A German Blood Certificate (Deutschblütigkeitserklärung) was a document provided by Hitler to Mischlinge (those with partial Jewish heritage), declaring them deutschblütig (of German blood). This practice was begun sometime after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and allowed exemption from most of Germany's racial laws. The certificate was conditional, and had a clause stating that it would be reconsidered after the cessation of hostilities.
Mischling is a term used during the Third Reich era in Germany to denote persons deemed to have partial Jewish ancestry. This word literally means “mixed”.
In order to join the Nazi party and get a certificate, the candidate had to prove through baptismal records that all direct ancestors born since 1750 were not Jewish, or they could apply for a German Blood Certificate.
These certificates are 8-1/4 by 11-3/4 inches with a signature on the front and the red seal of the Office of Racial Research on the NSDAP. The back side lists the ancestry history back to the grandparents of the father and the mother.
Famous quotes containing the words german, blood and/or certificate:
“The Germans—once they were called the nation of thinkers: do they still think at all? Nowadays the Germans are bored with intellect, the Germans distrust intellect, politics devours all seriousness for really intellectual things—Deutschland, Deutschland Über alles was, I fear, the end of German philosophy.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“No sleep. The sultriness pervades the air
And binds the brain—a dense oppression, such
As tawny tigers feel in matted shades,
Vexing their blood and making apt for ravage.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“God gave the righteous man a certificate entitling him to food and raiment, but the unrighteous man found a facsimile of the same in God’s coffers, and appropriated it, and obtained food and raiment like the former. It is one of the most extensive systems of counterfeiting that the world has seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)