This narrative should be entitled “Hunting for My ‘Aryan’ Grandmother.” The data herein are not the invention of a smart aleck columnist poking fun at some of the ridiculous developments resulting from the invention of the “Aryan” legend. All information which follows has been picked up from the pages of the duly coordinated Acht-Uhr Abendblatt. The latter recently offered to its readers specimens of communications which Nazi citizens have for some time been addressing to organs of civil registry in Germany.
It seems there is a veritable stampede for “Aryan” grandmothers and similar genealogical freaks. Here they are. Count ###em (freely translated):
1. “Kindly help me to reach my ‘Aryan’ grandmother. She is in your church registers.”
2. “For the purpose of establishing my ‘Aryan’ origin I am seeking a grandmother, not necessarily the official one.”
3. “Wanted, for the family tree, a Grenadier.”
4. “I am the child of a happy marriage. I was born on the day my parents entered wedlock, and on the same day my parents were united in matrimony and I was christened.”
5. “Please notify me if my grandfather is among death notices. He died during the period from 1821 to 1850.”
6. “My grandmother was born in the year 1860 in the Old Garden pastorate, but as she no longer exists, I am addressing this inquiry to find out to whom does she belong now.”
7. “Dear Sirs: Kindly forward my ‘Ayran’ grandmother. It will assist you to know that she died in 1871.”
8. “In view of the fact that am of Arabic descent, will yo###
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
