Although modern neo-nazis often invoke National Socialist iconography on behalf of white nationalism, National Socialist Germany repudiated the idea of a unified white race, instead promoting Nordicism. In National Socialist propaganda, Eastern European Slavs were often referred to as Untermensch, and the relatively under-developed status of Eastern European countries such as Poland and the USSR were attributed to the racial inferiority of their inhabitants. Fascist Italy took the same view, and both of these nations justified their colonial ambitions in Eastern Europe on racist, anti-Slavic grounds. These nations were not alone in their view; there are numerous cases in the 20th century where some European ethnic groups labeled or treated other Europeans as members of another, inferior race.