What were the Aryans of World War 2?

Answer 1

It's complicated but more or less, Aryans of WWII were essentially "Nordic Europeans"; that is, tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, fair skinned, white men. It really dates back to the racial pseudo-sciences of the late 1800's/early 1900's (which have since been debunked and are now extinct). The Nazis believed they were superior to everyone else and used perverted science to justify their claims. It gets complicated when you start breaking down the supposed racial groups and Nazi religious beliefs. Jews, Africans and Arabs were Semites and were not of the Aryan race. The Aryan race was made up of Europeans, Indians and Persians, however, the Europeans were supposedly "less corrupted" than the Indians and Persians who had "mixed with the Semitic races". The Nazis venerated old Norse mythology and Runic symbols, like the SS thunder bolts, but Nazi ideology was also influenced by India and Hinduism. The swastika, for example, was an ancient Hindu symbol and the word "Aryan" itself is an Indian term (that is still used in India today). In fact, there is an odd and very, very small religious cult called "Esoteric Hitlerism" that has perverted the Hindu religion. They believe Hitler was an "Avatar" sent by the Hindu god "Vishnu" to carry out his will. Very strange indeed... and insulting to the Hindu religion for that matter. Nazi chief, Heinrich Himmler (the instigator of the Holocaust) was said to have carried around the Hindu holy book, the Baghavad Gita, in his pocket and often quoted it to his friends. He funded many archaeological expeditions to Tibet (India was controlled by the British at the time so he couldn't go there) to look for clues of the origin of the Aryan race. When it was pointed out to him that the Roma people (or Gypsies), who he was exterminating in his death camps, were of Indian origin and fellow "Aryans", Himmler was said to have wrestled with it in his mind until he formulated an answer that "thru their endless wanderings, the Gypsies have intermixed with Semitic races and are more Semitic than Aryan". This isn't to say that all Nazis were influenced by Hinduism, because they most definitely were not. I say this to point out how strange and hard to understand Nazi Aryanism was. In fact, most Germans of the time could not understand it themselves. It's hard to explain or reconcile because most Nazis labeled all dark-skinned people as Jews and killed them all the same, regardless if they were from India or Palestine. Nazi religion wasn't really a unified belief system. That's partly why it's so hard to understand... that and it's completely and totally irrational and insane. Some were Christians, others were Pagans, Atheists, etc... To sum it up, the "Aryan ideal" of WWII was a backwards ideology that was fueled by a twisted, invented, pseudo-science that had existed long before Hitler was born. It was basically a tool used by European autocrats to justify their actions and get what they wanted.

Answer 2

a member of the acient aryan people