Use of Word "Master Race" in Standard Literature
By C.W. Porter

"Master Race" is apparently not a word used by serious writers.
Wherever you find the word "Master Race" you generally find references to Hermann Rauschning, not because they are related, but because you are dealing with sensationalists. The more academic and "serious" a writer, the less likely he will be to use the term "Master Race". There is no such thing as a "Master Race" theory or doctrine or basic principle.
To sum up, "Master Race" is a sort of neo-Marxist smear word, rarely used by serious people. It is tossed about for purposes of irony or sarcasm by wartime and post-war anti-Nazi writers. You will probably never see it in a quotation from any real life National Socialist. Some post-war neo-Nazis, maybe. Himmler always uses these terms sarcastically, I count 4 times so far.
Apart from Erich Koch in one Nuremberg Trial document, I have yet to find one single National Socialist who uses the term in the sense alleged by anti-Nazi propagandists.
- C.P.

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Checking both the English and German, if applicable, for the words “Master Race” and “Herrenvolk”, “Herrenmensch” and “Herrenrasse” respectively:

NOT USED in Sander L. Gilman and Anson Rabinbach's "Third Reich Sourcebook" (it's a "source book", so if the term was used anywhere it should be found here, wouldn't you think?)
NOT USED in Madison Grant's "Conquest of a Continent"
USED ONCE in Madison Grant's "Passing of the Great Race", but totally without ideological significance (refers to Southern slave owners as opposed to what he calls the "servient race", i.e., the blacks). Since this book was supposedly admired by Hitler, if there were any such thing as a "Master Race Doctrine", it should be found here, wouldn't you think?)

NOTE: What this proves is that "Master Race" is an American invention, and is not even a translation from German! On p. 421, volume 22, of the Nuremberg trial transcript, it was pretended that the "Master Race" doctrine consisted simply of any criticism of Jews, who are, of course, supremeley critical and accusatory of everybody else, and thus, again, has nothing to do with the words "Herrenvolk", "Master Race", or of any of the rest of it.

USED ONCE in the Ford translation of "Mein Kampf", because they have inserted a sentence fragment which does not appear in the German original, not even the "only complete" German original sold by exactly the same people! (p. 249 of the Ford translation compared with p. 315 of the German original, volume 2, Chapter 11), along with many other mistranslations and last-minute sloppiness. So much for the first so-called "correct" translation! Manheim and Murphy are in fact more correct. The sentence is as follows: "The humane pacifist idea may be a perfectly good one, but only after the most advanced race of men has first conquered and enslaved [unterworfen] the world on a scale which makes him [sic] the only master of the earth. The idea will then have no chance to cause harm. At least it cannot cause harm any greater than the level it is applied, which will become rare and then impossible once the master race has conquered all [NOTE: the phrase “once the master race has conquered all” does not appear in the original German; the last word in the German sentence is "impossible".  “Unterwerfen” means “to subjugate”, but not necessarily “to enslave”. The pronoun agreeing with “race of man” should be “it”, or perhaps “them”, but not “him”. ]  [Mein Kampf, Ford translation, p. 249, German original, p. 315.]

USED ONCE as a mere metaphor, without any references to anything German at all, in Johannes Steinhoff's "Voices from the Third Reich", p. xx, "And instead of a master race, todays' Germans are scapegoats".
USED ONCE, again, as a mere metaphor, without references, on p. 24 of Ian Kershaw's "The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-45": "[Albert Speer] was given responsibility for making Berlin into a capital befitting a master-race".

USED ONCE in Ian Kershaw's "Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris", on p. 243, with reference to footnote 114 of chapter 7, dishonestly implying that he is quoting 742-43, 750-52 of "Mein Kampf" in connection with the so-called "Lebensraum question". In reality, Hitler never used the German word "Herrenvolk" in connection with Russia or "Lebensraum" at all. As noted, Hitler uses the word "Herrenvolk" 3 times, in purely theoretically historical discussions of the distant past or future, on pp. 320, 422, 438. The English phrase "Master Race" is of American origin and has nothing do with the German word "Herrenvolk" at all.

NOT USED in Ian Kershaw's "Hitler: Profiles in Power"
NOT USED in Ian Kershaw's "Hitler, the Germans and the Final Solution"
NOT USED in Ian Kershaw's "The 'Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich"
NOT USED in Alan Dearn and Elizabeth Sharp's "Hitler Youth: 1933 - 1945"
NOT USED in Robert Gerwart’s biography of Heydrich, “Hitler’s Hangman”. 
NOT USED in Peter Longerich’s “Heinrich Himmler”.
NOT USED in Richard Breitbach’s “Himmler: The Architect of Genocide”.
NOT USED in Manvell & Frankell’s biography of Goering, “The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader”  
NOT USED in Charles W. Sydnor’s “Soldiers of Destruction: The Death’s Head Division, 1933-1945”
NOT USED in Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wipperman’s “The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945”
NOT USED in Edwin Black’s “War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a  Master Race” (appears in the title only); the word “Master Race” does not appear in the text
NOT USED in Diarmuid Jeffreys' "Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine"
NOT USED in Catherine Epstein's "Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland"
USED ONCE, sarcastically, in “A Child of Hitler: Germany when God wore a Swastika”, p. 190, “surely a devastating caricature of the master race”
USED ONCE, sarcastically, by a Jew, in Brian Rigg's "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, p. 55 of the German text
USED ONCE, sarcastically, in Toby Thacker's biography of Goebbels, p. 308, quoting another biography by Curt Riess, "a cripple as the principal proponent of the Master Race theory". Goebbel's club foot was caused by osteomyelitis -- a form of infection -- and was not hereditary

USED 4 TIMES in Lynn H Nicholas’ “Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web” has an entire chapter entitled “Increasing the Master Race” but cites no source for the origin of the term allegedly translated into English as “Master Race”. Uses the term “Master Race” on pp. 72, 223, 258, 380.
Cites Hermann Rauschning as a source 4 times, even on p. 4 of the Introduction,  although Rauschning’s “Voice of Destruction” had been proven to be  a fake over 20 years before. Used in a quotation on p. 72, footnote 15, but the original source is not given. The footnote refers to a “US State Department Report”. The author makes a number of sensational claims, all based on "US State Department reports" -- not original German documents or publications.
I think the value of these "reports" is well-known. "Weapons of mass destruction", anyone?

USED 7 TIMES in Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", without any references or quotes.

USED 8 TIMES (a record), as a smear word, in Michael H. Kater's "Hitler Youth", but never in any quotation from National Socialist literature or originating during the National Socialist era. Used in one quotation on p. 90, but the footnote refers to a post-war book by somebody named Finkh (no further information given, not even the name of the book!) Another example: "...master race killers have been the subject of less than reliable scholarship", p. 318. You can say that again.


Checking the German only, for the words “Herrenvolk”, “Herrenmensch” and “Herrenrasse”:

NOT USED in Volker Koop’s “Himmler’s Germanenwahn: Die SS-Organization ‘Ahnenerbe’ und ihre Verbrechen”
NOT USED in Jan E. Schulte’s “Die SS, Himmler und die Wewelsburg” 
NOT USED in Guido Knopp’s “Geheimnisse des ‘Dritten Reichs’”
NOT USED in Peter Longerich’s biography of Goebbels
NOT USED in Alois Prinz’s biography of Goebbels, “Der Brandstifter”
NOT USED in Angela Hermann’s “Der Weg in den Krieg 1938-39: Quellenkritische Studien zu den Tagebüchern von Josef Goebbels”
NOT USED in Max Bonacker’s biography of Hans Fritzsche, “Goebbels Mann beim Radio”
NOT USED in Angela’s Hermann’s “Der Weg in den Krieg 1938/39”
NOT USED in Volker Knofp and Stefan Martens  “Goerings Reich: Selbsinszenierungen in Karinhall”
NOT USED in Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch’s “Der june Goebbels: Erlösung und Vernichtung“
NOT USED in Rüdiger von Dehn’s “Die allierte Invasion 1944 und Joseph Goebbels:  Die Schlacht in der Normandie und seine Wahrnehmung und Propaganda”  (Master’s  thesis)
NOT USED in Werner Maser’s “Hitlers Briefe und Notizen”
NOT USED in Martha Schad’s “Sie liebten den Führer:“ aka „Wie Frauen Hitler verehrten” aka “Hitler und die Frauen”
NOT USED in Guido Kopp’s” Göring: Eine Karriere”.

USED TWICE in Christian Leitz’s “Third Reich (Essential Readings in History)” once in the text, p 77:
“The suppression of the Roehm revolt, the disruptions in the religious sector, the martial spirit, and the doctrine of the Nordic ‘Master Race’ all had a much more lasting effect on British public opinion than the reports from the Soviet Union”, and once, on p. 72, quoting the title of a book, R. Cecil’s “Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology”, as a source. Some of her other sources aren't much better.   

USED SIX TIMES in Guido Kopp's "Hitler's Children" without any references or quotations.
USED SIX TIMES in English-language translation of Joachim C. Fest’s biography of Hitler, pp 37, 244, 376, 455, 678, 682, but not in quotations.   
USED TWICE in Joachim Fest’s German original hardcover, biography of Hitler: once on pp. 960 and 972, but not in original quotations. This is the same book as above.
Hermann Rauschning’s name is cited as a source 8 times on page 205 of the English alone.
Cites Rauschning by name 29 times. Mark Weber counts 52 times, probably multiple references to  individual footnotes.  Rauschning’s name appears only 12 times in the references at the end of the book, so Weber is probably right..



USED TWICE in Thomas Bryant’s “Himmler’s Kinder”, once, SARCASTICALLY, by Himmler, on page 264, and once, in a quotation by Robert Kempner, one of the Nuremberg prosecutors, in a prosecutorial address before one of the NMT courts, p. 308. The same book repeatedly speaks of the Lebensborn as resembling “a stud farm” (search for “Zucht” in German).

“Herrenrasse” USED ONCE in Klaus Hildebrand’s “Das Dritte Reich”, but only as the title of a work in the bibliography, J.A. August et al, “Herrenmensch und Arbeitsvölker”, 1986.

“Herrenrasse” USED ONCE, IRONICALLY, in Anna Maria Sigmund’s “Das Geschlectsleben bestimmen wir!”, in stressing the total falsity of all reports of what she calls “Sex parks und breeding installations” ["Nazi Sex-Parks und Brutanstalten"], pp 168-69.

“Herrenrasse” USED ONCE in Alfred Piper’s German-language biography of Rosenberg, “Alfred Rosenberg, Hitlers Chefideologe”, simply because the word  “Herrenrasse” appears as the title of an obscure manuscript listed in the bibliography on p. 411; whether Rosenberg is the author is unclear.  It is not cited or mentioned in the text.  It has apparently never been printed, published or translated. Nobody has ever heard of it, so perhaps it does not prove what it is supposed to prove.

Otherwise the book contains no mention of those semi-mythological words of enchantment, “Herrenvolk”, “Herrenmensch”, or “Herrenrasse”.

“Herrenvolk” used 3 times in MEIN KAMPF, pp. 320, 422, 438 in the sense of “ruling people”  or “dominant race”; not identified with the Germans.

USED TWICE in Rosenberg's “MYTHOS DES ZWANZIGSTEN JAHRHUNDERTS”, pp 15 and 338, once in the sense of “ruling people” or “nation of men” and once in the obvious sense of “colonial power”, i.e., in reference to the British. “Grundrasse” used as synonym on p. 276 in German; not identified with the Germans.

NOT USED in German translation of Gobineau’s "Essay on the Inequality of Human Races".

NO SUCH TERM USED IN ORIGINAL FRENCH (although the ugly and awkward term “Race des Seigneurs” is always inserted into the introduction by modern “anti-fascists”).  Gobineau uses the terms “race d’élite” and “type dominateur” in the sense of “ruling people” or “dominant race”.

"Herrenvolk”, “Herrenmensch” and “Herrenrasse” NOT USED in German original of Houston Stewart Chamberlain’s GRUNDLAGEN DES NEUNZEHNTEN JAHRHUNDERTS.

“Master Race” NOT USED in the English translation of the same book, “FOUNDATIONS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY”.

"Herrenvolk" or "Master Race" USED FIVE TIMES (6, including the title), pp. 134, 190, 191, 201 and 229, in Robert Cecil's above-mentioned biography of Rosenberg. The author insinuates very strongly, pp. 228-229, that Rosenberg "deserved to be hanged" for inventing the "Master Race" doctrine, yet provides not one iota of proof of the existence of any such "doctrine", much less any incitement to genocide, in Rosenberg's writings -- the implication being that anyone who so much as hints at the existence of racial differences, or the slightest difference between the relative achievements of the various races, or even the very existence of race itself, deserves to die -- an exception being made for the Jews, of course. As always, criticism of Jews is genocide, while the Jews can do anything they like.

Nor does the author make the slightest attempt to refute any of Rosenberg's historical assertions -- for example, that a classic of Indian religious literature describes the sun as moving horizontally along the horizon, an idea which can only have originated in the Far North. If Rosenberg had used as many references as Chamberlain, he would have been far harder to belittle.

As usual with such writers, the author quotes Hermann Rauschning repeatedly, incredibly, not only "The Voice of Destruction", the famous fake published in 1940, but "The Revolution of Nihilism", written only the year before, in a completely different style, in which Rauschining never even claims to have met Hitler more than 3 or 4 times! How is this possible? Hitler was hardly even mentioned by Rauschning in 1939 (pp. 133, 140, 234-38, 241, 248 and 258); (for Hitler's positive achievements, but no meetings with Hitler, see pp. 274-276). Several of these references refer to the same meetings, while others (pp. 234-38) are obvious fabrications; Rauschning was almost as fantastic a liar in 1939 as he was in 1940. Rauschning shows no particular knowledge of Hitler's writings, speeches or even actions, although he shows a good knowledge of Ernst Junger, Karl Haushofer and a number of other relatively obscure German writers. Rauschning left Germany in 1935 and had no more real knowledge of what was going on in Germany than anybody else. It is obvious that where National Socialism is concerned, academic standards are very low.

The following is an exact table of major references from Rauschning's "Revolution of Nihilism" (aka "Revolution of Destruction" in England):

REVOLUTION OF NIHILISM
56-58 praises Lenin and Communism, which he says are based upon an "unshaken faith in human reason", but says that "Stalinism seems already to have come to the end of a career" (p. 57) (not the only example of Rauschning's admiration for Communism; there is at least one other);
92 Jews; condems anti-Semitism, but says "no doubt the Jewish question, especially that of the parastitic elements in the Jewish lower class, represents a grave and difficult problem for the practical politician" (Rauschning always wanted everything both ways);
133 met Hitler;
140 “
184 Rosenberg, complete with "Master Race" quotation (without references); probably a misquote from "Mein Kampf";
231 met Goebbels;
237 met Hitler; (here Hitler confesses to Rauschning that he, Hitler, is a liar who will sign anything and agree to anything);
239-41 met Hitler again same day, another Rauschning fairy tale. If Hitler wanted to know what Pilsudski was thinking in 1933, he would have sent somebody important like von Ribbentrop or he would have gone himself; instead he sends Rauschning, an insignificant provincial official;
258 met Hitler again the same day;
274-6 admission of Hitler’s positive achievements with typical Rauschning "spin".

The book contains no exact references of any kind, and very few alleged quotes from Hitler. Essentially, it is a 300-page "opinion" piece, like a newspaper editorial, with no reference to factual material or historical events of any kind. Rauschning was a "limousine liberal", a snob, a member of the landed "Junker" class from East Prussia who made up nearly 100% of all German traitors.  

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CONCLUSION

No one would submit a doctoral thesis on Shakespeare quoting obvious forgeries (such as the works of William Henry Ireland) over and over again. In other words, whenever you see the words "Master Race", you are dealing with a sloppy writer. Some of them are sloppy anyway.

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LINKS:

The Myth of the "Thousand Year Reich" by C.W. Porter (introduction)
The Myth of "Kadavergehorsam" by C.W. Porter (related problem)
MAIN ARTICLE NOT READY YET
"Master Race" Not a Term Used by the National Socialists - "Herrenvolk" as a Stand-Alone Term by C.W. Porter
Antonio Machado on the so-called "Master Race"
"Master Race" Quiz
Source Material on the "Master Race" Accusation, Nuremberg -- click here
Excerpt from introduction to "Der Lebensborn, e.V,", by Georg Lilienthal (translated by C.W. Porter) click here
Excerpts from pp 150-155 of "Der Lebensborn, e.V,", by Georg Lilienthal (translated by C.W. Porter) click here
Excerpts from “Deutsche Mutter, bist du bereit” ["German Mother, Are You Prepared?"] by Dorothee Schmitz-Köster (translated by C.W. Porter) click here
Excerpt from Chapter 1 of “Dem Führer ein Kind Schenken” by Volker Koop (translated by C.W. Porter) click here
Excerpt from pp. 232-34 of “Dem Führer ein Kind Schenken” by Volker Koop (translated by C.W. Porter) click here
Excerpts from "Master Race: The Lebensborn Experiment in Germany" by Catherine Clay and Michael Leapman -- click here
"Master-Race"/Lebensborn Internet World Lie Championships FIRST PRIZE -- I Am a Lebensborn Child -- click here
"Master-Race"/Lebensborn Internet World Lie Championships SECOND PRIZE -- "Master Race Baby" Olaf Schmedermann -- click here
"Master-Race"/Lebensborn books on amazon.com, amazon.de and amazon.fr (with translations) click here
"Master-Race"/Lebensborn World Championship Lie Videos on youtube.com (with translations) click here
Review of History Channel's "History's Mysteries: The Lebensborn (reviewed by C.W. Porter) click here
Filmography of Arthur Brauner, "German" producer of world's first "terrifying" trash film epic about "Nazi sex farms" (completed in 3 weeks) -- click here
The Non-Existence of any Nazi "Doctrine" of the "Master Race" -- click here
The "Master Race" accusation at Nuremberg -- click here
Jewish Racism - click here
Excepts from "Myth of the Twentieth Century" -- Use of word "Herrenvolk" by Alfred Rosenberg -- click here
Use of word "Master Race" in standard literature -- click here
Anti-Nazi "Master Race" sexploitation pics -- click here
Nazi "Sex Farms" -- The Lie... and the Reality... click here
Explanation of remarks on William L. Shirer -- click here