Untermensch
The American author Lothrop Stoddard published a book titled The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man in 1922. He introduced the phrase under man to describe people he believed could not flourish due to inferior heredity. Stoddard wrote that this term described all kinds of persons who measured under the standards of capacity imposed by social order. His work contained no explicit racial connotations at first. He argued that without eugenics, any civilization would eventually degrade regardless of race or geography. The German translation of his book appeared as Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen in 1925. This title likely influenced later Nazi usage of the word.
Heinrich Himmler directed the Reich Security Main Office to produce a Schutzstaffel brochure entitled Der Untermensch in 1942. Nearly four million copies of this pamphlet were printed and distributed across German-occupied territories. The document spanned around fifty pages and consisted mostly of photos portraying natives of Eastern Europe in an extremely negative way. It emphasized Himmler's racist demonization of Russians as bestial untermenschen. The text also identified Jews as the decisive leader of untermenschen. Translations appeared in Greek, French, Dutch, Danish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Czech, and seven other languages. The publication served as a visual tool for dehumanizing entire populations before their destruction.
Nazi ideology categorized Jews, Roma, Slavs, and people with disabilities as Untermenschen who were to be exterminated. Poles occupied the bottom of the Slavic racial hierarchy established by the Nazis. Hitler and Goebbels compared Slavs to rabbit families or stolid animals that spread like waves of filth. Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Russians were considered subhumans after the Molotov, Ribbentrop Pact expired. Some Slavic groups like Bosniaks, Bulgarians, and Croats received different treatment due to theories about their mixed ancestry. Erich Koch, Reich Commissar for Ukraine, declared on the 5th of March 1943 that the lowliest German worker was racially more valuable than any Ukrainian population. He stated he would draw the very last out of the country through forced labor.
Early Nazi plans summarized as Generalplan Ost envisioned ethnic cleansing and extermination of no fewer than fifty million people from conquered European territories. Planners considered Ukraine's chernozem soil a particularly desirable zone for colonization. The concept justified expansionist policy and aggression against Poland and the Soviet Union to achieve Lebensraum. Mass murder in the Holocaust reduced the Slavic population of East-Central Europe. A significant amount of survivors were expelled further east to Siberia and used as forced labor in the Reich. These concepts formed an important part of Nazi racial policy during World War II.
The Wehrmacht High Command issued Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia on the 19th of May 1941. This document ordered German troops to target Jews, partisans, and Bolsheviks indiscriminately. It described the war in Eastern Europe as a historic task to liberate the German people from Asiatic-Jewish danger. German Army granted carte blanche to anti-Jewish massacres carried out by Einsatzgruppen death squads. In 1943 Himmler issued a secret order for destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto to eliminate living space of 500,000 Untermenschen. These directives authorized systematic violence against entire populations under the guise of military necessity.
Hitler signed an edict officially starting Aktion T4 euthanasia programs on the 1st of September 1939. Carbon monoxide was first used to murder disabled patients through this initiative. The same gas later appeared in death camps such as Treblinka where engine exhaust gases achieved similar results. Directive No. 1306 by Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda dated the 24th of October 1939 referenced Untermensch regarding Polish ethnicity and culture. Biology classes taught differences between Nordic German Übermenschen and ignoble Jewish or Slavic subhumans. The policy of life unworthy of life originally referred to severely disabled individuals who were involuntarily euthanized before expanding to extermination of Jews.
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Common questions
What book did Lothrop Stoddard publish in 1922 that introduced the phrase under man?
Lothrop Stoddard published The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man in 1922. He used this term to describe people he believed could not flourish due to inferior heredity.
When did Heinrich Himmler direct the production of the Schutzstaffel brochure Der Untermensch?
Heinrich Himmler directed the Reich Security Main Office to produce the brochure Der Untermensch in 1942. Nearly four million copies were printed and distributed across German-occupied territories.
Which groups did Nazi ideology categorize as Untermenschen for extermination?
Nazi ideology categorized Jews, Roma, Slavs, and people with disabilities as Untermenschen who were to be exterminated. Poles occupied the bottom of the Slavic racial hierarchy established by the Nazis.
How many people did Generalplan Ost plan to eliminate from conquered European territories?
Early Nazi plans summarized as Generalplan Ost envisioned ethnic cleansing and extermination of no fewer than fifty million people from conquered European territories. Planners considered Ukraine's chernozem soil a particularly desirable zone for colonization.
What date did Hitler sign the edict officially starting Aktion T4 euthanasia programs?
Hitler signed an edict officially starting Aktion T4 euthanasia programs on the 1st of September 1939. Carbon monoxide was first used to murder disabled patients through this initiative.