colour existed within the racial categories they recognised. For
example, Adolf Hitler and many Nazi officials had dark hair and were
still considered members of the Aryan race under Nazi racial doctrine,
because the determination of an individual's racial type depended on a
preponderance of many characteristics in an individual rather than on
just one defining feature.[119] In September 1935, the Nazis passed
the Nuremberg Laws. All Aryan Reich citizens were required to prove
their Aryan ancestry; one way was to obtain an Ahnenpass ("ancestor
pass") by providing proof through baptismal certificates that all four
grandparents were of Aryan descent.[120] In December of the same year,
the Nazis founded Lebensborn ("Fount of Life") to counteract the falling
Aryan birth rates in Germany, and to promote Nazi eugenics.[121]
Many American white supremacist neo-Nazi groups and prison gangs
refer to themselves as 'Aryans', including the Aryan Brotherhood,
the Aryan Nations, the Aryan Republican Army, the White Aryan
Resistance, or the Aryan Circle.[122][123] Modern nationalist political
groups and neo-Pagan movements in Russia claim a direct linkage
between themselves as Slavs and the ancient 'Aryans',[12] and in some
Indian nationalist circles, the term 'Aryan' can also be used in reference
to an alleged Aryan 'race'.[21]
"Aryan invasion theory"
Main article: "Aryan invasion"
Translating the sacred Indian texts of the Rig Veda in the 1840s,
German linguist Friedrich Max Muller found what he believed was
evidence of an ancient invasion of India by Hindu Brahmins, a group
which he called "the Arya." In his later works, Muller was careful to
note that he thought that Aryan was a linguistic rather than a racial