Ahnenpass

The Ahnenpaß was issued by the " National Association of Registrars of Germany" since 1933; he served as proof of " Aryan descent " of its owner.

Formation

Prehistory

The proof of " Aryan descent " to the grandparents was in Nazi Germany under the various laws ( Nuremberg Laws, career civil servants law, later also German Civil Service Act ) prescribed. So eliminated as the " Reich Citizenship Law " - one of the two Nuremberg Laws - the distinction between " Reich citizens " who were in full possession of all the rights, and " citizens " who did not have the kingdom citizenship and were placed under special law, equality before the law. To make the authorities on such basis for action, the Ahnenpaß in 1933, shortly after the so-called " seizure of power", is introduced.

Background

The Ahnenpaß was the idea of belonging to a "people" qua Genealogy place due to cultural characteristics based. Its inventor imagined a "German people" as a " community of blood " and as a collective of people with innate common personality traits. To disconnect within the population according to racial criteria, the members of the " German national community " of the racially unwanted minorities such as Jews, Roma and Sinti and privilege the one hand, and to discard the others, it was necessary administrative instruments. One such instrument was the Ahnenpaß.

The German Genealogenvereine, with the exception of the German Roland, did not participate until the 1932 anti-Semitic aspirations. That changed, however, from 1933 through the required by the State pedigrees.

Although the possession of an ancestor passport was no duty, he was but everyone - including non-" Aryans " - suggested. To create it, was expensive because details were recognized only because of original documents or certified copies. A complete, ecclesiastically certified by the registrar's office and / or Ahnenpaß replaced the otherwise required detection of individual birth, baptism and marriage certificates.

Content

It contained forms for the certification of birth, baptism, marriage and death of the owner and his ancestors up to the fifth generation ( Urururgroßeltern, also: Altgroßeltern ) submission of relevant documents. To what extent he had to be filled out in order to serve as evidence, was the individual case -dependent; usually complete set of evidence to the generation of great-grandparents were at that time regarded as sufficient.

Whereabouts

After submission to an authority or agency of the Ahnenpaß was handed back. That is, ancestor passports have not been archived. Only the pedigrees of members of the SS were withheld from the Race and Settlement Main Office and archived after 1945 in the Berlin Document Center and are now in the Department R of the Federal Archives in Berlin light field.