Quote:They were selected because they were Jews, whether they were religious or not. The Nazis believed the Aryan race to be pure, and considered marriage to anyone not Aryan to be traitors. When they identified Jews they did so from physical appearance and family lineage as much as where a person worshiped. If a person had both an Aryan and Jewish parent, the person was considered a Jew. It absolutely had everything to do with race.

 

The definition of "race" includes more than just common skin color, physical features or historical lineage, however very few Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust were converts, they were born Jews.

 

 

If I remember my history correctly, the Nazi's portrayed Jews and other non-desirables as less than the Aryan race.  The Aryan race being the "ideal" in physical and mental individual characteristics.  

 

Jewish people were portrayed and caricatured as looking and thinking a specific way.  Their religion became less and less what the issue was, while they're physical attributes and mental deficiencies (in the eyes of the Nazis) were the key to they're selection for a final solution by the elites in the Party.

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