“Aryan by Certificate”: How the Armenians of Europe Defended Themselves Against Nazi Racial Policy

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, “Aryan” origin in Germany became a question of survival. Those whom the regime classified as “non-Aryans” faced discrimination, expulsion from the professions, and later extermination. The small Armenian community of Germany found itself within this system. Its defense is one of the most unusual episodes in twentieth-century European history.

The Threat: “Armenians as Jews”

Soon after 1933, a campaign unfolded in the German press and in Nazi circles accusing Armenians of a “non-Aryan” character and racial kinship with Semites. Being equated with Jews was deadly dangerous, which is why Armenians lobbied for official recognition as Aryans. Abeghian’s biographers write that the campaign was conducted reportedly with Turkish support.

The question was never settled once and for all. In 1938, in Fascist Italy, under German pressure, some documents classified Armenians as “Asiatic,” outside the “Aryan” category. In 1939 there was another turn in favor of Armenians’ “Aryan” status.

The Response: The German-Armenian Society

The first to react was the German-Armenian Society (Deutsch-Armenische Gesellschaft). According to Vartan Matiossian, in the summer and autumn of 1933 it obtained official declarations from the Nazi authorities that Armenians were Aryans. According to Abeghian’s biography, in July 1933 this was recorded in a decision of the Ministry of the Interior. More on the society’s activities in 1933–1939 can be found in an article in the Yerevan State University journal.

The driving force of the campaign was the orientalist Artashes Abeghian, a professor at the University of Berlin and vice-president of the society. He edited a collection of articles by German-language authors, none of whom was Armenian. The collection, Armeniertum – Ariertum (“Armenianness – Aryanness”), appeared in early 1934. It argued for the Indo-European origin of the Armenians and the Aryan character of the Armenian language. Among the participants in the society’s circle was the publicist Paul Rohrbach.

The authors did not challenge the racial ideology itself; they operated within the dominant discourse in order to deflect the threat from the community. In 1939, an Italian translation of the collection, Armeni-Aryani, was published.

The Second Wave: 1941–1943

The racial pressure did not cease. The campaign resumed in 1941–1942 and could now affect Armenians throughout the occupied territories. A separate problem was the fate of thousands of Soviet Armenian prisoners of war.

In response, a group of ARF members founded the Armenian National Council in 1942–1943, headed by Abeghian. According to testimonies, Armeniertum – Ariertum was reprinted in 1942 or 1943, but no surviving copy has yet been found. An Armenian translation of the collection was published in installments in 1998 and as a separate book in 2001.

Garegin Nzhdeh and the “Turkish Factor”

A distinct place in this story belongs to Garegin Nzhdeh (Ter-Harutyunyan), one of the leaders of the ARF. According to the fact-checking platform Fip.am, he cooperated with Abeghian and General Dro (Drastamat Kanayan) in attempts to save Armenians. The same authors explain contacts with the Nazi authorities by the threat from Turkey: in their account, in 1939 Turkey put forward the Armenian question as one of the conditions of a treaty with the Third Reich and demanded that Armenians be treated as Jews were. This claim rests on a single source, so it should be presented as the position of that material’s authors rather than as an established fact.

The same publication shows that Armenian figures were not united on the idea of an Armenian Legion within the Wehrmacht. According to the legion’s leaders, it was formed in order to reach the Caucasian Front and save Armenians from the prospect of final extermination by the Turks. The organization was begun by Dro. Nzhdeh, however, refused to take part in the final stage of the legion’s formation, arguing that it would fight on the German-Soviet front rather than against Turkey. The article also notes that the legion belonged to the Wehrmacht, not the SS, and that there is no information on war crimes or massacres of civilians where its units were deployed.

Nzhdeh’s figure thus illustrates the common logic of Armenian public figures of the time: by entering into contact with the authorities of the Reich, they sought to protect Armenians from racial persecution and from the Turkish threat. They differed, however, on how far one could go.

A Document of the Era: The Belgian Certificate

A vivid example of how this history was reflected in everyday life is a certificate issued in Brussels by the Committee of Armenians of Belgium (Comité des Arméniens de Belgique) to Bedros Assadourian, a native of Batum born in 1894. It states: “d’origine arménienne (aryenne),” that is, “of Armenian (Aryan) origin.” Status: stateless, Armenian refugee. The document is dated July 1941, is registered under number 268, and entitled its holder to wear an insignia issued by the Committee.

The certificate was issued by an Armenian organization, not by the German authorities. It shows that even in occupied Belgium, Armenian organizations recorded the “Aryan” origin of their compatriots on paper. This was a form of community self-defense at a time when racial classification could determine a person’s fate.

Proving “Color”: Matiossian’s Research

In his monograph The Color of Choice (Brill, 2025), Vartan Matiossian shows that Armenians had to “prove their color”: in the United States as “free white persons” in order to obtain citizenship, and in Nazi Germany as “Aryans” in order to be protected from racial persecution. More on his approach can be found in the announcement of his lecture at the Zohrab Center.

Conclusion

The Armenians of Germany and occupied Europe managed to avoid the fate that befell the Jews and a number of other peoples. The efforts of Abeghian, the German-Armenian Society, Nzhdeh and Dro, the support of German scholars and publicists, and the political circumstances of the regime all played a role. This strategy relied on a racial ideology that science definitively rejected after 1945, and it remains an example of the price paid for survival in a world that judged people by their “blood.”

Sources

• Matiossian V. Review “German Perceptions of Armenians and Armenian-Nazi Relations”: haigrepository.haigazian.edu.lb
• Biography of Artashes Abeghian (Armenian Prelacy, USA): armenianprelacy.org
• Activities of the German-Armenian Society in 1933–1939: journals.ysu.am
• Matiossian V. The Color of Choice (Brill, 2025): schweitzer-online.de
• Matiossian’s lecture at the Zohrab Center: zohrabcenter.org
• Armenian Weekly on lobbying for Aryan status: armenianweekly.com
• Fip.am on Nzhdeh, Dro and the Armenian Legion: fip.am

Artatsolum

document source: Ալբերտ Միքայելյան