If you read texts from 1920s Europe, they frequently talk about the “French race”, the “German race” or the “English race”. When the Nazis talked about the “uber race”, they didn’t mean white people, but instead meant German people. They saw the French, the English and so on as inferior races. (Which makes the concept of neonazis from other countries than Germany quite absurd.)

Downton Abbey has at least one instance of this, referring to the “German race” just slightly post WW2. It caught me off guard but now makes sense in light of your comment.