32. This Diplomat Invented a New Religion, Race, and Ethnicity to Keep Jews From Getting Designated as Jews
The Nazis had exempted Iranians from the discriminatory 1935 Nuremberg Laws on grounds that they were “pure-blooded Aryans”. So Sardari claimed that Iran’s Jews were not actually Jews, but Iranian Aryans known as “Jugutis”. Iran, according to Sardari, did not actually have Jews: Persia’s King Cyrus had freed the Jews from the Babylonian Exile in 538 BC, and they had all returned home. However, some Aryan Iranians had come across those Jews before they returned, liked their Mosaic laws and customs, and imitated them. They were still the same as other Iranians, sharing the same legal, civil, and military rights and responsibilities.
Sardari basically said that Iran’s Jews were just eccentric Iranians who had been LARP-ing as Jews for 2500 years. German race “experts” were consulted to determine whether “Jugutis” were real. They were non-committal and asked for more funding for additional research. In the meantime, the Nazis accepted Sardari’s made-up Juguti designation. That was long enough for him to save thousands of Iranian and non-Iranian Jews.