How did Nazi ideology define the Volksgemeinschaft?

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Nazi SS troops march in formation carrying banners with swastikas and eagles at the 1933 Party Day rally in Nuremberg, Germany, with trees in the background. — Third Reich A Nazi Party rally at Nürnberg, Germany, in 1933.

In the Third Reich, the Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) was defined as a racially unified and hierarchically organized body where individual interests were strictly subordinate to the nation, or Volk.1

Nazi ideology viewed this community as a military-like entity, permanently prepared for war and bound by absolute discipline. Central to this concept was the belief in an unchangeable natural order of racial inequality, which exalted the "Aryan race" as the sole creative element of humanity. Consequently, the state existed solely to serve the Volk, and all morality was judged by whether an action preserved or benefited this racial collective.1

The establishment of the Volksgemeinschaft was the primary goal of the Nazi revolution, necessitating the "purification" of the German race through the exclusion and persecution of those deemed enemies, particularly Jews. This ideology relied on eugenics and discriminatory legislation, such as the Nürnberg Laws, to enforce biological separation and racial hierarchy. Ultimately, this framework provided the foundation for the Holocaust, a moral atrocity that stands as a profound violation of human dignity and fundamental rights.1