Colin Ross

[DavidFrankenberg]

Hi,

In his book I believed in Hitler, Baldur Von Schirach talks a bit about Colin Ross.
He's saying that Ross was jewish. During the 30's Ross asked protection from Schirach in order to come back in nazi germany.

But as i read wiki or other website, none of them reminds that his family was jewish and that he needs the protection of Hitler in order to come back and live a normal life.
These same sites describes Ross as a fervent nazi.

Does anyone know more about the jewish origins of the Ross family ?

[DavidFrankenberg]

Here is his wiki in deutcsh : https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Ross

He has no english wiki, which is quite unusual.

Colin Ross was a famous german writer who travelled all over the world and published books in german that were translated in many langages. He lived in America, Asia, then settled in Switzerland before coming back in nazi Germany.
He collaborated with the Third Reich but was also part of the November revolution in 1918.
His wife was named Elizabeth. Was she jewish ? Or, Colin was himslef jewish ?
His daughter is named Renate, not a jewish name, but his son is named Ralph. This one died from a thunderbolt in the summer 41 in Russia. More about Ralph's death there https://www.histclo.com/youth/youth/org ... /pe-rr.htm

Did Baldur von Schirach lie about jewishness of the Ross ? I would say not, but i dont find anythingelse which deals with it.

Here, https://books.google.com/books?id=07R2D ... in&f=false Joachim Schätz und Katalin Teller "Spousal labour and family branding in Colin and Lisa''s travel media", in Floris Meens, Tom Sintobin Gender, Companionship, and Travel: Discourses in Pre-modern and Modern :
I found that Colin's wife father was a banker in Karlsruhe named Peter. Peter does not sound as jewish.

Colin's brother, Fritz, was married to a jewish woman member of the famous Ullstein family. It was this connection with the big Ullsetin family that allowed Colin to travel and publish all over the world.

Was Colin talking about his brother's family ? Was Schirach mistaking ?

This is the opinion of Bodo-Michael Baumunk in note 266 p.96 of his book COLIN ROSS
Ein deutscher Revolutionär und Reisender 1885-1945 available here http://colinrossproject.net/fileadmin/u ... ne2015.pdf :

Lang, Jochen von : Der Hitler-Junge. Baldur von Schirach: Der Mann, der Deutschlands Jugend erzog. Hamburg 1988),
S.255. Die bei Lang ungeprüft übernommenen Erzählungen Schirachs, wie er Ross' angeblich jüdischer Frau Lisa den
Aufenthalt in Deutschland und den „halbjüdischen“ Ross-Kindern die Aufnahme in die Hitler-Jugend ermöglicht habe, sind
ein reines Phantasieprodukt. Renate Ross-Rahte hat dies bereits 1966, als die Geschichte erstmals im »Stern« erschien,
dementiert und in einem Brief an den Verf. vom 27.9.1990 noch einmal nachdrücklich zurückgewiesen. Tatsächlich ergab
auch eine Anfrage im Stadtarchiv Karlsruhe keinerlei Hinweis auf eine jüdische Familie Peter (Lisa Ross' Mädchenname) in
Baden. Möglicherweise hat Schirach Colin Ross' Frau mit der seines Bruders Fritz verwechselt, was öfter vorkam. Die Frage,
ob Lisa Ross aus einer jüdischen Familie stammte oder nicht, wäre an sich von untergeordneter Bedeutung, würfe die
ganze Geschichte nicht ein bezeichnendes Licht auf den historischen Quellenwert schriftlicher und mündlicher Aussagen
des Ehepaars Schirach.

[DavidFrankenberg]

So indeed Ross family was not jewish at all and Schirach just lied in order to prsent himself as a nice guy, protector of jews...

[J. Duncan]

Colin Ross was a world traveler who wrote a books - one was “World in the Balance”, one of the only ones translated into English (an interesting book btw). He spent a lot of time in the USA and detailed conditions there to Nazi Party members - was considered an expert on American ways. From what i can tell he was a good friend of the Schirachs. I think he committed suicide at their home and Henrietta buried him herself! (See Henrietta von Schirach
“The Price of Glory”.

[DavidFrankenberg]

Colin Ross was a world traveler who wrote a books - one was “World in the Balance”, one of the only ones translated into English (an interesting book btw). He spent a lot of time in the USA and detailed conditions there to Nazi Party members - was considered an expert on American ways. From what i can tell he was a good friend of the Schirachs. I think he committed suicide at their home and Henrietta buried him herself! (See Henrietta von Schirach
“The Price of Glory”.

Baldur in Ich glaubte an Hitler talks about their friendship. Ross and his family were housed by the Schirach during the whole war.
As you say, it was there, in Schirach's home, that Ross killed his wife and then suicided in 1945.
Henriette, wife of Schirach, blamed Baldur for not having done the same (!), but did she really want him to kill her or just to suicide himself ?

[J. Duncan]

Wow. I didn’t know he killed his wife (either I missed that part or don’t remember it) it’s been years and years since I read that book. I’ll have to revisit it but it’s possible Henrietta didn’t mention that part because it was too awful. Ross was also very fond of eastern cultures like Tibet and China - he gave the Schirachs a large Buddha which had a pride of place in Baldur’s home which he discusses briefly with journalist David Frost. Henrietta had it really tough in the immediate post war years trying to survive with 3 kids alone. Her bitterness towards Baldur is very evident in her book as I recall.

I found this online and found it interesting. Ross was a filmmaker as well:
http://colinrossproject.net/
aboutcolinross/

[J. Duncan]

Ross in America