In a message dated 08/28/03 12:31:53 AM, jewishgen@lyris.jewishgen.org writes:

<< Subject: The ear as identfier in photographs

From: MBernet@aol.com

Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 02:57:47 EDT

X-Message-Number: 5

Michael Bernet answered the original question and asks --

In a message dated 8/27/2003 12:14:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

rwfgjf@iinet.net.au writes:


<< At the time that my late parents were preparing to flee Vienna in

1939, their passeport photographs were, so they told me, required

to be taken with the left ear visible. This was apparantly a law

introduced by the nazi authorities. Perhaps the facts below were

the reason for this regulation. >>


Indeed, that is so. The Germans claimed (rightly or wrongly) that the

shape of the ear was a clue to a person's identity. I believe it was

common in much of Europe, to require one visible ear in photographs for

official documents.


Can anyone tell us how correct (or widespread) that assumprion is? Are the

ears more or less symmetrical? Is there a genetic connection to the ear's

shape, so that we could say with some degree of certainty >from comparing

photographs, "Yes, she's probably his sister"?>>


This was Adolf Hitler's input. He put great stock into
the interpretation of ear shapes, rationalizing that
(like finger prints) no two ears were alike. I do not
believe that this pseudo science has been taken
seriously or pursued further.

At the time, all Kennkarten identification pictures had to
show the ear outline clearly.

Charlotte Opfermann