While condemning other cultures and races, the Nazis glorified people who embodied an Aryan racial ideal. This ideal featured such traits as tall physical height, blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Although this idealization was based largely on literary sources and folklore, the Nazis considered Aryans to be the only suitable people to be members of the German “master race.” “Non-Aryans” (particularly Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and Blacks) were regarded as being less than human and a threat to Aryan “racial purity.”
In its original meaning, Aryan designated any person who spoke an Indo-European language. The Nazi adaptation of this term was originated in the 19th century, when racist scientists began to use it to distinguish northern Europeans from others whom they considered to be racially inferior.
