Part 1 of 2
Chapter 2: Who Is a Mischling?Many have spent the years since 1945 trying to forget about the days when they were labeled as Mischlinge by Hitler. However, being labeled Mischlinge and treated like second-class citizens by the Nazis made an indelible impression on them that has greatly influenced the way they view this history, their society, and themselves. Although most Mischlinge would prefer not to use this term to define themselves, they have to use it to describe their personal histories and the development of their identities. In many ways, this term gives meaning to their experience, pain, behavior, and personalities. The following anecdote is telling:
In 1937, five-year-old Erwin Fuchs, a half-Jew, boarded a streetcar with his older brother. Both boys had been informed that Jews were no longer allowed to sit in public transportation, so they remained standing. A woman sitting near the boys made a little room for Erwin on her seat and said, "Here's half a seat for you, little one." Doubtful, little Erwin looked up at his brother and asked, "Which side of me is Jewish, the right or left?" [1]
The Term MischlingThe word Mischling means "half-caste, mongrel or hybrid." [2] Everyone originates from mixed backgrounds. Ironically, Hitler conceded that "we all suffer from the illness of mixed, spoiled blood." [3] The term Mischling, however, is primarily used to describe animals of mixed breeds. In keeping with the idea of a Mischling as a mixture of different "races," this term apparently was first applied to people with one black and one white parent in Germany's African colonies. Some Germans at the time called these children the "Rehoboth bastards." [4] In the 1920s, when French colonial soldiers had affairs with women in German territories they occupied, [5] the children who resulted were called Mischlinge. Hitler believed that the Jews brought these French blacks to Germany to destroy the "White Race." [6] The offspring of these unions, the so-called Rhineland Bastards, would be sterilized during Hitler's rule. There were at least two hundred who the Nazis subjected to this horrible treatment. [7]
In 1933, General Helmut Wilberg defined a Mischling as the offspring of a black person and a Spaniard. [8] To Wilberg's great surprise, the 1935 Nuremberg Laws labeled Wilberg a Mischling because he had a Jewish mother. Wilberg felt horrified that this label now applied to him. Most Germans agreed that blacks and whites were different enough to declare their offspring Mischlinge, but not everyone saw the difference between German Christians and Jews, much less than that between German Christians of non-Jewish descent and those with one or two Jewish grandparents. The German author Carl Zuckmayer, a half-Jew, wrote, "The term Mischling is total nonsense when applied to people with the same culture, language and skin color. A raving lunatic must have thought of this." [9] The Nazi term Mischling conveyed a strong negative image and encouraged Aryans to shun those classified as such.
Two years after seizing power, the Nazis implemented laws to separate Mischlinge from Aryans. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws created two new "racial" categories: the half-Jew (Jewish Mischling first degree), and the quarter-Jew (Jewish Mischling second degree). A half-Jew had two Jewish grandparents; a quarter-Jew had one. Since Nazi racial policy declared anyone of the Jewish religion a full Jew regardless of ancestry, most Mischlinge were by definition Christians. [10] These laws implied that anyone with less than 25 percent Jewish "blood" would be considered German. [11] Those in the SS and the Party had to prove pure Aryan ancestry back to I800 to remain in their positions. [12] SS officers had to take their ancestry back to I750. [13] Officially though, only those with 25 percent or more of so-called Jewish blood would be handled as second-class citizens. Most affected by the Nuremberg Laws did not argue against these new stipulations. They did not foresee what they would mean for their lives, nor did they see any chance of opposing them in this authoritarian state. As half-Jew Hans-Geert Falkenberg said, "These laws were nonsense and weren't discussed by anybody in Germany. Don't forget that!" [14]
Mischlinge, according to Hitler, were the products of "unholy unions." Hitler claimed that Mischlinge "are the sad products of the irresistibly spreading contamination of our sexual life; the vices of the parents are revealed in the sickness of the children .... Blood sin and desecration of the race are the original sin in this world and the end of humanity which surrenders to it." [15] Hitler also said that Mischlinge were "bastards ... monstrosities halfway between man and ape." [16]
The 1935 Nuremberg Laws defined the categories of Mischlinge according to the religion of a person's grandparents. Left without a reliable "scientific" method for physically identifying Mischlinge, Nazi officials had to turn to church archives [17] or local court records for evidence of a person's" race." Birth certificates kept in churches and synagogues identified every baby born in Germany as either Christian or Jewish. To prove the purity of one's Aryan ancestry, one had to produce birth, baptismal, or marriage certificates (or a combination of these documents) for all of one's grandparents. Conversion to Christianity at any stage more recent than a great-grandparent did not remove the stain of Jewish blood. The Nazis detested assimilation. Hitler cynically described this process: "If worst came to worst, a splash of baptismal water could always save the business and the Jew at the same time." [18] Frick declared on 4 October 1936 that "the ability to camouflage ancestry by changing religions will completely disappear." [19] After the advent of Nazi rule in 1933, the process of assimilation came to a halt, but the results of that assimilation, namely Mischlinge, confounded many Nazis.
Nazis were confused about Mischlinge, since they were both Jewish and German. Adolf Eichmann, SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer [20] and chief of the Jewish Evacuation Office of the Gestapo, acknowledged that the unclear racial position of Mischlinge temporarily protected them. [21] For the Nazis, Mischlinge were also half or three-quarters German, and thus 50 percent or 75 percent valuable. Probably frustrated by all the confusion surrounding Jews and Mischlinge, Hermann Goring, [22] head of the Luftwaffe and second in command after Hitler, was rumored to have said, "I'll decide who's a Jew! (Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich)." [23] Goring allowed several Mischlinge to serve in his Luftwaffe, three of whom eventually became generals. [24] However, Goring could only protect so many Mischlinge, usually those whom he knew personally or who had come to his attention through a contact. Once he decided that the person in question was "not Jewish," he still had to get Hitler's approval for most of them. If they wanted their racial status officially changed, only Hitler could truly decide "who was a Jew" or not. [25]
Most Mischlinge soon discovered that the Nazis took away their rights. For example, the Nazis denied Mischlinge citizenship in practice. [26] Mischlinge could not hold positions of authority. Mischlinge and Jews could be severely punished for sleeping with an Aryan, a crime called Rassenschande (race defilement), [27] which was loosely interpreted by the Nazis and affected people in many ways. Werner Eisner, a half-Jew and severely wounded Wehrmacht veteran, was deported to Auschwitz because he had slept with an Aryan. [28] But a person did not have to have sexual intercourse with an Aryan to commit Rassenschande. Dr. Hans Serelman, a German Jew, was sent to a concentration camp in October 1935 because he gave blood to a non-Jew to save that person's life. His crime was Rassenschande. [29] Dieter Bergmann's Aryan father, Ernst, a convinced Nazi, experienced difficulties with the authorities because he lived in the same house with his Mischling son. One night, after discussing their situation, Dieter sardonically told his father that just as long as they did not sleep together, the Nazis had no grounds to separate them. [30]
The fear of committing Rassenschande did not prevent most Mischlinge from having relations with Aryans. In a joint interview in 1996, Robert Braun, a half-Jew, and his wife, Margot, were asked whether they had been scared about the consequences if caught sleeping together. Margot, whom Robert had married after the war, looked confused. Suddenly, Robert looked up with a smirk. He had kept information about Rassenschande secret from his wife for five decades. She had had no idea of the punishments they could have incurred as a result of this most natural of behaviors for lovers. When asked why he did not tell her, Robert said, "Well, I think it's quite obvious why I didn't." We all laughed; however, the punishment back then could often be deadly. [31] At other times, the punishment for Rassenschande was mild. For example, Rudolf Sachs and his Aryan girlfriend, Traute Siedler, when caught having a relationship, were just forced to sign declarations that they would stop seeing each other. They were told that there would be no second chances. [32] Sachs thought that the SS implied that they would be deported if again found guilty of Rassenschande. They made sure they were not caught again.
The Nazis banned most Mischlinge from many popular activities, including certain university studies, specific civilian and military occupations, and places of Christian worship. Most could not enter Nazi organizations such as the Party and SA. At universities, several could not study medicine or law unless they had had distinguished military careers. The Wehrmacht drafted many, but they often could not become NCOs [33] or officers without an exemption. Gerhard Fecht wrote, "I was a quarter-Jew and was allowed to finish high school. Yet, I couldn't study in the University. I had to serve in the army, but I could never become an Unteroffizier; [34] I was generally inferior to everyone else." [35]
Fecht struggled with the limitations enforced on Mischlinge. Opportunities open to most Aryans were closed to many of them, and they felt excluded and disgraced. Not only were Mischlinge sometimes excluded from certain billets and ranks in the armed forces and from studying certain subjects in the universities, but they were excluded from some churches. For instance, the Evangelische Landeskirche officially announced that "racially Jewish Christians have no place and no rights" as members in the Protestant Church. [36]
Various officials predicted a bleak future for Mischlinge if the government enforced "racial" restrictions on them. The desk officer for racial law in the Reich Ministry of the Interior (RMI), Dr. Bernhard Losener, stated on 30 October 1933 that Mischlinge suffered a double psychological blow, first by being associated with the Jews and second by being driven out of the German society to which they felt completely bonded. [37] Erwin Goldmann, the leader of the Stuttgart organization for non-Aryan Christians, went further, arguing in November 1934 that" Mischlinge suffer emotionally more than the 100 percent Jews who had voluntarily separated themselves from the German Volk." [38] Losener warned on 10 November 1935 that persecuting them would make them dangerous because their "German blood" would make them formidable enemies. [39] Losener argued that "half-Jews as enemies should be taken more seriously than Jews" because they had intelligence, the benefits of a good upbringing, and both Jewish and German attributes. [40] Losener further warned that "a dangerous situation will develop in that half-Jews will no longer feel united with Jews and be pushed in between the races [of Jews and Aryans]''' If this happened, Losener argued, they would become "pariahs" and "desperados." [41] He felt that this estrangement could force some to feel so desperate that they would turn against the government with a vengeance.
All these predictions, however, underestimated the loyalty of most Mischlinge to Germany. Few were willing to risk their lives to resist the regime, although many thought about doing it at some point. Some took part in the White Rose and 20 July 1944 resistance groups. [42] However, most did not have the opportunity to resist, and most did not participate in the few groups that existed. They tried to avoid calling attention to themselves, aware that any transgression would be judged most severely. For example, after being denounced to the Gestapo for anti-Hitler activities, half-Jew and ex-soldier Erik Blumenfeld was sent to Auschwitz. [43]
Losener believed that most half-Jews felt German and had rejected Judaism. He also warned that separating Mischlinge from the Volk not only could turn them into enemies, but also might drive many to suicide. If the government labeled them as Jews, Losener warned, the suicide rate would rise significantly. [44] Losener accurately observed that many Mischlinge did not want to be associated with Jews. After the Nuremberg Laws, most felt shocked to think that anyone might identify them with Jews, particularly Ostjuden. Mischling families had lived in Germany for generations, and most had lost all contact with their Jewish heritage. They had helped develop German society, fought in her wars, and furthered her culture. Some had not known of their Jewish heritage until Hitler came to power. Suddenly, they had to accept that they were categorized with so-called enemies of society. Half-Jew Hans Pollak learned of his Jewish ancestry in 1935. He had read about Jews in school and the press and felt upset to be associated with them. [45] This distaste at being identified with Jews sometimes resurfaces in the present. Hans Herder said that finding out he had a Jewish grandfather was his worst experience during the Third Reich. "I tell you honestly, I don't like Jews," he said in 1996. "I just don't like Jews. That's correct. I would never do anything to a Jew, I must also tell you that, because the Jew is also a human being .... When I get to know a Jew, then he's no longer a Jew, but a mensch like you and me." [46] As Robert Braun, a half-Jew and Unterarzt [47] in the medical corps put it, "Generally, Mischlinge are very anti-Semitic." [48] Half-Jew Joachim Gaehde described this more graphically: "I had a feeling that most of the Mischlinge felt more German than Jewish and venture to say some, not me, would have gladly joined the SS had they not been tainted by Jewish blood." [49] Most felt Aryan and did everything they could to disassociate themselves from Jews and to be viewed as faithful Germans.
Moreover, when the Nazis stereotyped how Jews looked and behaved, the Nazis affected not only society's perception of Jews, but also the way Jews and Mischlinge perceived themselves. Consequently, many agonized over aspects of their appearance and behavior that seemed to fit the Jewish stereotype. Half-Jew Dieter Bergmann hoped his blond hair and blue eyes would counterbalance his big nose. He remembers constantly -- whether in the bathroom, lying in bed, or studying -- pushing his nose back and up to make it look less "Jewish." [50] The "nose problem" became so serious for half-Jew Hartmut Ostendorff (birth name Link) that he had plastic surgery in the 1930S so his nose would look less Jewish. [51]
The following anecdote illustrates a typical episode of how the Nazi view of physical Jewishness could affect society's perception of people. When Marine-Oberbaurat [52] Franz Mendelssohn, a quarter-Jew, attended a party, he entered the foyer with a nobleman who was short, fat, and unkempt but nonetheless Aryan. Without asking, the maitre d'hotel introduced the fat man as Mendelssohn, and Mendelssohn, who was six feet, three inches tall, slender, and handsome, as the nobleman. When the men clarified who they were, it not only embarrassed those around, but it also deeply troubled Mendelssohn. [53]
The Nazis' description of Jews being sexual perverts also affected Mischlinge and how they viewed their own sexual development. As a teenager, quarter-Jew Rolf von Sydow felt greatly troubled by the fact that descriptions of Jews and Mischlinge in biology textbooks as being sexual perverts seemed to describe him, too. He felt that masturbation and the sexual fantasies of a typical teenage male were a sign of his Jewish depravity. He wrote, ''I'm inferior. No one can ever know." [54] Nazi propaganda had convinced this perfectly normal teenager that sexual acts and thoughts were peculiar to Jews and therefore vile.
Mischlinge who were homosexuals suffered even more because they were persecuted for being both Jewish and "sexual degenerates." Most Mischling homosexuals documented in this study were successful in hiding their sexual orientation, but not their ancestry. Since homosexuality was illegal in the Third Reich, when a Mischling was found guilty of this crime, he often was judged quite harshly. For example, half-Jew Hauptgefreiter [55] Herbert Lefevre had received Hitler's Genehmigung [56] and served in the Kriegsmarine [57] as a cook. He was also a member of the SA and Party. In 1944, the court found him guilty of homosexuality and sentenced him to death. He had misused his position as a cook by giving extra food to fellow sailors in return for sexual favors. Amazingly, Oberbereichsleiter Werner Blankenburg in the Kanzlei des Fuhrers (KdF) [58] wrote the court on 24 March 1944 on Lefevre's behalf. He had known Lefevre since 1928 and wrote that Lefevre was an outstanding individual who had learned of his ancestry after 1933. Hitler had awarded him a "special exemption (Sondergenehmigung)" to remain in the Wehrmacht. During his acquaintance with Lefevre, Blankenburg never noticed that Lefevre was a homosexual. To support the assumption that he was heterosexual, Blankenburg wrote that Lefevre had applied for permission to marry a woman in Hamburg. It is impressive that such a high-ranking official in the KdF was willing to write a letter of support for a person who was not only gay but also a Mischling. However, even with such support, the evidence was unquestionable concerning Lefevre's sexual persuasion. Marinestabsrichter (naval judge) Dr. August Berges ruled that as a half-Jew, Lefevre should have taken advantage of the opportunity he had to prove himself as a worthy member of the Wehrmacht. Instead of seizing this opportunity, his true "Jewish heritage of criminal instincts (judischen Erbteils verbrecherische Instinkte)" had revealed itself. His Party membership and Hitler's Genehmigung did not excuse his dastardly behavior as a sailor. The court reasoned Lefevre should have been more conscious of his duties and obligations to the German government because of his privileged status. The court showed no mercy. He was hanged on 6 July 1944. The authorities noted that it took him seven minutes to die. [59]
Mischlinge's Views of Themselves and the Racial LawsWhen Mischlinge were forced to deal with their Jewish background after 1933, some went through a stage of denial; they could not believe they were associated with such an unpopular minority. Further, many had difficulties defining Jewishness. After 1935, despite all the racial laws and anti-Jewish propaganda, Mischlinge were extremely unsure how to view themselves. For instance, on 5 November 1941, Heinz Gerlach wrote Minister of Education Bernhard Rust [60] about his Jewish mother's Aryan attributes to mitigate her situation and thereby help his own case: "I don't believe that my mother is 100 percent racially Jewish, because none of our relatives or acquaintances can believe it! There is nothing even the slightest bit Jewish about my mother. She consciously avoided Jews because she found them distasteful." [61] Twenty-two-year-old Gerlach lived in a world where the rules of social interaction had radically changed; he could no longer be sure of things he had taken for granted all his life. By Halakah, Gerlach was a Jew, but he felt completely Aryan and German. The Nazis considered him a half-Jew. His case typified the confusion of most Mischlinge about what it meant to be called Jewish. Rolf von Sydow wrote after watching the Nazi film Jud Suss: [62] "[T]his film doesn't characterize me at all. I'm not a Jew. I don't go to the synagogue .... 1don't betray other people .... I don't look Jewish. I'm a German. I'm from the aristocracy .... I'm better than the others .... I hate my grandparents because they're guilty. I hate my friends because they're Aryans. I hate the world. I hate myself." [63]
Most Mischlinge, like Sydow, agonized over what the Nazis described as Jewish. Feelings of shame, inferiority, and self-hatred were all manifestations of being labeled "Jewish" by the Nazis. Most did not feel an emotional attachment to Judaism, and the Judaism the Nazis described horrified them. They quickly learned to behave in a manner that would prove to their fellow Germans that they were not Jewish but Aryan. Some started to hate that side of themselves that was Jewish and became somewhat anti-Semitic to prove it. For example, half-Jew Unteroffizier Hans Muhlbacher was described by one of his superiors as being a "product of Nazi education" and that he fully identified with Nazi philosophy especially concerning the "Jewish enemy." However, his superior added that while Muhlbacher tenaciously adhered to his Germanness, he still had "racial problems." [64]
Although German Jews and Mischlinge were not regarded as 100 percent German according to Nazi laws, most still thought of themselves as Germans. They could not fully redefine themselves according to Nazi ideology. Jewish professor of Romance literature Viktor Klemperer of the Technical University in Dresden wrote on 10 January 1939 that the differences and friction between Jews and Aryans were" not even half as big as that between Protestants and Catholics ... or between Eastprussians and Southern Bavarians .... The German Jews were always a part of the German Volk. ... They feel at home within German life .... They are and will remain German." [65] For the Mischlinge, the concept of being half-German was just as foreign as "being half-Jewish or trying to explain to someone why you're half-circumcised." [66] Another claimed, "There was no such thing as being half-Catholic or half-Protestant, and the Nazi laws made just as little sense as these categories did." [67]
Many Mischlinge simply were passionate Germans. In 1940, Unteroffizier Dieter Bergmann wrote to his Jewish grandmother, Elly Landsberg nee Mockrauer:
Don't you realize how much I'm with my whole being rooted in Germany. My life would be very sad without my homeland, without the wonderful German art, without the belief in Germany's powerful past and the powerful future that awaits Germany. Do you think that I can tear that all out of my heart? ... Don't I also have an obligation to my parents, to my brother who showed his love to our Fatherland by dying a hero's death on the [battlefield]? [68]
Bergmann wrote this letter in defense of his grandmother attacking him for being a "Nazi." He had passionately performed his military duty and felt loyal to Germany. His grandmother felt scared for his future and believed Bergmann was not living in reality. However, Bergmann hoped that his army service and behavior would prove his Germanness: "Someday, I want to be a German amongst Germans and no longer a second-class citizen only because my wonderful mother is Jewish." [69] The Mischlinge's tragedy was that they could not accept that they were no longer 100 percent German. For Hitler, they were separate from the Volk. However, they believed that they were and would remain German regardless of what Hitler said or did. This conviction explains why most remained in Germany during the increasing severity of Nazi laws beginning in 1933, and then subsequent to the end of the war, in 1945. As Klemperer wrote on 30 May 1942, ''I'm German and I'm waiting for the Germans to return once again; they have disappeared somewhere." [70]
Regardless of how illogical the racial laws seemed, the majority of Mischlinge felt obligated to honor the very laws that infringed upon their natural rights. They, like most Germans of this time period, had been raised to be law-abiding citizens. The great German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn wrote in his work Jerusalem, "The man who does not believe in laws must obey them, once they have received official sanction." [71] Mendelssohn might have changed his mind had he witnessed what would happen to his descendants during Nazi rule. [72] But his conviction about law typified how most viewed Nazi laws. Anything official had to be obeyed.
Some tried to change their racial status by denying their Jewish relatives. As early as 1935, Dr. Achim Gercke, appointed in 1933 to the RMI as an expert for racial research, [73] wrote that families with Jewish ancestry had done everything within their power to prove that a parent or grandparent was not a Jew but an Aryan. They denied the existence of Jewish relatives to free their children from the laws and, thus, to allow them to become "full-blooded Germans." [74] The Nazis knew that many would deny their Jewish past or claim an Aryan lover as the parent of their children instead of their Jewish spouse to protect themselves and loved ones. For example, on 26 July 1944, Himmler's office sent SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer [75] Yolk material the Parteikanzlei had compiled on Mischlinge. Among other things, this report discussed the problem of women inventing Aryan lovers to change their children's racial status. The protocol stated that "it has been established through experience that every mother is willing to commit perjury when it's a question of the German ancestry of her child." [76] Field Marshal and State Secretary of Aviation Erhard Alfred Richard Oskar [77] Milch's "Aryanization" was the most famous case of a Mischling falsifying a father. In 1933, Frau Clara Milch went to her son-in-law, Fritz Heinrich Hermann, police president of Hagen and later SS general, and gave him an affidavit stating that her deceased uncle, Carl Brauer, rather than her Jewish husband, Anton Milch, had fathered her six children. After SA Colonel Theo Croneiss denounced Milch to Goring, Goring took Milch's mother's affidavit to Hitler. [78] In 1935, Hitler accepted the mother's testimony and instructed Goring to have Dr. Kurt Meyer, head of the Reich Office for Genealogy Research, [79] complete the paperwork. On 7 August 1935, Goring wrote Meyer to change Milch's father in his documents and issue him papers certifying his pure Aryan descent. [80] After the war, according to one of Goring's interrogators, John E. Dolibois, Goring was proud that he had helped "the half-Jew Milch" remain in "his Luftwaffe." [81] Ironically, many have suspected that Milch's mother was Jewish, since her maiden name was Rosenau. [82] Robert Wistrich claims that she was indeed a Jew; however, he does not give his evidence for this. [83] No documents have been presented that prove Milch's mother was Jewish. If Wistrich is correct, then Milch was 100 percent Jewish and not a half-Jew, making his position back then more precarious. In Milch's case, the Nazis did not object to incest, but Jewish ancestry was indeed a problem. Milch became a powerful field marshal, who according to historian James Corum, "ran the Luftwaffe and was its most powerful figure per personnel and planning issues, production and even strategy." [84] In addition, Milch had close contact with many of the Nazi elite, entertaining the likes of Himmler, Goebbels, He6, and Blomberg at his home. [85] Milch's mother sacrificed her reputation as well as her husband's to protect her children. Without her lie, Milch might have lost his career and, along with it, his ability to protect his youngest daughter, Helga, who had Down syndrome, from Hitler's euthanasia program. [86] Moreover, Milch's mother's affidavit allowed her daughter to remain married to her husband, an SS general. Milch's mother's actions typified how thousands of Aryan mothers attempted, some successfully, most unsuccessfully, to erase their children's racial stigma.
However, once a mother successfully changed the racial status of her children through perjury, this act could have deadly consequences for her sons. After his military discharge on 30 October 1940, Klaus Menge had his mother swear that an Aryan lover was his father instead of her Jewish husband. The courts accepted her claims and Klaus happily returned to the army on 26 April 1941. A few months later, on 24 September 194I, he died in battle. [87]
Wise to the trick, the courts did not always believe women's claims about their children's fathers. When Wolfgang Spier's mother claimed that he and his sister Ruth came from her Aryan lover, the Nazis sent the children to a racial institute in Hamburg (Racial Biological Institute of the Hanseatic University) [88] for testing. After the scientists measured and photographed their heads, noses, ears, and bodies, the institute concluded that Ruth definitely descended from an Aryan, but that Wolfgang descended from the Jew (Julius). [89] Spier thus had to remain a half-Jew.
Often, to prove that they had been fathered by an Aryan, most had to attack their mothers' and grandmothers' characters by claiming they had had several affairs. [90] Joachim Lowen [91] said, "My own brother [Heinz] went to the Gestapo and claimed that our mother was a slut and had been a prostitute. The Gestapo reviewed our case and declared us deutschblutig (of German blood)." This ordeal destroyed Lowen's mother. Heinz died on the Russian front in the ranks of the Waffen-SS as an Oberscharfuhrer, [92] and Joachim served the entire war in a Panzer company as an Unteroffizier. Although the brothers both knew they had a Jewish father, they felt it necessary to deny him to live a better life. [93] One half-Jewish soldier claimed his parents were not really his parents because, after his birth, they had mistaken him for their child in the hospital -- they had taken the wrong child. Later, he changed his story and claimed that his mother had just been promiscuous. [94] Beate Meyer researched forty-two cases in Hamburg where half-Jews changed their status by proving the Jewish father was not really the father. [95] Most often, as Meyer notes, those who made such claims also were careful to claim that the Aryan father was a distant relative, a tenant, a coworker, or boss who also happened to be dead. Such people could not be brought to court to testify. Often, the authorities used racial tests to verify a Mischling's Aryan father. [96] Jurgen Grun, [97] whose mother died before 1933 and who was raised by his half-Jewish father, claimed to a Nazi court that he had not been fathered by the half-Jew, but by a childhood friend of his mother's, an Aryan who had died in World War 1. After the court investigated the matter and an institute racially tested him, the authorities declared him Aryan. Two years later, while fighting at the outskirts of Moscow in 1941, his commander called him into his tent and informed him that his father, the fallen soldier, had turned out to be a full-Jew. Grun, now registered as a half-Jew, was discharged. [98]
Officials often warned each other that such lying about a Jewish father was common for Mischlinge. On 30 July 1942, Oberbereichsleiter Werner Blankenburg in the KdF wrote Commander Richard Frey, who worked in the General Wehrmacht Domestic Office, [99] that Joachim Leftin had tried to enter the Wehrmacht by denying his Jewish father. Blankenburg explained that this was not true. Leftin did know his father. He further expressed his disbelief with Leftin's German mother, who had converted to Judaism on 28 March 1934 after Hitler had already been in power for over a year. Consequently, Blankenburg wrote that Leftin's letter "is typical Jewish insolence (typisch judische Frechheit)." [100] Blankenburg warned Frey that Mischlinge typically denied their Jewish fathers and instead claimed that their true fathers were "German blooded" men. He wrote that such statements from Mischlinge must be handled "with the utmost caution." [101]
Although some denied their ancestors, they still could not escape the fact that they descended from Jews, whether it became public knowledge or not. Quarter-Jew Admiral Bernhard Rogge said that "one could curse one's birth and ancestry; however, one cannot make it not to have happened. One can never step out of his family tree, no matter how much one wants to .... He may keep it a secret, may hate it, may feel ashamed because of it; however in his secrecy, his shame, his hate, he will in his disgust have to recognize it." [102] Rogge knew that no matter how much one lied about or doctored his ancestry, he would always remain who he was. Any Deutschblutigkeitserkldrung (German blood certificates) [103] from Hitler or official Aryan certificates from courts would not alter the truth no matter how much one wished it to. Many successfully hid their ancestry, but sometimes living as an Aryan required them to do and say things that caused them emotional and psychological distress.
Those Mischlinge who had Aryan-sounding names had an easier time hiding their ancestry than those with Jewish-sounding names. The family name affected the way a Mischling viewed himself as well as how others viewed him. Those named Cohn, Mendelssohn, or Levy had a much more difficult time escaping the stigma of being Jewish than those named Bergmann, von Sydow, or Gerlach.
Mischlinge who had contact with Jewish relatives or observed some Jewish practices in their own homes understood Nazi persecution better, or at least knew where it was coming from, because they felt somewhat Jewish. From this study, half-Jews with Jewish fathers were more likely to feel a connection with Judaism than those with Jewish mothers, who by Halakah were Jews. This fact shows that Halakah in many respects was out of step with social reality -- namely, that a father's religious convictions influenced a child's upbringing more than the mother's did. Perhaps this was because of the generally patriarchal nature of most German households. This is corroborated by the fact that most in this study who were circumcised had Jewish fathers. [104] Wolfgang Behrendt claimed that "my father loved his Judaism .... I learned my Hebrew prayers from my father .... My heart is Jewish -- that's for sure. It'll never leave me .... Wonderful -- Jews, that's my world." [105] The only contact some had with Judaism was through their parents. As a result, many of those who learned about Judaism from a parent feel attached to Judaism. They describe this attachment as private -- something they have a hard time sharing with others. But this attachment is real and lives strongly with them today.
Social Rejection of MischlingeOften friends, lovers, and even both the Jewish and Aryan sides of their families rejected Mischlinge. [106] Half-Jew Wilhelm Droscher wrote in his diary in 1938 that he did not want anyone to know about his ancestry except his girlfriend (Ruth). "I wonder if anybody can tell how this weighs on my poor, tortured heart. Only she can know, later, but when? When? When?" [107] When Droscher finally got up the courage to tell Ruth, she left him. [108] Such experiences made many hesitate to date or engage in intimate contact with Aryan women. [109] The racial laws forced Mischlinge to change their lifestyles dramatically, causing many to live without confidence.
Divorces often ensued because of so-called racial reasons. Some Aryans lacked the courage to stand by their Jewish spouses during hard times. Some Jews, mostly women, selflessly asked their Aryan spouses for a divorce, knowing that such action would benefit their spouse and children tremendously. Nazi officials had no trouble convincing many Aryans to file for divorce from their Jewish or Mischling spouses. While the Nazis told those Aryans that divorcing their Jewish spouses would help them, the opposite proved true. The Jewish partner lost the protection of the "privileged mixed marriage" [110] and in most cases was subsequently deported, especially after 1941. [111] For example, Robert Braun's mother divorced his father, who was immediately sent to a concentration camp at Drancy, France. She had left her husband because she was scared, and the Gestapo convinced her that she and her husband would be better off if she did. [112] Also, some Aryan men "pro forma divorced their Jewish wives" so they could keep their jobs and support themselves and families. [113]
Some Jewish spouses decided to commit suicide. They reasoned that their existence only caused their Aryan partners to lose their jobs and distressed their children. Many felt guilty for bringing this "burden" upon their families. They reasoned that their deaths would simply be "best for the family." [114]
Several Aryan parents forsook their half-Jewish children. Ex-Oberschutze Peter Scholz visited his father Julius after the Wehrmacht had discharged him for racial reasons. His parents had been divorced for several years. Scholz hoped that his wealthy father, although a miser and anti-Semite, [115] could find him a job, an increasingly difficult task for Mischlinge. During their conversation, they started arguing. Scholz called his father a coward for not having fought in World War I. Enraged, his father stood up and yelled, "Get out, you Jew! Out, you dirty Jew." [116]
Max Scheffler worried that he would lose his business if he remained married to a Jew. He said that his greatest mistake in his life was marrying a Jew, which left him three Jewish sons to support. In 1937, he divorced his Jewish wife, Helena Weiss. The sons (Gunther, Hubertus, and Karl-Heinz) did everything they could to protect their mother. They felt army service would be the best method. [117]Although two were later discharged, Unteroffizier Gunther Scheffler remained with his unit during the whole war and earned the Iron Crosses Second (EKII) and First Class (EKI). [118] He hoped that as long as one of them served in the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo would leave their mother alone. Helena survived the war. Max became a Nazi and ignored his sons throughout the Third Reich. [119] Some Aryan parents even refused to protect their Mischling children, "leading to the children's deportations from the Jewish Hospital in Berlin." [120]
Even more amazing, some Jewish grandparents rejected their half-Jewish grandchildren. Helmuth Kopp remembered how, on the few occasions he saw him during the 1920s and early 1930s, his Jewish grandfather, Louis Kaulbars, hit him with a whip and called him goy. [121] Although he had a Jewish mother, his grandfather did not consider him Jewish. One day his grandmother protested this treatment, telling her husband, "That's our daughter Helene's child!" The grandfather replied, "No, that's Wilhelm's goy!" "My soul was damaged," Kopp said in 1995. He later added, "The situation was pure meshuga (madness)." When his mother died on 18 November 1925, Kopp moved in with his Jewish aunt and uncle, who forced him to go to an Orthodox school. He often got into trouble when he brought sausage and butter to school for his lunch. His aunt, Sarah Moses nee Kaulbars, also forced him to have a traditional, although belated bris [122] at the age of twelve. After the operation, he had to walk with a cane for six weeks. Years later, Kopp escaped this environment and entered the Wehrmacht in 1941. [123]
Sometimes Mischlinge were raised Jewish, but when they decided to take on other beliefs, their Jewish relatives rejected them. Alfred Butow, who was raised Jewish by his Jewish mother and grandfather, later converted to Christianity. After he did this, his grandfather told him that from then on, Alfred was dead for him.124 With convictions such as Kopp's and Butow's grandfathers displayed, it was not surprising that some Orthodox Jews welcomed the Nuremberg Laws because they prevented intermarriage. [125] When Mischlinge were forced to deal with the racial laws, they soon found that they had few people to rely on for support. Whichever side of the family they turned to, whether Aryan or Jewish, many encountered painful episodes of rejection. For example, Hanns Rehfeld wrote:
[quote]I have been discriminated against in my life for three things I could do nothing about. First, my Jewish relatives discriminated against me because I had a Christian mother (Schickse). [126] Secondly, the Germans discriminated against me because I had a Jewish father. And [after the war], when I worked in the foreign service for many years, people discriminated against me because I was a German (i.e., I must be a Nazi). [127]
Rehfeld remembers that when his father, Martin, died in 1940 in a Breslau [128] prison run by the Gestapo, [129] he and his siblings did not have any means to support themselves. Their Jewish relatives refused to help them and told them to go to the Germans, but when they went to the Germans, they were told to go to the Jews. Rehfeld's Jewish grandmother, Nathalie nee Schey, had a gravestone made for his father. On the stone was written, "Here rests my dear son." There was no mention of husband or father. Rehfeld concluded, "My Jewish relatives never recognized the marriage of my parents." [130] Rehfeld's experience typified the experiences of many Mischlinge. They felt alone in a world that progressively became more hostile to them from all sides.
Tragically, as some Mischlinge were pushed further into the "Jewish camp" by being rejected by German organizations, they discovered that most Jewish organizations did not want anything to do with them either. Many Mischlinge may have been rejected because of their hostility to Jews. In periods of persecution, Jewish communal institutions felt that their resources should be used to help Jews, not those who resented their Jewish ancestry and were trying to escape the stigma of Jewishness. Others were probably rejected not because they were embarrassed of their Jewish past, but because they were not viewed as Jewish enough to warrant assistance. Losener in RMI wrote on 10 November 1935 that, almost without exception, the Jewish community denied "half-Jews any help." [131] For example, when Rehfeld and his siblings asked Jewish organizations to help them emigrate, they rejected them because they were Mischlinge. [132] Losener wrote that many "half-Jews have already decided to avoid dealing with the Jewish communities." [133] This was probably because they either did not feel Jewish or had already had negative experiences with Jewish organizations (or both). Mischlinge felt caught in the middle in more ways than one. For the Nazis, they were products of sexual sins, and for religious Jews, one of their parents had broken a sacred covenant not to marry outside the Jewish community. Either way, they were shunned by both ends of the social spectrum in Nazi Germany. Frau Olga Muhlbacher, an Austrian Jew, wrote in her diary in 1943, "It's a proven fact that Jews always thought it to be the biggest disgrace to marry a 'Christian,' although this totally baffles the Gestapo agent." [134] Because many religious Jews abhorred intermarriage and ostracized those who practiced it, many young Mischlinge did not know about their Jewish heritage. Since many Jewish grandparents had rejected their father or mother when they married a non-Jew, many Mischlinge grew up outside the Jewish communities. [135] So Mischlinge forced to look to Jews for help simply felt confused and helpless.
When the youthful Hannah Klewansky went to the Gestapo office on the November morning after Reichskristallnacht [136] in 1938 to inquire where the Nazis had taken her Jewish father Eugen, a sign informed her that the Jewish Community Center was processing such inquiries. She went there and waited in a long line of anxious people looking for loved ones. When her turn arrived, the Jewish secretary got out her family's file. "Is your father Christian?" Hannah answered that yes, he was a converted Jew. Then the official asked if she was Jewish. She answered that her mother was not Jewish and that she herself had been raised Christian. The secretary then sent Hannah away saying, "We don't deal with your kind." Hannah then boldly returned to the Gestapo to ask how she could locate her father. The officer took her to a back room where two SS men were playing cards. The officer asked the men if they liked what they saw and left. They raped her. [137]
Young Mischlinge, as Hannah's traumatic story illustrates, did not know where to seek help. This feeling of helplessness was strongly enforced when they had to deal with relatives who were convinced Nazis. Dieter Bergmann's aunt, Valerie von B. nee Bergmann, a Party member, told him one day in 1941, "My dear boy, I think people like you must be exterminated if our fatherland is to remain pure and victorious against the Marxist-Jewish conspiracy. Sorry, my dear boy. You know I love you." [138] When Hans-Geert Falkenberg had dinner with his godmother, Dora Rogoszinsky nee Elmer, in March 1940, she asked him about his grandmother and he replied, "Haven't you heard? ... She's been deported with the Jews froin Stettin to the East." When she asked why he had not told her, he simply said because she was a Nazi. "Geert, naturally I believe that the Jews are Germany's misfortune, but that has nothing to do with Grandma." Geert claims that such was the German schizophrenia back then. [139] Beate Meyer notes that such situations in families caused severe problems. [140]
This feeling of helplessness stemmed largely from suddenly being forced to come to terms with their "new" identity. In general, they had problems adjusting to the situation in which they suddenly found themselves. Graf Wolf von Bredow wrote his wife about their son's desire to get Hitler's approval to become an officer: "If I were in his place, I would say to the Nazi officials handling the case, 'Do what you like. I couldn't care less. I know who I am and that's enough. Period. Finito. "' [141] Many parents of Mischlinge were bewildered by their children's frustrations. Bredow's twenty-four-year-old son, Achim, could not have said what his father wanted him to because the son was still discovering who he was. Even teenagers growing up in stable environments have enough trouble making the transition to adulthood. It was not surprising that the identity crisis many young Mischlinge suffered was a highly amplified version of standard growing pains. Half-Jew Heinz Puppe wrote in 1997, "Individuals have the desire, the need, to belong, belong to an identifying group of some sort, family, ethnic group, a country, a school, etc. The problem is that anyone not belonging to my group becomes 'them.' ... Being branded as a Mischling by Globke [142] and associates has been that I don't feel I belong anywhere." [143] The alienation the Nazis forced Mischlinge to experience was painful, especially since most, until Hitler became chancellor, were accepted by mainstream German society. Many still feel a sense of loss -- a permanent estrangement.