Nazi ideas of racial superiority were not new. At the end of the 19th century racism combined with the pseudo-science, Social Darwinism, created ideas similar to those Hitler would espouse later.

In 1925 Hitler published Mein Kampf, a random collection of racist and political ideas.

He described a racial hierarchy with the "Aryans", the culture-producing race, at the top and Jews, Africans and Gypsies (Romani), the culture-destroying races, at the bottom.

In his speeches he played on fears that Germans would one day be outnumbered by inferior peoples and hearkened back to an idealized time when the Aryan "Volk" lived in harmony. Hitler's goal was to remove the inferior types from Germany, making more lebensraum (living space) for the superior Aryans.

Although the Jews were not his only target, they were the special object of his hatred.