Honorary Aryan (German: Ehrenarier) is a term from Nazi Germany. It was a status granted by the Nazi Bureau of Race Research to certain individuals and groups of people'who were not generally considered to be biologically part of the Aryan race'which certified them as being part of the Aryan race. The prevalent explanation as to why the status of "honorary Aryan" was bestowed by the Nazis upon other non-Nordic--or even less exclusively, non-Indo-European races is that the services of those races were deemed valuable to the German economy or war effort,^[1] or simply for other purely political reasons.

[edit] Notable Ascriptions of the Term

[edit] To Jews

The Nuremburg Laws defined racial purity in terms of "blood" and Ehre and defined a special category of Ehrenarier. According to Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus this was intended to provide an exemption for Jews that provided special service to the regime but in practice was never used officially^[2]. However, some Jews who had been decorated in World War I for military service to the German Empire were left unmolested and thus were in a practical sense functioning as "honorary Aryans".

Emil Maurice, founder of the SS and a close companion of Hitler who was imprisoned with him at Lansberg, was for practical purposes (although there never was an official certificate issued) declared an "honorary Aryan" by Hitler when Himmler discovered he had Jewish ancestors.

[edit] To the Japanese

However, in the case of the Japanese people, to whom Adolf Hitler bestowed the title following the Anti-Comintern Pact on Communism (signed in 1936), it seemed that they were granted the status not simply for economic, military, or political reasons, but more so because of their apparent racial integrity. In The Political Testament of Adolf Hitler, Hitler stated, "Pride in one's own race - and that does not imply contempt for other races - is also a normal and healthy sentiment. I have never regarded the Chinese or the Japanese as being inferior to ourselves. They belong to ancient civilizations, and I admit freely that their past history is superior to our own. They have the right to be proud of their past, just as we have the right to be proud of the civilization to which we belong. Indeed, I believe the more steadfast the Chinese and the Japanese remain in their pride of race, the easier I shall find it to get on with them."^[3] That he in fact had held a high opinion of the Japanese for some time before the formation of the Axis is also confirmed by numerous passages in Mein Kampf.^[4]

Although of a different ethnicity, the Japanese were, in fact, considered by Nazi ideologists such as Heinrich Himmler, as having similar enough qualities with German-Nordic blood to warrant an alliance with them. Himmler, who possessed a great interest in and was influenced by the anthropology, philosophies and pantheistic religions of East Asia, mentioned how his friend Oshima, a Japanese military attaché in Berlin, believed that the noble castes in Japan, the Daimyo and the Samurai, were descended from gods of celestial origin,^[5] which was similar to Himmler's own belief that "the Nordic race did not evolve, but came directly down from heaven to settle on the Atlantic continent."^[5]

Karl Haushofer, a German General, geographer, and geopolitician, whose ideas may have influenced the development of Adolf Hitler's expansionist strategies, saw Japan as the brother nation to Germany. In 1908, he was sent by the German army "to Tokyo to study the Japanese army and to advise it as an artillery instructor. The assignment changed the course of his life and marked the beginning of his love affair with the orient. During the next four years he traveled extensively in East Asia, adding Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin to his repertoire of Russian, French, and English languages. Karl Haushofer had been a devout student of Schopenhauer, and during his stay in the Far East he was introduced to Oriental esoteric teachings."^[6] It was based on such teachings that he came to make similar bestowals of his own upon the Japanese people, calling them the "Aryans of the East", and even the "Herrenvolk of the Orient" (i.e. the "Master race of the Orient").^[7]

As such, the approximately 10,000 Japanese nationals who resided in Germany during the World War II period enjoyed more privileges than any other "non-White" ethno-national group under their "honorary Aryan" citizenship.

[edit] See also

• Anti-Comintern Pact
• German'Japanese relations
• Sino-German cooperation (1911-1941)
• Honorary Whites
• Racial policy of Nazi Germany
• Tripartite Pact

[edit] References

Constructs such as ibid. and loc. cit. are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title.

1. ^ "In the Wind", The Nation Vol. 147, Issue 7. August 13, 1938
2. ^ Enzyklopädie des Nationalsozialismus (hrsg. Wolfgang Benz u. a.), 5. Auflage München 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-34408-1, S. 483.
3. ^ The Political Testament of Adolf Hitler, Note #5, (February - April 1945)
4. ^ pp. 141,158,274,290-291, 637-640 Ralph Manheim Translation, Mariner paperback edition
5. ^ ^{a b} The Activities of Dr. Ernst Schaefer, OI - Final Interrogation Report (OI-FIR) No. 32, Secret - United States Forces European Theater Military Intelligence Service Center APO 757, February 12, 1946, pg. 4.
6. ^ The Swastika and the Nazi's, Servando Gonz�¡lez, Chapter 2: The Haushofer Connection, 1997-1998.
7. ^ The Spear of Destiny: The occult power behind the spear which pierced the side of Christ and how Hitler inverted the force in a bid to conquer the world, Trevor Ravenscroft, p. 229, June 1982.