Honorary_Aryan
Honorary Aryan
Nazi-era classification of people
Honorary Aryan (German: Ehrenarier[1]) was a semi-official category and expression used in Nazi Germany to justify the exceptional awarding of Aryan certificates to some regime-favoured Mischlinge who according to Nuremberg Laws standards would not have been recognized as belonging to the Aryan race, but whom German officials nevertheless chose to spare persecution.[2]
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As to why the status of "honorary Aryan" was bestowed by Germans upon certain "non-Aryan" people or peoples, this was typically not well-documented, due to the semi-official nature of the category, since generally, lacking the requisite fully "Aryan" genealogy would have still carried a stigma. It might have been that the services of those individuals or peoples were deemed valuable to the German economy or war effort, or simply for other purely political or propaganda reasons.[3] The attribution of "honorary Aryan" could be awarded through Frontgemeinschaft, which was essentially loyalty to Nazi Germany.[citation needed]
In the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi client state, this term was used by Ante Pavelić to protect some Jews from persecution who had been useful to the state.[4]