History of Sorts

The three groups displayed on the poster are, from top to bottom, “ostbaltische Rasse” (“East Baltic race”), “ostische Rasse” (“Alpine race”), and “dinarische Rasse” (“Dinaric race”). All these three groups were considered part of the sub-races of the Caucasian race, others including the Nordic and Mediterranean.

The Nazis went to great lengths in teaching the German youth to be proud of their race through biology teaching, the National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB) in particular taught in schools that they should be proud of their race and not to mix with other races.

Race biology was meant to encourage the Germans to maintain their racial purity, the NSLB stressed that as early as primary schools Germans have to work on only the Nordic racial element of the German Volk (people) again and again and have to contrast this with the racial differences that foreign peoples such as the Jews represent.

Nazi racial policy did not always include in degrading Jews but had to always maintain the importance of German blood and the Aryan race. This was often connected to the blood and soil ideology. Whilst the young Germans were being taught about the importance of one’s blood, at the same time they were being taught about the dangers that the Jews represent in Germany and the necessary living space in the East, in particular Russia. Novels portrayed the Germans as uniquely endowed and possessors of a unique destiny. The segregation of races was said to be natural, just as separate species did not come together in nature.

In 1935 after the induction of the Nuremberg Laws, any sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans became a criminalized offence.

Aryans that were found guilty under the laws and charged with Rassenschande (“racial shame”) faced the possibility of incarceration in a concentration camp, while non-Aryans could possibly face the death penalty.

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