He felt close to the Jewish people; his mother, Violet Hilda Schuster, was half Jewish (her father's family were German Jews who converted to Christianity, while her mother came from an upper-class family of Catholic German, Lutheran Danish and distantly Italian descent).
Hans mor, Violet Hilda Schuster, var till hälften judinna (hennes faders familj var tyska judar som konverterat till kristendomen) medan hennes mor kom från en överklassfamilj av tysk-katolsk, dansk-luthersk och avlägsen italiensk härkomst.