Original Nazi era Ancestor passport
Product Code: I4hHhVc
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The brief history of the ancestor passport has its origins in the misuse of genealogical research, an auxiliary historical science, for the National Socialist racial mania. Shortly after the Nazis seized power, the basis for the development of ancestor passports was created with the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7, 1933, which required civil servants to provide proof of “Aryan descent”. Paragraph 3[2] in particular, which contained the instruction “Civil servants who are not of Aryan descent are to be retired”, was regarded as the Aryan paragraph. Just a few days after the law was announced, on April 11, 1933, the “First Ordinance for the Implementation of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” specified paragraph 3 and stipulated: “Anyone who is descended from non-Aryan parents or grandparents is considered non-Aryan. It is sufficient if one parent or grandparent is not Aryan."
Members of the NSDAP and its branches were required to provide even more extensive proof of descent. Proof of “German-blooded ancestry” was to extend back to January 1, 1800. The reason for setting this time limit was due to the racial ideological view that Jewish emancipation had taken place around 1805, resulting in mixed marriages and, from this point onwards, the absorption of “larger quantities of Jewish blood” by the “German people”.
Triggered by the law of April 1933 and later caused by the further tightening of racial laws, a mass boom in genealogical research began. The initial problem was how to prove the four required “Aryan” grandparents, or even “Aryan ancestors” 4 to 6 generations back. As state registry offices were only introduced in Germany in 1876 and no civil sources existed for the time before that, the Nazi regime had to resort to birth, baptism, marriage and death entries in the church registers. According to a report from May 1935, 12.5 million church register extracts were issued in the first two years alone after the seizure of power. This mainly concerned members of the NSDAP, the SA and SS and their functionaries, as well as office holders of other institutions, associations and clubs. According to a census from May 1939, a total of 4,737,962 million citizens had to provide proof of “Aryan descent” in accordance with the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of 1933. The church registers proved to be not so harmless here, they “not only had a history, they made history” by being converted into instruments of National Socialist racial policy. The “racial affiliation” was thus determined by the religious confession of the ancestors on the basis of baptismal records. Both the absence or presence of a Jewish baptismal certificate served as proof of supposed “Jewish racial affiliation”.
The ancestor passport contained forms to certify the birth, baptism, marriage and death of the holder and their ancestors up to the fifth generation (great-great-great-grandparents, also: old grandparents) upon presentation of corresponding documents and had the purpose of providing proof of descent with the aim of proving “Aryan descent” or sorting out “non-German-blooded” ancestors. The extent to which it had to be completed in order to serve as proof depended on the individual case; as a rule, complete proof up to the great-grandparents' generation was also considered sufficient at the time. The small ancestor passport, for example, contained 7 birth or baptismal certificates, namely of oneself, the parents and the 4 grandparents, as well as the 3 marriage certificates of the parents and grandparents. This collection of 10 documents, arranged in the correct order, was the required proof of descent for 3 generations.
Ancestor passport forms were in DIN A5 format and were offered by various publishers. From 1937 there were two types, type 31 for the small genealogical record up to the great-grandparents and type 63 for the large genealogical record back to 1800.
The forms were published by various private and semi-official publishers as well as by Nazi institutions such as the Nazi Teachers' Association or the Reichsnährstand. The form from the Verlag für Standesamtswesen was frequently used.
Members of the NSDAP and its branches were required to provide even more extensive proof of descent. Proof of “German-blooded ancestry” was to extend back to January 1, 1800. The reason for setting this time limit was due to the racial ideological view that Jewish emancipation had taken place around 1805, resulting in mixed marriages and, from this point onwards, the absorption of “larger quantities of Jewish blood” by the “German people”.
Triggered by the law of April 1933 and later caused by the further tightening of racial laws, a mass boom in genealogical research began. The initial problem was how to prove the four required “Aryan” grandparents, or even “Aryan ancestors” 4 to 6 generations back. As state registry offices were only introduced in Germany in 1876 and no civil sources existed for the time before that, the Nazi regime had to resort to birth, baptism, marriage and death entries in the church registers. According to a report from May 1935, 12.5 million church register extracts were issued in the first two years alone after the seizure of power. This mainly concerned members of the NSDAP, the SA and SS and their functionaries, as well as office holders of other institutions, associations and clubs. According to a census from May 1939, a total of 4,737,962 million citizens had to provide proof of “Aryan descent” in accordance with the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of 1933. The church registers proved to be not so harmless here, they “not only had a history, they made history” by being converted into instruments of National Socialist racial policy. The “racial affiliation” was thus determined by the religious confession of the ancestors on the basis of baptismal records. Both the absence or presence of a Jewish baptismal certificate served as proof of supposed “Jewish racial affiliation”.
The ancestor passport contained forms to certify the birth, baptism, marriage and death of the holder and their ancestors up to the fifth generation (great-great-great-grandparents, also: old grandparents) upon presentation of corresponding documents and had the purpose of providing proof of descent with the aim of proving “Aryan descent” or sorting out “non-German-blooded” ancestors. The extent to which it had to be completed in order to serve as proof depended on the individual case; as a rule, complete proof up to the great-grandparents' generation was also considered sufficient at the time. The small ancestor passport, for example, contained 7 birth or baptismal certificates, namely of oneself, the parents and the 4 grandparents, as well as the 3 marriage certificates of the parents and grandparents. This collection of 10 documents, arranged in the correct order, was the required proof of descent for 3 generations.
Ancestor passport forms were in DIN A5 format and were offered by various publishers. From 1937 there were two types, type 31 for the small genealogical record up to the great-grandparents and type 63 for the large genealogical record back to 1800.
The forms were published by various private and semi-official publishers as well as by Nazi institutions such as the Nazi Teachers' Association or the Reichsnährstand. The form from the Verlag für Standesamtswesen was frequently used.
$70.00 inc. tax
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