SEARCH FOR ANCESTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1933, Page 14

SEARCH FOR ANCESTRY

DEMANDS OF NEW REGIME. Berlin, June 3. Owing to the importance which the Nazis attach to the distinction between Aryans and non-Aryans, the offices of the registrars of births, deaths and marriages are overflowing. Thousands of people are anxious to discover their lineage, all hoping to prove that they are true-blooded Aryans, but many have been disappointed by the finding of a skeleton in the family cupboard. Both public registries and private research bureaus have been forced to increase their staffs to cope with the rush to trace pedigrees. The task is complicated by the fact that civil registers were begun only in 1875. This necessitates consultation with church records, dating to the 16tli century, and many are incomplete, owing to destruction in the Thirty Years War. Dr. Gercke, chief of the Government’s new Racial Research Department, defines non-Aryans as non-European tribes, such as Mongols and negroes. He says that , the Germanic races are natural-born I Aryans, but not all Aryans are Germans. For the Nazis’ purposes Germans must prove Aryan descent since 1800, which is selected because the emancipation of the Jews in Germany occurred between 1806 and 1813. Intermarriage was hardly possible previously.