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:
“I don’t want to shoot any Englishmen. I never saw one ‘til I came up here. But I suppose most of them never saw a German ‘til they came up here.”
—Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959)
“My grandfather fell on Vinegar Hill,
And fighting was not his trade;
But his rusty pike’s in the cabin still,
With Hessian blood on the blade.””
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“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)