Everyone is entitled to the rights and freedoms proclaimed in this declaration without any distinction, for example due to racial attributions, skin color, gender, language, religion, political or other conviction, national or social origin, wealth, birth or other status.
You have just read Article 2 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of the Human Rights Convention. Among other things, the article is intended to prevent racist and anti-Semitic crimes that Germany tolerated during the National Socialist era under Adolf Hitler. Between 1933 and 1945 Hitler spread the so-called Nazi ideology. The ideology was inhuman and the Nazis did not shy away from brutal measures. You can find out which ones below principles of this ideology comprised.
Nazi ideology summary
1933 Hitler seized power in Germany and established a National Socialist dictatorship in Germany. The ideology of the National Socialists was far removed from the principle of democracy or the rule of law and represented «values» that violated general human rights and human dignity.
ideology definition
Generally, is one ideology one worldview, which represents certain values attitudes. People who are particularly committed to an ideology are Ideologists and ideologists. In a narrower sense, an ideology is also an ideology political theorywhich sets political goals and strives to achieve these goals.
The Nazi ideology was both a strict worldview and a political theory that was implemented in all areas of life. It was mainly based on the exclusion and devaluation of «inferior» people. The Nazis did not accept opinions other than their own and wanted to enforce them throughout the state. Those who opposed their ideology were also seen as «inferior» and cast out from the community. The ideology of the National Socialists can be divided into several areas that influenced each other. In the domestic and foreign policy of National Socialist Germany, the Nazi regime implemented the ideology directly.
In the table you can already get an overview of the most important aspects of the Nazi ideology.
IdeologyDomestic policyForeign policySocial Darwinism and racial theoryRacial hygiene, forced sterilization, marriage bans, … Expulsion of inferior peoplesAnti-SemitismDisenfranchisement, expulsion, annihilation of JewsEstablishment of concentration camps in Eastern EuropeNational community Harmonization of associations, professions and institutions Leader principleFuhrerstaat and dictatorshipElimination of political resistanceExpansion of living space in the EastBlood-and-soil ideologyEnslavement and mass murder of Slavs and war of annihilation in the EastTable 1: Elements of Nazi ideology and politics 1
Social Darwinism and race theory
The Nazis evaluated «inferior» people based on theirs «racial theory». She divided mankind into superior and inferior «races» and propagated that there was a «struggle for existence and living space» between them. Only the strongest «race», according to the Nazis, would win this fight and itself claim to living space provide. The «race theory» was based on the principle of social darwinism, which was a transfer of the theory of evolution from Charles Darwin’s «Survival of the Fittest» to society. They organized human social life according to the principle of «natural selection». Strong people should win and weaker people should be weeded out.
In science today it is proved that there are no human «races». The Nazis used the term to put themselves above people who didn’t live up to their ideals. They gave themselves the right to wipe out the «inferior» races in order to create more resources for the «Aryans».
Racial theory was introduced as a subject in schools so that children learned the elements and the world view of the Nazi ideology from an early age. According to the Nazis, the German, the «Aryan race», was superior and the inferior «races» had to be wiped out. Members of Judaism, Sinti and Roma, asocial people, homosexuals, the disabled and the population in Eastern Europe were viewed as inferior.
National Socialist classification of peoples into races
Racial hygiene or eugenics aimed at spreading healthy genes and making one’s own «race» more resilient and better. Through them, the ideology of racial theory was implemented in domestic politics. On the one hand, the birth rate of «hereditary healthy» should be promoted, on the other hand, births in hereditary diseases should be prevented. The scientific acceptance of racial hygiene and racial science was already given in the Weimar Republic. Around 1933, research was carried out in many countries. So-called race proofs were made by doctors with the help of skull measurements and identification boards. These «races» had different ideological values and should therefore be spread or contained. Such investigations formed the basis for the racial theory that was widespread under Hitler.
Lebensborn Club
The German «race», on the other hand, was what the Nazis wanted to cultivate and keep «pure». The mixing of different races was forbidden and Germans were not allowed to have children with members of the Jews. An example of government interference in keeping the breed «pure» was the association Lebensborn. This pursued the goal of as many as possible «Aryan« to father children.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars began to define the Aryans as a mythical superior «race». The Nazis in Germany emphasized this misconception as part of the racial theory in the Nazi ideology. Racist Nazi ideology glorified Aryan people as spiritually, politically and culturally especially superior to Jewish people. Aryans should look «Nordic», tall, athletic, blond and blue-eyed. All «non-Aryan» people, i.e. Jews, people of color and Sinti and Roma were excluded from the Aryan population.
In a separate declaration you will find information about the Lebensborn association!
anti-Semitism
As already mentioned, people of Judaism in particular were viewed as «inferior» and excluded. This was due to anti-Semitism, which was firmly embedded in Nazi ideology. The Nazis did not define Judaism as a religion, but as an inferior «race». Jews were considered insidious and greedy and represented the antithesis of the «Aryan race». The National Socialists made Jewish people into scapegoats and blamed them for political and economic problems in society. Among other things, it was about the blame for the defeat in the First World War, on the Versailles Treaty and the social divide.
The National Socialists increasingly excluded Jews from public life. In the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 they were stripped of their citizenship and in 1938 it came during the Reichskristallnacht in Germany and Austria to massive acts of violence against Jewish people, their shops and places of worship. Finally, during the Holocaust, the National Socialist genocide of 5.6 to 6.3 million European Jews during World War II, attempts were made to use all state means (e.g. persecution and establishment of the wipe out concentration camps).
The nationalist and racist hatred of Jews that was characteristic of German foreign policy during World War II is described as anti-Semitism designated. Anti-Semitism combined nationalism, social Darwinism and racial theory and linked them to the political goal of exclusion, removal and annihilation of Jewish people. Anti-Semitism was presented as a «rational» reason for the Holocaust
national community
The National Socialist Volksgemeinschaft was to be a society without class and status differences. The Volksgemeinschaft applied only to Germans. Dissenters, disabled people, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals and Jews were not only excluded from the national community, but mercilessly persecuted, humiliated or murdered. A clear distribution of roles between the sexes was provided for in the national community.
family picture
The family gained great importance in the National Socialist system. She was a small but significant part, without which the whole ideology could not have worked. The focus was not on the individual person, but on the entire German people, which was supposed to grow. The National Socialist family policy was anti-feminist shaped.
anti-feminism directed against feminism. He does not want to eliminate sexism, but to promote and fight against equality and the self-determination of non-male people.
The beginnings of an emancipation, as in the Weimar Republic created were undone. The role of the woman was again reduced to that of mother and housewife. Clever propaganda, such as the Mother’s Cross or Mother’s Day, upgraded the classic role of women as housewives and mothers. It should be noted that women have not been demoted, rather women should be persuaded that they should be considered Mothers play an important role in creating a strong German nation held and thus served the Führer and Germany.
You can find an additional explanation on the image of women in National Socialism here on !
That is why large families with «pure blood» were also propagated. The man, who Father however, was considered nurturer and protector the family. He should go to work and serve the German Reich.
synchronization
Politically, the ideology of the national community was implemented through the system of conformity. The Nazis wanted to force integration into the national community.
synchronization meant the Adaptation of all institutions and areas of life to the politics and ideology of the NSDAP. Under National Socialism, all parties, associations and clubs in Germany were brought into line. They were only allowed to share the values of Nazi ideology. Even the media were not exempt from this.
The rectification was implemented on the basis of two rectification laws: Am March 31, 1933 was the provisional law for the synchronization of the countries with the Reich and on April 07, 1933 the second law to bring the states into line with the Reich was passed. The separation of powers was thus removed from the constitution and the state parliaments were dissolved. Thus, the Nazis were able to spread their ideology uninhibitedly and dictatorially throughout the German Reich.
NS state
The whole country became NS state. The Nazi dictatorship had them control over state and society. Institutions that wanted to resist the Nazis were curtailed, dissolved, and replaced. Socially, politically, culturally and economically it was in…