Hurdergaryp wrote:Purgatio wrote:The Nazis tended to resolve the 'can of worms' by conveniently handing out 'Aryan' status to people who were inconvenient to their racial classifications. Albert Forster, who was
Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia, literally just offered 'Germanisation' to whole groups of Polish Slavs, putting them onto 'Aryanisation' lists so he wouldn't have to intricately study their genealogies. Poles who claimed they had German ancestry were just taken at face value and added onto the list. Hitler even gave 'Honorary Aryan' status to Emil Maurice, founding member of the SS, when it was discovered he had Jewish ancestry.
So, another way governments like the Nazis get around inconvenient scientific realities about the vagaries of racial classifications is they adopt a highly-convenient 'an Aryan is whoever we say is Aryan' approach to racial laws. Its also how the Nazis justified alliances with Slavic countries like Croatia, by spreading the pseudo-scientific idea that the Croats, as opposed to the Serbs, had sufficient Aryan ancestry and sufficiently-low Slavic ancestry, again more arbitrary and convenient racial classification.
And don't forget the 'Aryan' status of the Japanese, which is even more hilarious than the Germanic peoples being that very same thing. Not that there was much hilarity when those malevolent bastards inflicted immense suffering upon the world because of their totalitarian dogmas.
Ah yes, that one is insane, although in fairness to the Nazis (not a sentence I thought I'd ever say) I don't think they ever said the Japanese were genetically-similar to the Aryan race, which would be patently ridiculous (someone who's an expert in Nazi racial ideology please correct me if I'm wrong on this), they just said the Japanese were equals or peers to the Aryans (ostensibly), not that they were biologically the same.
I think Hitler wrote in his Testament in 1945 that:
"Pride in one's own race—and that does not imply contempt for other races—is also a normal and healthy sentiment. I have never regarded the Chinese or the Japanese as being inferior to ourselves. They belong to ancient civilisations, and I admit freely that their past history is superior to our own. They have the right to be proud of their past, just as we have the right to be proud of the civilisation to which we belong. Indeed, I believe the more steadfast the Chinese and the Japanese remain in their pride of race, the easier I shall find it to get on with them."
Obviously though, this quote imports even more selectivity and arbitrariness. Why the Japanese and Chinese, but not the Koreans or Manchus or Mongols? What about the Native Americans, whom Hitler detested and share some autosomal DNA with East Asians? (
https://www.the-scientist.com/daily-news/all-native-americans-descended-from-one-ancestral-population-30457) It's a quote which just raises more questions than it provides answers.