ABSTRACT
Equivalent objections can be made concerning the Nazi view that modem civilisation was spearheaded by Nordic or Aryan racial types. For example, the fundamental shift from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture from about the eighth millennium Be occurred first in the river basins east of the Mediterranean, the practice spreading to Northern Europe later. Similarly, there is little to the view that Nordic or Aryan types are superior in intelligence. In sum, one can state unequivocally that Nazi racialism had no scientific basis and was, to quote one early distinguished historian of the regime, 'a vast system of bestial, Nordic nonsense'. However, it is vital to appreciate that, whatever its untruths, Nazi racial dogma must be carefully examined if a proper understanding of the regime is to be formed. It represented a critical 'engine' of the Hitler state, one which changed progressively in pitch and power as the years passed. And the process was augmented and intensified by the way Nazi racialism was dressed up so that it appeared scientific. New university professorships were established in racial science, for example, and race studies became a subject for the state professional examinations. In schools, racial education became interlocked with the various pronouncements of the Nazi state in pursuit of racial purity, such that dicta learned in the classroom in one month could be observed being carried through in another. In propaganda terms, the 'science of race' had yet another dimension. The scientific label lent mystery as well as respectability in the popular mind. Thus legislation encouraging marriage between 'Aryan' Germans could be interpreted as essential social hygiene in the face of ill-understood or vague threats.
