History
Nazi morality
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
The leaders of the Third Reich propagated a particularistic morality that was to replace the universalistic tradition of Christian and Enlightenment ethics and compassion to Aryan Germans, the Volksgemeinschaft. The Nazi regime saw empathy, pity, and mercy towards 'racial aliens', especially Jews, to 'community aliens', and other individuals and groups as a threat to or burden on the Volksgemeinschaft and denounced them as immoral. This morality built upon pre-Nazi ideologies, social Darwinism and racial hygiene, the code of honour, the ideal of emotional hardness, and the priority of the community over individualism. While motivating the deeds of many Nazi perpetrators, it also affected larger parts of Nazi society as it challenged the old moral standards.
Publication Title
A Companion to Nazi Germany
Publication Date
2-16-2018
First Page
215
Last Page
229
ISBN
9781118936894
DOI
10.1002/9781118936894.ch13
Keywords
bystander, community, ethics, guilt, Holocaust, honor, perpetrator, racism, shame, Volksgemeinschaft
Repository Citation
Kühne, Thomas, "Nazi morality" (2018). History. 66.
https://commons.clarku.edu/historyfac/66
