Friedrich Nietzsche's Ideas Of Racial Superiority Behind The Holocaust

The Holocaust was an incredibly unfortunate event which was caused by the idea of racial superiority. Hitler and the Nazis believed that Aryans were a superior race to all others. Friedrich Nietzsche was a german philosopher who lived in the mid to late 1800s. He was the self proclaimed anti-Christ who believed in the coming of an Übermensch, which would be an all powerful super-race (Kalish). The Üntermensch was an inferior race that was often trying to cause inconveniences for the Übermensch. The Übermensch and Üntermensch were Nietzsche’s idea. Friedrich Nietzsche was responsible for the ideas of racial superiority behind the Holocaust, and therefore the Holocaust itself.

Although the Übermensch was only introduced briefly in Nietzsche’s book; Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the Nazis gladly took the concept and applied it. Hitler’s chosen Üntermensch was the Jewish people. Nietzsche believed that God was dead. This quote shows how Nietzsche had lost all belief in the world and became nihilistic, blaming the “herd” for the world’s problems, “The death of otherworldly hopes for redemption, Nietzsche imagines two possible responses: the easy response, the way of the ‘herd’ and ‘the last man,’ or the difficult response, the way of the ‘exception,’ …show more content…
Student Resources in context. Accessed 20 Fed. 2017

Kalish, Michael. “Friedrich Nietzsche’s Influence on Hitler’s Mein Kampf.” University of California, Santa
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Rubin, Barry. “The Strangest Antisemite of Them All: The Bizarre Case of Friedrich Nietzsche.” Rubin
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May, Werner, Deutscher National-Katechismus 2nd edition. (Breslau: Verlag von Heinrich Handel, 1934) pg. 22-26 from the Calvin College Archive of German Propaganda.

Wilkerson, Dale. “Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)” University of Texas, Denton. Internet Encyclopedia of