Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.
My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject, which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.
Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully,
My wife is Persian. Born there, left in ‘79. Iran means, in English, “Land of the Aryans.” She gets a good chuckle any time she hears some BS about Nazi Aryan “purity.”
“To be a perfect Aryan, you have to be as blond as Hitler, as slim as Goering and as tall as Goebbels.”
I had a professor who introduced the class to the story of Abdol Hossein Sardari, including his ultimately successful (at least for a time) argument to the Nazis that Iranian Jews were Aryan in order to generate paperwork to save a number of them (as well as a lot of non-Iranian Jews, apparently). I was quite shocked that I’d never heard of him and we were all blown away that his research was, although initially denied, ultimately accepted by Reich (I’m still not clear how much of what he generated was fully historical vs what he might have embellished in order to construct a sturdy rationale that would allow him to help people escape).
_Tenderlion | 11 hours ago
25 July 1938 20 Northmoor Road, Oxford
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.
My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject, which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.
Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and
remain yours faithfully,
J. R. R. Tolkien
WileyCoyote7 | 13 hours ago
My wife is Persian. Born there, left in ‘79. Iran means, in English, “Land of the Aryans.” She gets a good chuckle any time she hears some BS about Nazi Aryan “purity.”
“To be a perfect Aryan, you have to be as blond as Hitler, as slim as Goering and as tall as Goebbels.”
myironlions | 9 hours ago
I had a professor who introduced the class to the story of Abdol Hossein Sardari, including his ultimately successful (at least for a time) argument to the Nazis that Iranian Jews were Aryan in order to generate paperwork to save a number of them (as well as a lot of non-Iranian Jews, apparently). I was quite shocked that I’d never heard of him and we were all blown away that his research was, although initially denied, ultimately accepted by Reich (I’m still not clear how much of what he generated was fully historical vs what he might have embellished in order to construct a sturdy rationale that would allow him to help people escape).
harry_nola | 9 hours ago
Fun fact Goebbel was in fact so ideally tall he had two heights: one standing 5'5 while the other undetermined standing on his club foot.