The
master race (, ) was a concept in
Nazi ideology in which the
Nordic race—a branch of what in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century
taxonomy was called the
Aryan race—represented an ideal and pure
race. In Nazi ideology, the Nordic race was the purest example of the original racial stock of those who were then called the
Proto-Aryans, whom the Nazis believed to have
prehistorically dwelt on the
North German Plain and to have ultimately originated from the lost continent of
Atlantis. The
Nazis declared that the Nordics (now referred to as the
Germanic peoples), were the true Aryans (ethnically closest descendants of the
Proto-Indo-Europeans) because they were much less racially mixed with peoples who were "non-native" to the European continent, than other
Indo-European peoples, such as the
Slavic peoples, the
Romanic peoples, and the
Indo-Iranian peoples. Based on this claim that the Nordic peoples were superior to all other races, the Nazis believed they were entitled to expand territorially. This concept is known as
Nordicism. The actual policy that was implemented by the Nazis resulted in the
Aryan certificate, the one form of the official document that was required by the law for all citizens of the Reich was the "Lesser Aryan certificate" (Kleiner Ariernachweis) which could be obtained through an
Ahnenpass which required the owner to trace their lineage through baptism or birth certificates or certified proof thereof that all grandparents were of "Aryan descent".