OUR
SOCIETY'S LIFE
_______________________________________________________
Genealogical impacts
of antisemitic persecutions during Nazi years
1. The death
records of deportees who have not come back from the camps
are the subject matter of French Law of May 15, 1985. This question,
already touched in our Revue, Issue 75, is of special interest forJewish
genealogists. The Law is summarized, as well as the errors which
have occurred in its implementation. What is at stake is to obtain
that the death records of these deportees be set up correctly and
comprehensively. Eve Line BLUM and Jean-Pierre
NETTER illustrate thiscase by their inquiries and by the
answers given by the relevant section of the Ministry of Defense.
2. In Jewish
patriotism and genealogy under the Vichy rule , Philippe
E.- Landau examins how the French Jews have reacted to
the anti-Semitic laws deriving from the Status of the Jews promulgated
in 1940 and 1941 :they produced the proof of their belonging to
the French Nation alongits history, in particular by establishing
their family trees. An inquiry made by the Consistoire Central
illustrates how they have participated in the French political
and military life during history.
The author stresses that this has not impacted the Vichy policy.
3. Jacqueline
Behr and André Convers show documents
established by their ancestors and acquaintances to prove how
they early had been French citizens and how integrated they were
in the society.
4.The racist obsession of the National-Socialists
and its impact on German-Jewish genealogical research by Ernest
Kallmann
The racist obsession of the Nazis, which made genealogy a national
and institutional activity, involved over ten million Germans
during the Third Reich. This article, published simultaneously
in English by Stammbaum, The Journal of German-Jewish Genealogical
Research, is comprised of three parts.
Part One sketches the rise of racism in Germany from the end of
the 19th century, showing its influence on genealogy, eugenic
theories based on a biased use of genetics, and Teutonic myths.
Part Two describes how genealogy had become an institutional tool
of Nazi politics, spreading widely among the German population.
Part Three, to be published in a subsequent issue, shows the fallouts
of the Nazi racist obsession on today’s German-Jewish genealogy
research.
_______________________________________________________
BOOK REVIEW
Joseph Valynseele et Henri-Claude
Mars, Le Sang des Rothschild, Paris 2004.
Anthony Allfrey. The Goldschmidts, Londres 2004.
David Kaufmann & Max Freudenthal. The Gomperz family. Londres 2003.
_______________________________________________________
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS |