Perhaps no aspect of Nazi society seems more alien to us today than its emphasis on racial identity. Simply put, the Nazis promised to unlock new realms of human potential by reorganizing German society around the notion of Aryan belonging. But what did it mean to be Aryan? How could this abstract idea be transformed in practical politics, something that could be realized in daily life? What were some of the potential consequences of this effort?

This episode examines how Hitler's regime approached the project of "becoming Aryan," exploring both its legal and cultural dimensions. As we'll see, the Nazis solved the first issue by racializing citizenship, punctuated by the passage of the Nuremberg Laws in Sept. 1935. They also developed a schema to classify individuals based on their grandparents' identity, adopting a "practical" rather than "scientific" approach to race (in other words, they thought it better to use easily locatable data - i.e. if your grandparents were baptized - rather than complicated physical-anthropological standards like the Cephalic index).

At the same time, they also wanted to awaken in individual Germans a "racial" consciousness. To do so, they relied heavily on visual imagery to construct notions of separate German and Jewish, Roma and Afro-German belonging. They also emphasize the need to cull the "Aryan" group, developing a set of eugenic practices like sterilization to perfect their racialized society. Finally, the episode notes the active role Germans themselves played in this process of gaining racial identity; through for example activities like the creation of their racial passports (Ahnenpass).

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Between Sept. 1939 and Nov. 1941, the Nazis marched across Europe, carrying out some of the most successful campaigns in military history. How and why was this war machine built? In this episode, we do a deep dive in the history behind the build up of the most impressive armies of all time, showing how Hitler literally began preparing for a new World War almost from his first day in office. The episode further details how the Nazis approach rearmament in the various services (Army/Wehrmacht, Navy/Kriegsmarine, Air Force/Luftwaffe), while also discussing how they hid this build up from the Allies before 1935 (MEFO bills, etc.). It also shows the strains this placed on the German economy, as Nazi experts raced to uncover every last cent of foreign currency in the Reich in the desperate quest to secure raw materials. In the end, it argues that this drive for resources helped push the Nazis to invade Austria, Czechoslovakia and ultimately Poland, perhaps at a point before the country was truly ready for world war. Allied inaction, however, gave Hitler the breathing space he needed to continue rearmament after 1938, allowing him to build the ultimate war machine.

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In this episode, the third special episode we have done on the history of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex, we detail the evolution of the camp(s) from 1945 to the present day. In particular, the episode highlights the issue of public memory, noting the way political and cultural dynamics have effected the design and operation of the state museum. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Polish authorities tended to focus on practical issues, preserving certain sites while repurposing or abandoning others. The guiding principle was the need to remember German crimes against the Polish people to create a stronger sense of Polish national memory. By the start of the Cold War, however, this mindset became outdated, and was eventually replaced by a new Communist emphasis on "antifascism." In the 1990s the complexity of Polish-Jewish relations became more visible, with the building of a Carmelite convent and commemorations of Edith Stein playing a prominent role. Finally, the episode concludes with a brief discussion of preservation, history and Holocaust denial.

This is a partial preview of a longer, 2 hour episode on the history of the camp between 1945 and the present day. To hear the full story, as well as to get access to other special episodes on topics like the Young Hitler, the History of the SS and the Nazi Takeover of a small town, become a Patreon supporter for as little as $2/month (https://www.patreon.com/c/historyoffthepage).

Support the show

For more information on History Off the Page, check out our website www.historyoffthepage.com! Or you can support the show via Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/historyoffthepage?fan_landing=true.