W poszukiwaniu „rasy panów”. Archeologia jako narzędzie budowania mitologii nazistowskiej

Jacek Konik

doi:10.56583/sz.663

Published : 2021-12-31

Vol. 11 No. 11 (2021)

In search of the ‘master race’. Archaeology as a tool for building Nazi mythology

Jacek Konik

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56583/sz.663

Abstract

Adolf Hitler and his party, the NSDAP, seduced the German people not only their political ideology, but also their appeal to the then popular myth of the perfect Aryan race. It was the Aryans, the best and most creative of the human races, who, Hitler's followers proclaimed, were to be behind every positive, creative action in human history, behind every great work of art and scientific breakthrough. The Nordic peoples of northern Europe, and especially the Germans, were supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Aryans and as such should take their ancestral place. The article deals with the myth of the Aryans, its incorporation into the theory of human races, and its use by the Nazis to subjugate the Germans and racialize them. It discusses the use of archaeology and archaeological discoveries in particular to lend credence to the Nazi mythology and the narrative built around it, as well as the most spectacular examples of archaeological careers in the Third Reich. When archaeologists were involved on the side of Nazism, they became complicit in the construction of a criminal and genocidal ideology and system of power.

Keywords:

NSDAP, Hitler, Nazizm, master race, Third Reich, Norse mythology, Aryan race

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Konik, J. (2021). In search of the ‘master race’. Archaeology as a tool for building Nazi mythology . Jewish Studies. Almanac, 11(11), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.56583/sz.663

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