individuals started to view the world from the Nazi point of view. Jews were detested by a large portion of the population.

• Nazism was thought to provide riches and enhance all-around wellbeing.

However, many others organised violent anti-Nazi resistance, risking their lives and those of the police. The German populace, however, was mostly made up of spectators. They were too afraid to speak out, disagree, or protest.

Conclusion: Understanding of the Holocaust

During the latter years of the government, information of Nazi crimes began to filter out of Germany. But the world didn't fully comprehend the atrocities committed against Jews and other "undesirables" until after the war had ended. Many Jews kept diaries and notebooks where they recorded their recollections and established archives. In the hope that one day the world would learn about their hardship, several of them buried their memoirs underground.

When the Nazi leadership realised they were waging a losing war, they gave their functionaries gasoline so they could burn any evidence that may be used against them.

FAQs

Qns 1. What constitutes the core of Nazi ideology?

Ans. Hitler's views on German racial supremacy and the perils of communism influenced the ideology of Nazism. It opposed liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights in favour of emphasising the individual's subjugation to the state and the necessity of obediently adhering to authority figures.

Qns 2. What was the Nazi philosophy?

Ans. Nazi cultural ideals were consistent in other contexts. The ultimate manifestations of German values, according to them, are family, race, and Volk. They opposed materialism, cosmopolitanism, and "bourgeois intellectualism" in favour of endorsing "German" characteristics like discipline, loyalty, and self-sacrifice.

Qns 3. What effects did the First World War have on Germany's political system?

Ans. In Germany, a socialist revolution started right after World War I ended. The left- leaning Weimar Republic was established as a result of the German Revolution of 1918– 1919, and it ruled until Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party took over in the early 1930s.

Qns 4. How did the Nazi Party function?

Ans. Hitler organised the Nazis into a brutal organisation that was prepared to repress any opponents and was willing to use both violence and the ballot box to seize power. The "Brownshirts," often referred to as "Stormtroopers" or "SA," were a component of the Nazis whose primary duty it was to violently interrupt the meetings of rivals, particularly communists.

Qns 5. Hitler's main goal for Germany was what?

Ans. Hitler switched his attention to his ultimate objective—expansion of Germany to the east and the Lebensraum (living space) that would assure the survival of the German people—after France was routed and Britain was the sole remaining force opposing Germany in Europe.