In Adolph Hitler's autobiography, he describes his so-called "New Order," which portrays the ideas that Hitler had about racial and ethnic groups in Europe at the time. Of course, on top of the racial heap are the Nazi Germans or Aryans. The Nazis displayed grudging respect for fellow "Nordics," the Dutch, the Norwegians, and the Danes, who were invited to join the German's as "master races" in the New Order. Next came the French and the Belgians, "mixed" peoples who were rather perplexing to racial theorists. One stage lower ranked the Slavs - the Russians, the Poles, the Yugoslavians, and the Czechs. Finally, in lowest order, came those the Nazis regarded as leeches to society - the Jews and the Gypsies, as well as homosexuals from all racial groups.

These people were to be exterminated. In the spring of 1942, Hitler and his inner circle decided in the "final solution" of the "Jewish Question," and in the next three years destroyed six million Jews in the gas chambers and crematories of Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Thus perished during the second World War about three-quarters of European Jewry - two-fifths of all the Jews in the entire world.

From an historical point of view, such treatment of those peoples was politically stupid. It alienated those who might have even been favorable to the New Order. "Nordics," who themselves were safe from racial persecutions, were revolted by Hitler's systematic slaughtering of racial minorities; the French also were overwhelmingly turned away by the horrible atrocities. Other peoples who were themselves victims of persecution and had welcomed the Nazis as liberators were disillusioned to find that they did not receive better treatment. A case study to look at would be the Ukrainians, who flooded the streets in celebration when the Nazis march into Kiev. However, the Ukrainian people became classified in the greater group of "barbarian" Slavs alongside the Russians, and as a result the occupation of their country was not what they expected.