If one takes the Jewish nation as fitting Smiths approach, a group which shares common myths and memories for example the Exodus, deliverance to Israel, global dispersion and persecution, the holocaust and a slow return back to Israel. The traditions of the Jewish nation are thousands of years old, for example the wearing of the yarmulke and Bat mitzvahs are typical ethno symbolic symbols of the nation. The difficult history of the Jews gave rise to Jewish nationalism culminating in the desire for autonomy and control over their original territory of Israel. .
Just as the Russian Foreign Minister Dimitar Dimitrov argued that "the fascists are rummaging through the entire history of every nation as to be able to pose as the heirs and continuators of all that was exalted and heroic in the past" Smith similarly acknowledged that national history and identity can be manipulated and twisted to suit whatever political or social aspirations deemed appropriate. The wave of German propaganda effectively distributed by Dr Joesph Goebbels allowed and maintained sporadic growth of the Nazi party through the 1930's-1940's based on the notion of an elite Germanic race descended for the Dorian's. Although such nationalism is induced hype Smith is encapsulated by the fact that people actually respond to it and the effect that it has on their lives. Whilst there is not one shred of evidence to support the existence of a pure Aryan race the Nazi propaganda machine new that people would respond to ethno symbolic mass hysteria and the polarized truth from reality that Germany had always existed and the denial that it was not until 1871 when Germany became politically united as one country even then with split allegiances between the unified states and country for example Bavaria, Baden, Hanover, Pomerania and East Prussia. The German people believed because they wanted to believe the nation had always existed, it gave them peace of mind, future, pride and hope.
