Honorary Aryan was an expression used in Nazi Germany to describe the unofficial status of persons, including Mischlinge, who were not recognized as belonging to the Aryan race, according to Nazi standards, but informally considered to be part of it. The prevalent explanation as to why the status of "honorary Aryan" was bestowed by the Nazis upon other non-Nordic - or even less exclusively, non-Indo-Iranian/European peoples - is that the services of those peoples were deemed valuable to the German economy or war effort, In the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi client country, this term was used by Ante Pavelić to protect from persecution some Jews who had been useful to the state.
Amin al-Husseini, an Arab and the Mufti of the British Mandate of Palestine, "was granted the status of honorary Aryan" by the Nazis, whereas Arabs as a whole were considered by Hitler to be "half-monkeys".
Stephanie von Hohenlohe, a Jewish Austrian princess by marriage and spy for Nazi Germany and declared an honorary Aryan by Heinrich Himmler.
Emil Maurice, Hitler's first personal chauffeur and a very early member of the Nazi Party, was a member of the SS, but ran afoul of Heinrich Himmler's rules, which required SS men to have deep Aryan ancestry, since Maurice's great-grandfather was Jewish. Himmler considered him to be a security risk, and tried to have him thrown out, but Hitler stood by his old friend and, in a secret letter dated 31August 1935, required Himmler to allow Maurice and his brothers to remain in the SS. They were considered to be "Honorary Aryans".
Sophie Lehar, the wife of the composer Franz Lehár had been Jewish before her conversion to Catholicism upon marriage. Hitler enjoyed Lehár's music and the Nazis made some propaganda use of it. After Joseph Goebbels' intervened on Lehár's behalf, Mrs. Lehár was given in 1938 the status of "honorary Aryan" by marriage. This certainly saved her life; during the war, attempts were made at least once to have her deported, which was stopped only due to her status.
