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Yugoslav Germans Hunt Jewish Ancestors to Avoid Repatriation

November 19, 1939
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A frantic hunt for Jewish ancestry is the order of the day for many Germans, long residents of Yugoslavia, who fear forcible repatriation to the Reich in Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s program of reshuffling minorities.

Approximately 500,000 Yugoslav Germans are faced with the prospect of involuntary transfer to their fatherland. Many of them, seeking to avoid the shift, are applying to Jewish community organizations for affidavits testifying that they have Jewish blood in their veins and are not full “Aryans.” Others are hurriedly joining the Serbian Slavonic church and still others are seeking to establish that they are Alsatians and are therefore of French rather than German stock.

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