Honorary Aryan (
German: Ehrenarier[1]) was a semi-official category and expression used in
Nazi Germany to justify the exceptional awarding of
Aryan certificates to some regime-favoured
Mischlinge who according to
Nuremberg Laws standards would not have been recognized as belonging to the
Aryan race, but whom German officials nevertheless chose to spare persecution.[2]
As to why the status of "honorary Aryan" was bestowed by Germans upon certain "non-
Aryan" people or peoples, this was typically not well-documented, due to the semi-official nature of the category, since generally, lacking the requisite fully "Aryan" genealogy would have still carried a stigma. It might have been that the services of those individuals or peoples were deemed valuable to the German economy or war effort, or simply for other purely political or
propaganda reasons.[3]The attribution of "honorary Aryan" could be awarded through Frontgemeinschaft, which was essentially loyalty to Nazi Germany.[citation needed]
Emil Maurice, Hitler's first personal chauffeur and a very early member of the Nazi-Party, was a member of the
SS, but ran afoul of
Heinrich Himmler's rules, which required SS men to have deep Aryan ancestry, since Maurice's great-grandfather was Jewish. Himmler considered him a security-risk, and he tried to have him thrown out, but Hitler stood by his old friend and, in a secret letter dated 31 August 1935, he required Himmler to allow Maurice and his brothers to remain in the SS. They were to be considered "Honorary Aryans".[13]
Sophie Lehár (née Paschal), the wife of the composer
Franz Lehár, had been Jewish before her conversion to
Catholicism upon her marriage. Hitler enjoyed Lehár's music and the Nazis made some propaganda use of it. After
Joseph Goebbels intervened on Lehár's behalf,[14] Mrs. Lehár was given in 1938 the status of "honorary Aryan" by marriage.[15] This certainly saved her life; during the war, attempts were made at least once to have her deported, which was stopped only due to her status.
Helene Mayer, a German-born fencer who had been forced to leave Germany in 1935 and resettle in the United States because she was Jewish, took part as an "honorary Aryan" at the
1936 Olympics in Berlin, where she won the silver medal for Germany.
The Nazis believed
Turks to be a pure European Volk related to
Hungarians and
Finns,[23][24] referring to them as "kindred" people.[25] Nazis also conferred on Turks the title 'carriers of culture' (Kulturträger), which was "almost synonymous with Aryan".[26]
^A 1st-degree Mischling was someone classified as having two Jewish grandparents
Citations
^HITLER: El Hombre detras del Monstruo (in Spanish) (1nd ed.). Spain: Edimat. 2017. p. 26.
ISBN978-84-9794-380-2.
^Steiner, John; Freiherr von Cornberg, Jobst (1998).
Willkür in der Willkür : Befreiungen von den antisemitischen Nürnberger Gesetzen [Arbitrariness in arbitrariness:Exemptions from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws] (PDF) (in German). Institut fûr Zeitgeschichte. Den Begriff „Ehrenarier" gab es offiziell nicht, nur in der Umgangssprache. Er bedeutete wohl, daß ein jüdischer Mischling auf Grund seiner Stellung und Verdienste im Reich wie ein Arier angesehen wurde und keinerlei Anstalten machen mußte, eine Besserstellung oder Gleichstellung durch Hitler zu erreichen.
^"In the Wind", The Nation Vol. 147, Issue 7. August 13, 1938
^Corum, James (1997) The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918–1940. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p.127
ISBN978-0-7006-0836-2
^Dalin David G. and Rothman, John F. (2009) Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam, Transaction Publishers. p.47
ISBN978-1-4128-1077-7.
^Rigg, Bryan Mark (2002) Hitler's Jewish soldiers: the untold story of Nazi racial laws and men of Jewish descent in the German military. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
ISBN978-0-7006-1178-2
^Ahmed, Akbar (2018).
Journey into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity. Brookings Institution Press. p. 380.
ISBN9780815727590. Retrieved 23 March 2020. Hitler's contempt for non-Aryan peoples, however, was difficult to contain: He is on record as referring to Arabs as "half-monkeys."
^Stefan Wild (1985). "National Socialism in the Arab near East between 1933 and 1939". Die Welt des Islams. New Series. 25 (1/4): 126–173.
doi:
10.2307/1571079.
JSTOR1571079. Wir werden weiterhin die Unruhe in Fernost und in Arabien schüren. Denken wir als Herren und sehen in diesen Völkern bestenfalls lackierte Halbaffen, die die Knute spüren wollen. (We will continue to stir up unrest in the Far East and in Arabia. Let us think as Men and at best we will see lacquered half-monkeys in these peoples who want to feel the whip.)
^Jim Wilson (2011) Nazi Princess: Hitler, Lord Rothermere and Princess Stephanie von HohenloheISBN978-0-7524-6114-4.
^Hoffmann, Peter (2000) [1979]. Hitler's Personal Security: Protecting the Führer 1921–1945. New York: Da Capo Press. pp.50-51
ISBN978-0-30680-947-7
^Elke Froehlich (Hrsg.): Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Teil I Aufzeichnungen 1923–1945 Band 5. Dez 1937 – Juli 1938. K.G. Saur, München 2000, S. 313.