Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, by Jerry Klinger

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Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, by Jerry Klinger

Postby admin » Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:18 pm

Hitler's Jewish Soldiers
by Jerry Klinger
The Jewish Magazine
September, 2011

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Wehrmacht Private Werner Goldberg2
"The Ideal German Soldier"


"The Ideal German Soldier"

"In hardly any people in the world is the instinct of self-preservation developed more strongly than in the so called "chosen."…What people, finally, has gone through greater upheavals than this one – and nevertheless issued from the mightiest catastrophes of mankind unchanged? What an infinitely tough will to live and preserve the species from these facts."
-- Adolf Hitler3 – Mein Kampf4


In 1940, Unteroffizier Dieter Bergmann wrote to his Jewish grandmother, Elly Landesberg nee Moackrauer:

"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….Someday, I want to be a German amongst Germans and no longer a second-class citizen only because my wonderful mother is Jewish."5


"Under traditional Jewish law, a child born to a Jewish mother, no matter whom the father may have been, is Jewish…. I am confused…. Who is a Jew? What is a Jew? When are you a Jew? What if you do not want to be a Jew? Can we choose?"
-- William Rabinowitz


"The Nuremberg Laws or Nurnberg Laws (German: Nürnberger Gesetze) of 1935 were anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and anti-Semitism. There was a rapid growth in German legislation directed at Jews, such as the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service which banned "non-Aryans" from the civil-service."

The Nuremberg Laws, as they became known, did not define a "Jew" as someone with particular religious beliefs. Instead, anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity were defined as Jews."6

The lack of a clear legal method of defining who was Jewish had, however, allowed some Jews to escape some forms of discrimination aimed at them. The enactment of laws identifying who was Jewish made it easier for the Nazis to enforce legislation restricting the basic rights of German Jews….

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Nurmberg Law – 1935 Racial Chart

"The Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor

(September 15, 1935) Moved by the understanding that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is promulgated herewith:

Section 1

1. Marriages between Jews and citizens (German: Staatsangehörige) of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad.

2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.

Section 2

Extramarital sexual intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of Germany or related blood is forbidden.

Section 3

Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens under the age of 45, of German or kindred blood, as domestic workers.

Section 4

1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colors.

2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.

Section 5

1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 1 will be punished with hard labor.

2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 2 will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labor.

3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections 3 or 4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of these penalties.

Section 6

The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy Fuehrer and the Reich Minister of Justice will issue the legal and administrative regulations required for the enforcement and supplementing of this law.

Section 7

The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation; Section 3, however, not until January 1, 1936.


The Nurmberg Laws, intended to define who is a Jew and who is an Aryan, were deeply flawed. They were flawed, not just because of the "racial" separation they were intended to create between the Jew and the non-Jew, but because they failed to make clear what to do with the Mischlings.

"The word Mischling means ‘half-caste, mongrel or hybrid’….The term 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.’ In the 1920’s, when French colonial soldiers had affairs with women in German territories they occupied, the children who resulted were called Mischling. Hitler believed that the Jews brought these French Blacks to Germany to destroy the ‘White Race.’

…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 were by definition Christians."

…After the advent of Nazi rule in 1933, the process of assimilation came to a halt, but the results of that assimilation, namely Mischlings, confounded many Nazis.

Nazis were confused about Mischlings, since they were both Jewish and German. Adolf Eichmann, SS-Obersturmbannfueher and chief of the Jewish Evacuation Office of the Gestapo, acknowledged that the unclear racial position of Mischling temporarily protected them. For the Nazis, Mischling were also half or three-quarters German, and thus 50 percent or 75 percent valuable."7

The confused status of the Mischling resulted in confused responses. Werner Eisner, a half-Jew and severely wounded Wehrmacht veteran was deported to Auschwitz for sleeping with an Aryan. Dr. Hans Serelman, a German Jew, was also sent to a concentration camp. His crime, he donated his own blood to save a non-Jewish patient.

In practice Mischlings' German citizenship was stripped away. They were denied access to certain universities for advanced degrees including medicine and law. They were denied access to recreational facilities and civilian jobs. Mischlings were denied positions of authority over Aryans. They were excluded from some churches, even though they were baptized Christians. They were socially ostracized.


"The Evangelische Landeskirche officially announced that "racially Jewish Christians have no place and no rights’ as members in the Protestant Church." 8

Being 50% Jewish, or only 25% Jewish, did not protect the Mischlings. Growing "racial" restrictions on Mischlings slowly constructed a bleak future. The sudden grouping of the Mischling with the Jew logically should have created a common link of sympathy and mutual support between the Mischling and the Jew. It did not.

Most Mischlings did not identify with the Jewish community. Many had grown up as baptized Christians and even were themselves very anti-Semitic. They preferred to think of themselves as normal, as part of the whole of German fabric, as part of the "Volk". Their language, their culture, the societal relationships and schooling all had been German. Even for those who grew up knowing that they had had a parent who was Jewish, they preferred not be left behind and identified as Jewish. They yearned, worked and did everything within their capabilities to prove themselves as good, loyal members of the Germanic peoples. They needed to show the German world that their German blood was the dominant force that flowed in their veins.


On the other hand, the pure Germans without the taint of Jewish blood, kept a closer eye on the Mischling. They kept an eye to see if any of the corrupting influence of Jewish blood showed itself.

Historically, one of the ways for Jews to prove themselves more German than Jewish was to fight for the "Fatherland".

Many Jews had served in the German and Austrian armies during World War I. Tens of thousands had died in that conflict, laying down their lives for the Kaiser and the Emperor. A large number of Jews rose to officer ranks, especially in the Austrian army. Thousands of Jews, in both armies, were decorated for bravery with the highest honors. Service in the armed forces, during World War I, had been a way for the Jew to gain access to greater acceptance, opportunity and to prove their loyalty to everything Germanic.


As the Nazi political and war machine rumbled into life and rearmament, only fifteen years after the end of World War I, existence for the Jew and the Mischling became more threatening, more tenuous. For the full Jew, little could be done in the "racist" mania of authoritarian Germany. The Mischling faced a paradox. "During the war, many felt torn between the desire to belong, regain some of their lost pride, and protect themselves and their families through military service and the realization that to do so, they had to serve Hitler…

Image
Half-Jew Horst Geitner

Wehrmacht service, in the early years of the war, protected them from the Gestapo. Ilse Korner wrote of her deceased husband, half-Jew and Lieutenant Hans Joachim Korner, ‘He wanted to distinguish himself through his bravery and willingness to fight as a soldier and thus, escape the persecution of the Nazis’…… their sense of pride made them seek every opportunity to be like everyone else.

Most believed their meritorious service would convince their comrades and society to accept them as "normal."9 Mischlings disproportionally risked their lives on the battlefield to prove themselves to their comrades, officers and Nazi masters. Many were decorated with Nazi Germany’s highest military honors, including 20 who received the Ritterkreuz.10

Wehrmacht soldier Helmut Kruger’s mother was Jewish. "He did all he could to prove his loyalty to Germany by showing his bravery in battle. He won the EKII, the EKI, and the Golden Wound Badge. His brother, Reinhardt, claimed that he was brave soldier only because he was a Mischling fearing to be called a "cowardly Jew (feiger Jude)’.

The ironic paradox; ‘Kruger stated that if it was not for his Jewish mother he would have joined the Party and the SS."11

Mischling status greatly restricted upward mobility in German society and in the army. Mischlings, with the cooperation of their families, sought to change the official classification of who they were. They wanted to be recognized as Germans. One of the methods was to obtain legal waivers, Genehmigungs, granted by German officialdom – a toleration of their Mischling status because of their particular service and benefit to the Reich. The most sought after legal solution to Mischling disqualifications was for a legal review and determination of pure blood, racially untainted with Jewish blood, the Deutschblutigkietserkarung.

Hermann Goering had said it was he who decided who was a Jew or not. The reality, the decision as to who ultimately was a Jew could only be granted by Adolf Hitler. Hitler reviewed each situation personally. With the Deutschblutigkietserkarung, formerly classified Mischlings were cleared of any Jewish taint. They could and did advance to high administrative and military positions.


Image
Half –Jew Field Marshall Erhard Milch

"In 1933 Frau Clara Milch went to her son-in-law, Fritz Heinrich Hermann, police president of Hagen and later S.S. 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 (Erhard) Milch12 to Goering, Goering took Milch’s mother’s affidavit to Hitler. In 1935, Hitler accepted the mother’s testimony and instructed Goering to have Dr. Kurt Meyer, head of the Reich Office for Genealogy Research, complete the paperwork. On 7 August 1935, Goering wrote Meyer to change Milch’s father in his documents and issue him papers certifying his pure Aryan descent. After the war, according to one Goering’s interrogators, John E. Dolibois, Goering was proud of his action to help half Jew Milch remain in Luftwaffe…. Milch became a Field Marshall who ran the Luftwaffe – in charge of planning, production and strategy.

Milch’s daughter was married to an SS General."13

A large number of former Mischlings rose to high rank: 2 Field Marshals, 15 Generals, 2 full Generals, 8 Lieutenant Generals, and 5 Major Generals. Former Mischling were Nazi party members – 4 were full Jews, 15 were half Jews and 7 were quarter Jews.


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Half-Jew General Helmut Wilberg

Image
Half –Jew General Johannes Zuckertort

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Half-Jew Col. Walter H. Hoellander

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Half-Jew Commander Paul Ascher

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Quarter-Jew Admiral Bernhard Rogge, 1st Officer on the Bismar

Of the estimated 150,000 Mischlings, half Jews and quarter Jews, in the Nazi armies, most never rose to officer levels.

Wehrmacht soldier Joachim Lowen told his story. "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)." Mother was destroyed – Heinz died on the Russian front, he was a oberscharfuher of the Waffen SS."14

Yet some Mischlings and their families refused to abandon their own but were abandoned by the Jewish world.
Of the many ironies of life in pre-Nazi and during the 12 years of Nazi Germany’s existence, Jewish attitudes towards the Mischling were equally confused. Bryan Mark Rigg, the noted historian, in his book, Hitler’s Children, interviewed 1,671 Mischlings. 60% were Halachicly Jewish. He commented about those who had Jewish self identification:

"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 Halacha 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 corroborated by the fact that most in this study who were circumcised had Jewish fathers. "15

Jewish traditional values frowned on intermarriage.

"Helmuth Kopp remembered how, on the few occasions he saw him during the 1920’s and early 1930’s, his Jewish grandfather, Louis Kaulbars, hit him with a whip and called him goy. 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 Helen’s child!" The grandfather replied, "No that’s Wilhelm’s goy!" My soul was damaged, Kopp said in 1995. Mother died in 1925, he went to live with his Jewish aunt and uncle. He attended orthodox school, and had a belated bris. He entered the Wehrmacht in 1941." 16

As resources to aide Jews within Germany became strained, Jewish responses became twisted as well.

"When the youthful Hannah Klewansky went to the Gestapo office on the November morning after Reichskristallnacht, 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 like what they saw and left. "They raped her."17

Fortunately for the Mischlings, the war ended with Germany’s defeat. Hitler had planned to exterminate them, completely cleansing the German blood line after German victory. The surviving Mischlings returned home. They all, like the general population of Germany and Europe, claimed to have known nothing of the Holocaust. Many of the Mischlings were aware of rumors and stories. They had to know something as their own families were exterminated. Uniformly, they chose to know or acknowledge nothing. None admitted to being involved in atrocities against Jews. None admitted to being involved in atrocities but some of the highest ranking Mischlings were very aware of the murders and even administratively aided the logistics of the processes.

For Mischlings, the return home was as confused and difficult as it had been to be part of the Nazi story itself.

"After the war Mischlings tried to learn about their Jewish ancestry. (Some fought for Israel in the War of Independence.) Some converted, many visited Israel, Half-Jew Werner Eisner’s son Mijail (Michael) not only immigrated to Israel but also served in the Israeli army. He must have converted, since his mother was not only not Jewish, but was a daughter of an S.S. man."18

Mischling Hanns Rehfeld told Riggs:

"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). 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.). – His father died in a Gestapo prison."19

"The legacy and the Nazi thinking continued to cloud many Mischlings' views of Jews. Walter Schonewald: "A Jew is only a religion; everything else is Hitler; everything else is racism." Schonewald claimed that Israel has its own racial laws in that rabbinical courts prevent marriages between Jews and non-Jews and do not recognize the Reform or Conservative movements."20

Riggs’ footnotes noted that some orthodox Jews had welcomed the Nazi Nuremberg Laws as they prevented intermarriage and assimilation.


"Because of their experiences with some religious Jews, many Mischling blame Orthodox Jews for anti-Semitism. Quarter Jew Fritz Binder claimed that Orthodox Jews, by maintaining they are the only ones with have found the "truth" and that their "lifestyle is the best, are just as bad as the Nazis." Half-Jew Bergmann said, "The fact that the religious Jews pray each day and thank God that He did not make them gentiles is disgusting." Quarter Jew Horst von Oppenfeld, a descendant of the Jewish Oppenheim family, who was a captain and an adjutant to Stauffenberg, said that Orthodox Jews experience so many problems because they do not assimilate. "Their problem" he claims "is due to the fact that they want to be different. Consequently, many Mischling avoid contact with very religious Jews." 21

Today, "many Mischling, especially in Vienna, refused to meet, stating that they had not discussed their past even with their own families and saw no reason to do so…Some still fear that people will reject them once they learn they are "partially" Jewish. For example, Rolf Zelter, whose 75 percent Jewish father Obergefreiter Joachim Zelter fought on the Russian front, found out about his Jewish past after the war. When he confronted his mother, she quickly told him, "Don’t let your children know. It can only cause them problems." For the Zelters, like many families documented in this study, Jewish ancestry should simply be concealed and forgotten."22

Contemporary American Christian–Jewish intermarriage rates are near 50%. There are an estimated 400,000+ children living in households of mixed religious backgrounds. The numbers are estimated because, as was explained by the director of a major Northeastern United States Jewish Federation director, when asked how do you know how many Jews are there in your State, he said "we guesstimate."

"What do you mean – guesstimate?"

"If a household joins Federation and says they are Jewish we assume that both mother and father are Jewish."

"How do you know?"

"We don’t. We don’t ask."

The problem of Jewish identity in Israel is extremely murky, especially since 800,000 Russians immigrated in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Many of the Russian immigrants to Israel came because of Israel’s Right of Return Law. With little doubt many of the Russian immigrants could not clearly and conclusively prove they were Jewish – being born of a Jewish mother. Many arrived only knowing, or claiming, that they had one grandparent that was Jewish. The resultant "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy has severely disrupted inter-Jewish relations in Israel. It has added significantly to present and future tensions for Jewish marriage, divorce and life cycle events such as death and burial which are controlled by the Orthodox Rabbinate.

Though the terrible tragedy happened more than ten years ago, the story still resonates within Israel today.

The debate over burials has gone on in Israel for years, picking up steam in the early 1990s with the wave of Soviet immigration. The Israel Religion Action Center estimates that 150,000 to 200,000 of the 700,000 new arrivals are not technically Jewish.

In 1992, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that cemetery lands should be allotted for people unwilling or unable to meet the requirements of the Orthodox burials. A Knesset bill last year made a similar directive.

Nevertheless, development of alternative cemeteries has been stalled by staunch resistance from the Orthodox rabbinate.

"The religious establishment is afraid that the stronghold of Orthodoxy will dissipate rapidly if alternatives are offered,'' said Rabbi Regev of the Religious Action Center. "They want to control everything that is Jewish.''

A furor arose in 1993 over the burial of Lev Pisahov, an Israel army corporal killed by Hamas terrorists at a checkpoint. Initially buried outside a Jewish cemetery, his body was moved inside after then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin intervened. Last year, when a 19-month-old killed in a car accident was about to be buried in the town of Sderot, an Orthodox rabbi disrupted the funeral, demanding that the grave be dug outside the cemetery because the boy's mother was not Jewish."23


Jerry Klinger is president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation
http://www.Jashp.org email: Jashp1@msn.com


_______________

Notes:

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqWI4ZPY ... re=related

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Goldberg

3 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... itler.html

4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf

5 Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, the Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military. Bryan Mark Rigg, U. of Kansas, 2002, Lawrence, Ks. Pg. 28

6 http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/articl ... d=10007695

7 Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, the Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military. Bryan Mark Rigg, U. of Kansas, 2002, Lawrence, Ks. Pgs. 20-22

8 Ibid pg. 23

9 Ibid pg. 42

10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight's_C ... Iron_Cross

11 Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, the Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military. Bryan Mark Rigg, U. of Kansas, 2002, Lawrence, Ks. Pgs. 38-39

12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Milch

13 Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, the Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military. Bryan Mark Rigg, U. of Kansas, 2002, Lawrence, Ks.

14 Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, the Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military. Bryan Mark Rigg, U. of Kansas, 2002, Lawrence, Ks. Pg. 31

This book, which is worth reading despite its flaws, studies individuals with Jewish ancestors or relatives who served in the German armed services in World War II. Many of the book's subjects badly wanted to serve Hitler's regime, and did so quite enthusiastically, even while some of their own family members were murdered. Many of the photographs in the book show men who were decorated for their service on the Eastern Front. It is now realized that the Wehrmacht, Reserve Police Battalions, and SS integrated their efforts during the invasion of the Soviet Union, with all of the German services participating in atrocities resulting in the deaths of millions, especially Jews and POWS. The recent exhibition and book, "the German Army and Genocide," shows this very clearly in photographs, and it has also emerged in accounts about the atrocities committed by Police Battalions and Einsatzgruppen. It is clear that the majority of the people the author interviewed or studied blinded themselves about the crimes and intentions of the Nazi regime and lacked a conscience or any kind of moral compass, despite having Jewish relatives, even a parent. Men who were drafted, of course, presented a different situation - choices were limited. The author can be credited for researching his material assiduously, but book's main flaw - as I see it - is the failure to explore more deeply his subjects' participation in Hitler's war, and their relative indifference to Nazi policies and atrocities, which many on the Eastern Front must have observed. The Germans hanged large numbers of civilians in every town and city they entered in the USSR, and left them hanging to intimidate those remaining alive. The Germans often killed the whole Jewish population of towns in the Ukraine within a week of overrunning them. Thousands of Soviet POW's were executed and left along the roads. Even if they didn't participate, it was almost impossible for the subjects of Rigg's book to be unaware of the treatment of the Jews or POW's. Rigg needed to probe further to explore how people from a "mischling" background willingly became part of the Nazi armed services and why so few of his subjects seemed to have a conscience. Very few of Rigg's subjects made an attempt to emigrate or otherwise opt out of serving the regime. Robert Lifton's theory of "doubling," the phenomenon of the German physicians who experimented on prisoners and participated in mass murder while still managing to think of themselves as healers and credible physicians applies here.

-- The Author and His Subjects Lack a Moral Compass, Amazon Review, May 25, 2002


15 Ibid pg. 32

16 Ibid pg. 34

17 Ibid pg. 36

18 Ibid Pg. 47

19 Ibid Pg. 35

20 Ibid Pg. 48

21 Ibid Pg. 48

22 Ibid Pg. 49

23 http://articles.philly.com/1997-08-06/n ... at-shaul/3
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Re: Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, by Jerry Klinger

Postby admin » Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:48 am

Wannsee Conference Movie
directed by Heinz Schirk
Executive Producer: Siegfried B. Gloker
Screenplay by Paul Mommertz
Historical Advisor: Shlomo Aronson, University of Jerusalem
A Co-Production of Infafilm GMBH Munich; Manfred Korytowski and Austrian Television-O.R.F. and Bavarian Broadcasting Corp.
copyright 1984 Infafilm GmbH Munich
Featuring:
Hofmann: Robert Artzorn
Muller: Friedrich Beckhaus
Eichmann: Gerd Bockmann
Leibbrandt: Jochen Busse
Luther: Hans W. Bussiner
Meyer: Harald Dietl
Stuckart: Peter Fitz
Buhler: Reinhard Glemnitz
Neumann: Dieter Groest
Langue: Martin Luttge
Secretary: Anita Mally
Heydrich: Dietrich Mattausch
Schongarth: Gerd Rigauer
Kritzinger: Franz Rudnick
Klopfer: Gunter Sporrle
Freisler: Rainer Steffen




On January, 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution (Endlösung) in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons.

"Europe would be combed of Jews from east to west," Heydrich stated.

The minutes of that meeting have been preserved but were edited by Heydrich substituting the coded language Nazis used when referring to lethal actions to be taken against Jews.

"Instead of emigration, there is now a further possible solution to which the Führer has already signified his consent - namely deportation to the east," Heydrich stated for example when referring to mass deportations of Jews to ghettos in occupied Poland and then on to the soon-opened death camps at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

"...eliminated by natural causes," refers to death by a combination of hard labor and starvation.

"...treated accordingly," refers to execution by SS firing squads or death by gassing - also seen in other Nazi correspondence in a variety of connotations such as "special treatment" and "special actions" regarding the Jews.
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Re: Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, by Jerry Klinger

Postby admin » Wed Nov 29, 2017 8:16 am

The Minutes from the Wannsee Conference
January 20, 1942

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


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The Minutes from the Wannsee Conference
January 20, 1942
Translation

This English text of the original German-language Wannsee protocol is based on the official U.S. government translation prepared for evidence in trials at Nuremberg, as reproduced in John Mendelsohn, ed., The Holocaust: Selected Documents in Eighteen Volumes. Vol. 11: The Wannsee Protocol and a 1944 Report on Auschwitz by the Office of Strategic Services (New York: Garland, 1982), 18-32. Revisions to the Nuremberg text were made for clarification and correction. This document is in the public domain and may be freely reproduced. In the process of being programmed for the World-Wide Web, its appearance (particularly with regard to tabs, spaces, columns and indentations) was forced to deviate from the original.

Stamp: Top Secret
30 copies, 16th copy

Minutes of discussion.

I.

The following persons took part in the discussion about the final solution of the Jewish question which took place in Berlin, am Grossen Wannsee No. 56/58 on 20 January 1942.

Dr. Alfred Meyer (1891 - 1945) State Secretary (Staatssekretär) Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories

Erich Neumann (1892 - 1948) State Secretary (Staatssekretär)
Office of the Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

Dr. Josef Bühler (1904 - 1948) State Secretary (Staatssekretär)
Government of the Governor General in Cracow

Dr. Gerhard Klopfer (1905 - 1987) Nazi Party Chancellery
Permanent Secretary (Ministerialdirektor)

Adolf Eichmann (1906 - 1962) Reich Security Main Office
Director of Section IV B 4

Dr. Rudolf Lange (1910 - 1945) Commander of the Security Police and Security Service (KdS)

Martin Luther (1895 - 1945) Undersecretary of State (Unterstaatssekretär) German Foreign Office

Dr. Georg Leibbrandt (1899 - 1982) Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories Permanent Secretary (Ministerialdirektor)

Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart (1902 - 1953) State Secretary (Staatssekretär) Reich Ministry of the Interior

Dr. Roland Freisler (1893 - 1945) State Secretary (Staatssekretär) Reich Ministry of Justice

Reinhard Heydrich (1904 - 1942) Head of the Security Police and Security Service (SD) Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia

Wilhelm Kritzinger (1890 - 1947) Reich Chancellery
Permanent Secretary (Ministerialdirektor)

Otto Hofmann (1896 - 1982) Head of the SS Race- and Settlement Main Office

Dr. Eberhard Schöngarth (1903 - 1946) Commander in Chief of Security Police and Security Service (BdS)

Heinrich Müller (1900 - ?) Reich Security Main Office Head of Department (Amt) IV

The Participants

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Meyer

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Neumann

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Bühler

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Klopfer

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Eichmann

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Lange

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Luther

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Leibbrandt

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Stuckart

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Freisler

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Heydrich

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Kritzinger

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Hoffman

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Schöngarth

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Müller

II.

At the beginning of the discussion Chief of the Security Police and of the SD, SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich, reported that the Reich Marshal had appointed him delegate for the preparations for the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe and pointed out that this discussion had been called for the purpose of clarifying fundamental questions. The wish of the Reich Marshal to have a draft sent to him concerning organizational, factual and material interests in relation to the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe makes necessary an initial common action of all central offices immediately concerned with these questions in order to bring their general activities into line. The Reichsführer-SS and the Chief of the German Police (Chief of the Security Police and the SD) was entrusted with the official central handling of the final solution of the Jewish question without regard to geographic borders. The Chief of the Security Police and the SD then gave a short report of the struggle which has been carried on thus far against this enemy, the essential points being the following:

a) the expulsion of the Jews from every sphere of life of the German people,

b) the expulsion of the Jews from the living space of the German people.

In carrying out these efforts, an increased and planned acceleration of the emigration of the Jews from Reich territory was started, as the only possible present solution.

By order of the Reich Marshal, a Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration was set up in January 1939 and the Chief of the Security Police and SD was entrusted with the management. Its most important tasks were

a) to make all necessary arrangements for the preparation for an increased emigration of the Jews,

b) to direct the flow of emigration,

c) to speed the procedure of emigration in each individual case.

The aim of all this was to cleanse German living space of Jews in a legal manner.

All the offices realized the drawbacks of such enforced accelerated emigration. For the time being they had, however, tolerated it on account of the lack of other possible solutions of the problem.

The work concerned with emigration was, later on, not only a German problem, but also a problem with which the authorities of the countries to which the flow of emigrants was being directed would have to deal. Financial difficulties, such as the demand by various foreign governments for increasing sums of money to be presented at the time of the landing, the lack of shipping space, increasing restriction of entry permits, or the cancelling of such, increased extraordinarily the difficulties of emigration. In spite of these difficulties, 537,000 Jews were sent out of the country between the takeover of power and the deadline of 31 October 1941. Of these

approximately 360,000 were in Germany proper on 30 January 1933

approximately 147,000 were in Austria (Ostmark) on 15 March 1939

approximately 30,000 were in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on 15 March 1939.

The Jews themselves, or their Jewish political organizations, financed the emigration. In order to avoid impoverished Jews' remaining behind, the principle was followed that wealthy Jews have to finance the emigration of poor Jews; this was arranged by imposing a suitable tax, i.e., an emigration tax, which was used for financial arrangements in connection with the emigration of poor Jews and was imposed according to income.

Apart from the necessary Reichsmark exchange, foreign currency had to presented at the time of landing. In order to save foreign exchange held by Germany, the foreign Jewish financial organizations were - with the help of Jewish organizations in Germany - made responsible for arranging an adequate amount of foreign currency. Up to 30 October 1941, these foreign Jews donated a total of around 9,500,000 dollars.

In the meantime the Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police had prohibited emigration of Jews due to the dangers of an emigration in wartime and due to the possibilities of the East.

III.

Another possible solution of the problem has now taken the place of emigration, i.e. the evacuation of the Jews to the East, provided that the Führer gives the appropriate approval in advance.

These actions are, however, only to be considered provisional, but practical experience is already being collected which is of the greatest importance in relation to the future final solution of the Jewish question.

Approximately 11 million Jews will be involved in the final solution of the European Jewish question, distributed as follows among the individual countries:

Country Number

A. Germany proper 131,800
Austria 43,700
Eastern territories 420,000
General Government 2,284,000
Bialystok 400,000
Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia 74,200
Estonia - free of Jews -
Latvia 3,500
Lithuania 34,000
Belgium 43,000
Denmark 5,600
France / occupied territory 165,000
unoccupied territory 700,000
Greece 69,600
Netherlands 160,800
Norway 1,300

B. Bulgaria 48,000
England 330,000
Finland 2,300
Ireland 4,000
Italy including Sardinia 58,000
Albania 200
Croatia 40,000
Portugal 3,000
Rumania including Bessarabia 342,000
Sweden 8,000
Switzerland 18,000
Serbia 10,000
Slovakia 88,000
Spain 6,000
Turkey (European portion) 55,500
Hungary 742,800
USSR 5,000,000
Ukraine 2,994,684
White Russia
excluding Bialystok 446,484

Total over 11,000,000

The number of Jews given here for foreign countries includes, however, only those Jews who still adhere to the Jewish faith, since some countries still do not have a definition of the term "Jew" according to racial principles.

The handling of the problem in the individual countries will meet with difficulties due to the attitude and outlook of the people there, especially in Hungary and Rumania. Thus, for example, even today the Jew can buy documents in Rumania that will officially prove his foreign citizenship.

The influence of the Jews in all walks of life in the USSR is well known. Approximately five million Jews live in the European part of the USSR, in the Asian part scarcely 1/4 million.

The breakdown of Jews residing in the European part of the USSR according to trades was approximately as follows:

Agriculture 9.1 %
Urban workers 14.8 %
In trade 20.0 %
Employed by the state 23.4 %
In private occupations such as
medical profession, press, theater, etc. 32. 7%

Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes.

The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as a the seed of a new Jewish revival (see the experience of history.)

In the course of the practical execution of the final solution, Europe will be combed through from west to east. Germany proper, including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, will have to be handled first due to the housing problem and additional social and political necessities.

The evacuated Jews will first be sent, group by group, to so-called transit ghettos, from which they will be transported to the East.

SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich went on to say that an important prerequisite for the evacuation as such is the exact definition of the persons involved.

It is not intended to evacuate Jews over 65 years old, but to send them to an old-age ghetto - Theresienstadt is being considered for this purpose.

In addition to these age groups - of the approximately 280,000 Jews in Germany proper and Austria on 31 October 1941, approximately 30% are over 65 years old - severely wounded veterans and Jews with war decorations (Iron Cross I) will be accepted in the old-age ghettos. With this expedient solution, in one fell swoop many interventions will be prevented.

The beginning of the individual larger evacuation actions will largely depend on military developments. Regarding the handling of the final solution in those European countries occupied and influenced by us, it was proposed that the appropriate expert of the Foreign Office discuss the matter with the responsible official of the Security Police and SD.

In Slovakia and Croatia the matter is no longer so difficult, since the most substantial problems in this respect have already been brought near a solution. In Rumania the government has in the meantime also appointed a commissioner for Jewish affairs. In order to settle the question in Hungary, it will soon be necessary to force an adviser for Jewish questions onto the Hungarian government.

With regard to taking up preparations for dealing with the problem in Italy, SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich considers it opportune to contact the chief of police with a view to these problems.

In occupied and unoccupied France, the registration of Jews for evacuation will in all probability proceed without great difficulty.

Under Secretary of State Luther calls attention in this matter to the fact that in some countries, such as the Scandinavian states, difficulties will arise if this problem is dealt with thoroughly and that it will therefore be advisable to defer actions in these countries. Besides, in view of the small numbers of Jews affected, this deferral will not cause any substantial limitation.

The Foreign Office sees no great difficulties for southeast and western Europe.

SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann plans to send an expert to Hungary from the Race and Settlement Main Office for general orientation at the time when the Chief of the Security Police and SD takes up the matter there. It was decided to assign this expert from the Race and Settlement Main Office, who will not work actively, as an assistant to the police attaché.

IV.

In the course of the final solution plans, the Nuremberg Laws should provide a certain foundation, in which a prerequisite for the absolute solution of the problem is also the solution to the problem of mixed marriages and persons of mixed blood.

The Chief of the Security Police and the SD discusses the following points, at first theoretically, in regard to a letter from the chief of the Reich chancellery:

1) Treatment of Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree

Persons of mixed blood of the first degree will, as regards the final solution of the Jewish question, be treated as Jews.

From this treatment the following exceptions will be made:

a) Persons of mixed blood of the first degree married to persons of German blood if their marriage has resulted in children (persons of mixed blood of the second degree). These persons of mixed blood of the second degree are to be treated essentially as Germans.

b) Persons of mixed blood of the first degree, for whom the highest offices of the Party and State have already issued exemption permits in any sphere of life. Each individual case must be examined, and it is not ruled out that the decision may be made to the detriment of the person of mixed blood.

The prerequisite for any exemption must always be the personal merit of the person of mixed blood. (Not the merit of the parent or spouse of German blood.)

Persons of mixed blood of the first degree who are exempted from evacuation will be sterilized in order to prevent any offspring and to eliminate the problem of persons of mixed blood once and for all. Such sterilization will be voluntary. But it is required to remain in the Reich. The sterilized "person of mixed blood" is thereafter free of all restrictions to which he was previously subjected.

2) Treatment of Persons of Mixed Blood of the Second Degree

Persons of mixed blood of the second degree will be treated fundamentally as persons of German blood, with the exception of the following cases, in which the persons of mixed blood of the second degree will be considered as Jews:

a) The person of mixed blood of the second degree was born of a marriage in which both parents are persons of mixed blood.

b) The person of mixed blood of the second degree has a racially especially undesirable appearance that marks him outwardly as a Jew.

c) The person of mixed blood of the second degree has a particularly bad police and political record that shows that he feels and behaves like a Jew.

Also in these cases exemptions should not be made if the person of mixed blood of the second degree has married a person of German blood.

3) Marriages between Full Jews and Persons of German Blood.

Here it must be decided from case to case whether the Jewish partner will be evacuated or whether, with regard to the effects of such a step on the German relatives, [this mixed marriage] should be sent to an old-age ghetto.

4) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of German Blood.

a) Without Children.

If no children have resulted from the marriage, the person of mixed blood of the first degree will be evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto (same treatment as in the case of marriages between full Jews and persons of German blood, point 3.)

b) With Children.

If children have resulted from the marriage (persons of mixed blood of the second degree), they will, if they are to be treated as Jews, be evacuated or sent to a ghetto along with the parent of mixed blood of the first degree. If these children are to be treated as Germans (regular cases), they are exempted from evacuation as is therefore the parent of mixed blood of the first degree.

5) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree or Jews.

In these marriages (including the children) all members of the family will be treated as Jews and therefore be evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto.

6) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree and Persons of Mixed Blood of the Second Degree.

In these marriages both partners will be evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto without consideration of whether the marriage has produced children, since possible children will as a rule have stronger Jewish blood than the Jewish person of mixed blood of the second degree.

SS-Gruppenführer Hofmann advocates the opinion that sterilization will have to be widely used, since the person of mixed blood who is given the choice whether he will be evacuated or sterilized would rather undergo sterilization.

State Secretary Dr. Stuckart maintains that carrying out in practice of the just mentioned possibilities for solving the problem of mixed marriages and persons of mixed blood will create endless administrative work. In the second place, as the biological facts cannot be disregarded in any case, State Secretary Dr. Stuckart proposed proceeding to forced sterilization.

Furthermore, to simplify the problem of mixed marriages possibilities must be considered with the goal of the legislator saying something like: "These marriages have been dissolved."

With regard to the issue of the effect of the evacuation of Jews on the economy, State Secretary Neumann stated that Jews who are working in industries vital to the war effort, provided that no replacements are available, cannot be evacuated.

SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich indicated that these Jews would not be evacuated according to the rules he had approved for carrying out the evacuations then underway.

State Secretary Dr. Bühler stated that the General Government would welcome it if the final solution of this problem could be begun in the General Government, since on the one hand transportation does not play such a large role here nor would problems of labor supply hamper this action. Jews must be removed from the territory of the General Government as quickly as possible, since it is especially here that the Jew as an epidemic carrier represents an extreme danger and on the other hand he is causing permanent chaos in the economic structure of the country through continued black market dealings. Moreover, of the approximately 2 1/2 million Jews concerned, the majority is unfit for work.

State Secretary Dr. Bühler stated further that the solution to the Jewish question in the General Government is the responsibility of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD and that his efforts would be supported by the officials of the General Government. He had only one request, to solve the Jewish question in this area as quickly as possible.

In conclusion the different types of possible solutions were discussed, during which discussion both Gauleiter Dr. Meyer and State Secretary Dr. Bühler took the position that certain preparatory activities for the final solution should be carried out immediately in the territories in question, in which process alarming the populace must be avoided.

The meeting was closed with the request of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD to the participants that they afford him appropriate support during the carrying out of the tasks involved in the solution.

Source: United States National Archives
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Re: Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, by Jerry Klinger

Postby admin » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:24 pm

Amazon Reviews: Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent
by Bryan Mark Rigg

1. Demolishes the Main Argument for the Primacy of Holocaust Remembrance--That the Nazis Were Out to Kill Every Single Jew
by Jan Peczkison
August 28, 2015

Who says that there should be ANY kind of meritocracy on genocides to begin with? And assuming that there is to be such a meritocracy, who decides on what basis this meritocracy is to be constructed?

We keep hearing that the Holocaust was unique (and thereby entitled to greater historical memory than the genocide of any other peoples) because Hitler made it a point to insist on the death of every single Jewish man, woman, and child. According to a well-worn cliché, "Not all victims of the Nazis were Jews, but all Jews were victims of the Nazis." Author Rigg shows that this was certainly incorrect. There were thousands of German Jews who were deliberately spared by Hitler and other leading Nazis, and re-labeled Aryans. It is high time that Holocaust education be changed to devote equal time to Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Germans.

WHO WAS A JEW?

"Not every one who had Jewish ancestry was a victim of the death camps" (Rigg, p. 268). According to both the Halaka and Israel's "Law of Return", a Jew is defined as a person having a Jewish mother while remaining unconverted to another religion, or one who converted to Judaism. Based on this definition, a large fraction of the Mischlinge (German-Jewish "mongrels") consisted of true Jews. In fact, based on a sample which he has analyzed, Rigg (p. 18, 283) estimates that 60% of half-Jews and 30% of quarter-Jews in Nazi Germany were Halakically Jewish.

SOME NUMBERS

The number of Mischlinge spared from persecution by Hitler undoubtedly numbers in the thousands (p. 3). Perhaps 16,000 Mischlinge officers were in the Wehrmacht in 1940, and more than 150,000 Mischlinge fought for the Nazis in WWII. Although Hitler had the final say, many of the top Nazi officials were actively involved in the relabeling and protection of German Jews, including Ribbentrop, Sauckel, Bormann, Canaris, Donitz, Heydrich, Himmler, von Schirach, Kaltenbrunner, and Goring (p. 182). The latter reputedly remarked: "I'll decide who is a Jew." (p. 21).

Moreover, the exemptions from persecution were NOT limited to those of partial Jewish ancestry. Luftwaffe Field Marshall Erhart Milch, was either a half or full Jew (pp. 29-30). According to Rigg (p. 203), some 200 full-blooded Jews (the Schutzjuden, or protected Jews) were spared persecution in Berlin alone. One way or another, at least 6,000 full-blooded Jews served in the Wehrmacht (p. 65).

“That Adolph Hitler is a member of the Mystic Order called the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, and that he is inspirationally directed by some of its leaders is a charge made by Edouard Saby, French writer, in a book now in preparation.”

-- Is Hitler a Rosicrucian?, by Rosicrucian Editors


The Original Semites were the fifth and most important of the seven Atlantean Races, because in them we find the first germ of the corrective quality of Thought. Therefore the Original Semitic Race become the "seed race" for the seven races of the present Aryan Epoch....

The Original Semites regulated their desires to some extent by the mind, and instead of mere desires, came cunning and craftiness -- the means by which those people sought to attain their selfish ends. Though they were a very turbulent people, they learned to curb their passions to a great extent and accomplish their purposes by the use of cunning, as being more subtle and potent than mere brute strength. They were the first to discover that "brain" is superior to "brawn."...

Under the guidance of a great Entity, the Original Semitic Race was led eastward from the continent of Atlantis, over Europe, to the great waste in Central Asia which is known as the Gobi Desert. There it prepared them to be the seed of the seven Races of the Aryan Epoch, imbuing them potentially with the qualities to be evolved by their descendants....now his thoughts were to be turned from the visible Leaders, the Lords from Venus, whom he worshiped as messengers from the gods -- to the idea of the true God, the invisible Creator of the System. Man was to learn to worship and obey the commands of a God he could not see....

Fourfold also are the steps by which man climbs upward to God. First, through fear, he worships the God whom he begins to sense, sacrificing to propitiate Him, as do the fetish-worshipers. Next, he learns to look to God as the giver of all things, and hopes to receive from Him material benefits here and now. He sacrifices through avarice, expecting that the Lord will repay a hundredfold, or to escape swift punishment by plague, war, etc. Next, he is taught to worship God by prayer and the living of a good life; and that he must cultivate faith in a Heaven where he will be rewarded in the future; and to abstain from evil that he may escape a future punishment in Hell. At last he comes to a point where he can do right without any thought of reward, bribe, or punishment, but simply because "it is right to do right." He loves right for its own sake and seeks to govern his conduct thereby, regardless of present benefit or injury, or of painful results at some future time.

The Original Semites had reached the second of these steps. They were taught to worship an invisible God and to expect to be rewarded by material benefits, or punished by painful afflictions. Popular Christianity is at the third step. Esoteric Christians, and the pupils of all occult schools are trying to reach the highest step, which will be generally achieved in the Sixth Epoch, the new Galilee, when the unifying Christian religion will open the hearts of men, as their understanding is being opened now....

To transmute Cunning into Reason proved no easy task. The earlier changes in man's nature had been easily brought about. He could then be led without difficulty because he had no conscious desire, nor mind to guide him, but by the time of the Original Semites he had become cunning enough to resent limitations of his liberty and to circumvent repeatedly the measures taken to hold him in line. The task of guiding him was all the more difficult because it was necessary he should have some liberty of choice, that he might in time learn self-government. Therefore a law was enacted which decreed immediate rewards for obedience and instant punishment for disregard of its provisions. Thus was man taught, coaxed and coerced into reasoning in a limited manner that "the way of the transgressor is hard," and that he must "fear God," or the Leader who guided him.

Out of all who were chosen as "seed" for the new Race, few remained faithful. Most of them were rebellious and, so far as they were concerned, entirely frustrated the purpose of the Leader by intermarrying with the other Atlantean Races, thus bringing inferior blood into their descendants. That is what is meant in the Bible where the fact is recorded that the sons of God married the daughters of men. For that act of disobedience were they abandoned and "lost." Even the faithful died, according to the body, in the Desert of Gobi (the "Wilderness") in Central Asia, the cradle of our present Race. They reincarnated, as their own descendants of course, and thus inherited the "Promised Land," the Earth as it is now. They are the Aryan Races, in whom Reason is being evolved to perfection.

The rebellious ones who were abandoned are the Jews, of whom the great majority are still governed more by the Atlantean faculty of Cunning than by Reason. In them the race-feeling is so strong that they distinguish only two classes of people: Jews and Gentiles. They despise the other nations and are in turn despised by them for their cunning, selfishness and avarice....

Races are but an evanescent feature of evolution. Before the end of the Lemurian Epoch there was a "chosen people," different from the ordinary humanity of that time, who became the ancestors of the Atlantean Races. From the fifth race of those, another "chosen people" was drawn, from which the Aryan Races descended, of which there have been five and will be two more. Before a new Epoch is ushered in, however, there must be "a new Heaven and a new earth"; the physical features of the Earth will be changed and its density decreased. There will be one Race at the beginning of the next Epoch, but after that every thought and feeling of Race will disappear....

[E]xtra care must be taken that as few of the spirits as possible become enmeshed in the fetters of Race. This is exactly what happened to the spirits reborn in the Jewish Race-bodies. They attached themselves so firmly to the Race that they are drawn back into it in successive births. "Once a Jew, always a Jew" is their slogan. They have entirely forgotten their spiritual nature and glory in the material fact of being "Abraham's seed." Therefore they are neither "fish nor flesh." They have no part in the advancing Aryan Race and yet they are beyond those remnants of the Lemurian and Atlantean peoples which are still with us. They have become a people without a country, an anomaly among mankind.

Because of their bondage to the Race-idea, their one-time Leader was forced to abandon them, and they became "lost." That they might cease to regard themselves as separate from other peoples, other nations were stirred up against them at various times by the Leaders of humanity, and they were led captive from the country where they had settled, but in vain. They stubbornly refused to amalgamate with others. Again and again they returned in a body to their arid land. Prophets of their own Race were raised up who mercilessly rebuked them and predicted dire disaster, but without avail.

As a final effort to persuade them to cast off the fetters of Race, we have the seeming anomaly that the Leader of the coming Race, the Great Teacher Christ, appeared among the Jews. This still further shows the compassion and Wisdom of the great Beings who guide evolution. Among all the Races of the Earth, none other was "lost" in the same sense as the Jews; none other so sorely needed help. To send them a stranger, not one of their own Race, would have been manifestly useless. It was a foregone conclusion that they would have rejected him. As the great spirit known as Booker T. Washington incarnated among the Negroes, to be received by them as one of themselves, and thus enabled to enlighten them as no white man could, so the great Leaders hoped that the appearance of Christ among the Jews as one of their own might bring them to accept Him and His teachings and thus draw them out of the meshes of the Race-bodies. But sad it is to see how human prejudice can prevail. "He came unto His own and" they chose Barabbas.

The rejection of Christ by the Jews was the supreme proof of their thralldom to Race. Thenceforth all efforts to save them as a whole by giving them special prophets and teachers, were abandoned and, as the futility of exiling them in a body had been proven, they were, as a last expedient, scattered among all the nations of the earth. Despite all, however, the extreme tenacity of this people has prevailed even to the present day, the majority being yet orthodox. In America, however, there is now a slight falling away. The younger generation is commencing to marry outside the Race. In time, an increasing number of bodies, with fewer and fewer of the Race characteristics, will thus be provided for the incarnating spirits of the Jews of the past. In this manner will they be saved in spite of themselves. They become "lost" by marrying into inferior Races; they will be saved by amalgamating with those more advanced.

As the present Aryan Races are reasoning human beings, capable of profiting by past experience, the logical means of helping them is by telling them of past stages of growth and the fate that overtook the disobedient Jews. Those rebels had a written record of how their Leaders had dealt with them. It set forth how they had been chosen and rebelled; were punished; but were yet hopeful of ultimate redemption. That record may be profitably used by us, that we may learn how not to act....

The Original Semites were set apart and forbidden to marry into other tribes or peoples, but they were a stiff-necked and hard people, being yet led almost exclusively by desire and cunning, therefore they disobeyed the command. Their Bible records that the sons of God married the daughters of man -- the lower grades of their Atlantean compatriots. They thus frustrated the designs of Jehovah and were cast off, the fruit of such cross-breeding being useless as seed for the coming Race.

These cross-breeds were the progenitors of the present Jews, who now speak of "lost tribes." They know that some of the original number left them and went another way, but they do not know that those were the few who remained true. The story of the ten tribes being lost is a fable. Most of them perished, but the faithful ones survived, and from that faithful remnant have descended the present Aryan Races.

***

The most advanced among humanity at the beginning of the Aryan Epoch were given the higher Initiations, that they might take the place of the messengers of God, i.e. the Lords of Venus. Such human Initiates were from this time forth the only mediators between God and man. Even they did not appear publicly nor show any signs of wonders that they were Leaders and Teachers. Man was left entirely free to seek them or not, as he desired. At the end of our present Epoch the highest Initiates will appear publicly, when a sufficient number of ordinary humanity desire, and will voluntarily subject themselves to such a Leader. They will thus form the nucleus for the last Race, which will appear at the beginning of the Sixth Epoch. After that time races and nations will cease to exist. Humanity will form one spiritual Fellowship as before the end of the Lemurian Epoch.

-- The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception: An Elementary Treatise Upon Man's Past Evolution, Present Constitution and Future Development, by Max Heindel


JEWISH GERMANS COMPLICIT IN THE HOLOCAUST

Rigg briefly discusses the involvement of German Jews in the Holocaust itself. Mention is made of part and full Jews such as Killy, Eppinger, Goldschlag, Abrahamsohn, and Scherwitz (p. 258). Much less attention is paid to the Jewish origins of many top Nazi leaders. There is some elaboration of Hitler's obsessive fear of his Jewishness, as well as the probable Jewishness of Reinhard Heydrich (p. 176), one of the chief architects of the Holocaust itself. Most relevant documents that trace the ancestry of top Nazi officials have been destroyed.

2. Serving the Apparatus of Death
by Paul Hosseon
September 13, 2008

A chilling book about Germans of Jewish ancestry serving in Hilter's military amid fears for their own survival and the desire to serve the Fatherland. The book provides great documentary evidence of some of those who served while detailing ethnic cleansing in Hitler's Germany. An excellent choice for those wanting to know more about the Holocaust and the struggle of the human soul.

3. An important and critical presentation of Nazi Germany.
by Colin D. Heaton
July 11, 2002

As both an author/historian and friend/colleague of Bryan's, I read his book with great interest. As someone who has himself specialized in collecting first hand interviews with German veterans for Primedia and my own books, I was well aware of the 'Mischlinge' situation. However, Bryan educated me on this topic with his dynamic and forthright approach to this topic.

Many historians and enthusiasts will balk at his conclusions, yet his evidence speaks for itself. In order to provide a defense for this book and his research, my own research uncovered what was already well known to many yet ignored by most; the fact that Hitler and Himmler constantly lowered the racial criteria throughout Europe as the war progressed in order to bolster the ranks of the German military with 'freiwilligen', or 'volunteers'. This was especially true of the Waffen SS, whose ranks numbered 940,000, of whch only a quarter million were actually German by birth and approximately 79% being Aryan by even the most relaxed racial definition. Nearly every ethnic group and nationality in Europe was represented wearing the lightning strikes of the SS.

Bryan Rigg's research will prove unsettling to traditionalists. However, truth is what it is, and ignoring facts that are uncomfortable to some merely educates others in the long term. Expect more great works from Bryan. He is in a league of his own.

4. Professional Soldiers They Were
by Jay Smith
June 19, 2003

As many of you read these reviews will note, OTHER personal reviews written here use this book to somehow VERIFY that "regular" (sic) Germans DID NOT KNOW THE HOLOCAUST was occurring; citing that the book verifies that Germany's professional soldiers of jewish ancestry (sic) DID NOT KNOW of the camps and the genocide that was occurring. It appears that many of the reviewers here are "revisionists", because the book DOES NOT support the notion that Germans and German soldiers of jewish faith background did not know of the atrocities. This book cites example after example, as well as indepth commentary, that ALL of these German Warriors of "Jewish" background all fought in order to keep their families, loved ones, wives, children, parents, grandparents, etc., OUT OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMP. Over and over the interviews revealed that these soldiers had that "extra" drive to STAY ALIVE in order to prevent the shipping of their families to the concentration camps. In the book, interviews, notes, and commentary reflect that these soldiers feared that if Germany were victorious they, along with their families, would be sent to the "ovens" and/ or labor camps to die. On another "alternative" website of book reviews this book is cited as further evidence that the German people, as well as avowed Nazis, DID NOT KNOW OF THE HOLOCAUST! They cite this book as "evidence", as do many on this review, that Germany's professional soldiers who were "jewish" (quarter to 'full' blooded, as if Jewishness were a "race", another falsity) DID NOT know of the holocaust and would not have participated in fighting for Germany.
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Re: Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, by Jerry Klinger

Postby admin » Wed Nov 29, 2017 9:10 pm

The Jews in Hitler's Military: A young American is documenting the stories of hundreds of German veterans of Jewish descent. Many lost family to the Holocaust while serving the Nazi regime.
by William D. Montalbano
Los Angeles Times
December 24, 1996

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LONDON — Sustained by scholarship, peanut butter and a sense of mission, American Bryan Rigg is exploring an eerie and uncharted no man's land of Holocaust history.

Rigg interviews former German soldiers of Jewish heritage, some of them high-ranking officers, who fought for Adolf Hitler's Third Reich in World War II--during the Holocaust, when the Nazis slaughtered 6 million Jews.

"Thousands of men of Jewish descent and hundreds of what the Nazis called 'full Jews' served in the military with Hitler's knowledge. The Nazis allowed these men to serve but at the same time exterminated their families," Rigg said.

On a heady journey of personal and professional discovery, the 25-year-old Texan has talked with more than 300 of these veterans, including a handful in California. Passed along from one old soldier to another, he has crisscrossed Germany over four years, often by bicycle, sometimes sleeping in railroad stations to stretch his budget.

Rigg said he has documented the Jewish ancestry of more than 1,200 of Hitler's soldiers, including two field marshals and 10 generals, "men commanding up to 100,000 troops." In about 20 cases, soldiers of Jewish heritage were awarded the Knight's Cross, Germany's highest military honor, he said.

This fall, Rigg, Yale '96, arrived at England's Cambridge University to begin a graduate degree in history, lugging his clothes, computer and documentation in a bulging knapsack. Jonathan Steinberg, a Cambridge historian, read Rigg's files and hurried to find a safe place for them.

"When I saw Bryan's archive, I couldn't believe it. He's like the sorcerer's apprentice, calling these sources up from the depths. People keep coming and coming to him," Steinberg said. "I guess what we are dealing with psychologically is people who have felt guilty all these years. A classic all-American boy comes along, and they open up to him."

Along the way, Rigg, who is of German extraction and was raised as a Protestant, has discovered that he too has Jewish ancestry. Like many of the families he has visited, Rigg had distant relatives who were killed for being Jewish -- and others who died fighting in battle for Nazi Germany.

The old soldiers give Rigg both documents and their stories of war, peace and suffering. He says many still struggle with a question that is a challenge to history: If I fought in the German army while my mother died in a Nazi concentration camp, am I a villain or a victim?

The focus of Rigg's research are so-called Mischlinge -- Germans who were classified as Jewish by the Nazis because of their parentage and who faced proscriptions under Nazi racial laws, even though most did not consider themselves Jews.

It is an ugly word, Rigg said: For the Nazis, it stood for "mongrels, hybrids, bastards." They fit neither in Hitler's Aryan Germany nor in the large community of observant German Jews he targeted for annihilation.

Many of the men Rigg meets cling to Nazi terminology, describing themselves as half-Jewish, half-German. Sometimes they weep as they reminisce, these Germans now in their 70s and 80s, many of whom killed on the battlefield for a monstrous regime while their families were being killed by it.

"In many cases, these men have not talked about it for 50 years. When I come, it is as if they have opened up a coffin they thought they buried so long ago. It all comes out," Rigg said.

One of his discoveries was a 1944 German army personnel document listing 77 high-ranking officers "of mixed Jewish race or married to a Jew." Two generals, eight lieutenant generals, five major generals and 23 colonels are on the list.

"I don't think it ever occurred to anybody to go to a general's personnel file to see if he was Jewish," said Steinberg at Cambridge.

Hitler personally signed declarations for all 77 on the 1944 list asserting that they were of German blood, thereby exercising his right of exception under 1935 Nazi legislation that barred anyone with a Jewish grandparent from becoming an officer.
Deciding exactly who was to be classified a Jew stirred great internal debate among Nazi leaders. Hitler loathed Jews, but he also needed experienced commanders and fighters.

"What's fascinating is how involved Hitler was in the screening process," Rigg said. "At the height of the war, he was personally deciding whether this private or that should be of German blood. A private!"

By Hitler's command, any soldier asking for a declaration of German blood had to submit a complex application -- including photos of his head and body, and skull measurements.

"He would look at these photographs for a long time and decide whether this guy was worthy to be an Aryan," Rigg said.

He said there were at least a dozen exception lists approved by Hitler -- naming ranking officials not only in the armed forces but in the civilian administration that worked with the military. One German civilian of Jewish heritage was in charge of key factories in the tank-making industry, he said.


World War II historians have written about these men in passing, but Rigg's research is yielding new breadth and depth -- and chilling detail: a German officer in uniform visiting his Jewish father in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1942; mothers begging Nazi officials to accept that the real fathers of their sons were Christian lovers, not their Jewish-classified husbands.

"When Bryan proposed this project, I told him there were anomalies in all wars, and this one was not worth tracking down," said Yale historian Henry Ashby Turner. "But he went on with incredible perseverance, drawn by the people and the poignancy of their stories. I never imagined there were that many people, particularly that many officers."

In interviews and research in Germany this month, Rigg found still more Wehrmacht officers of Jewish descent and more than 1,500 pages of documents, both from veterans and their families and from the wartime German archives that Rigg explores with these people's consent.


"A lot of times, a man starts telling me about relatives being sent off to Auschwitz and having to eat human flesh to survive on the Russian front, and him being beaten up by military officials because he was a half-Jew. And sitting next to him, his wife of 50 years is getting angry, because her husband has never talked about this," said Rigg, who has not yet published his findings.

One veteran interviewed by Rigg was a religious Jew, now 82 and living in northern Germany, who assumed a non-Jewish identity, became an army captain, married a Jewish girl from his hometown and successfully remained a practicing Jew within the German army for the entire war.

One Knight's Cross winner was reunited as a prisoner of war in England with his Jewish father, who fled Germany before the fighting began.

Helmut Schmidt, West Germany's chancellor from 1974 to 1982, told Rigg he successfully hid the fact that he had a Jewish grandfather from fellow officers in the wartime Luftwaffe, the air force.
Schmidt thought his case was rare. It wasn't, says Rigg.

With the innocence of youth, many of the soldiers Rigg meets believed at the time that their military service, often on the Russian front, was helping to save the lives of Jewish-classified relatives in Germany.

"But I haven't found any documents to support that," he said. "Many guys, while they were fighting, their parents were being deported anyway." The Nazis killed nearly 2,300 relatives of one group of 1,000 soldiers that he has analyzed.

"Thousands of men of Jewish ancestry fought in the Nazi military because they were drafted. But many were career soldiers, and that forced them to apply for the German blood declaration," Rigg said. "What's sick here is that, even though Hitler gave the approvals, the officers' relatives were being exterminated behind their backs. . . . Were most of these people so egotistical they didn't care who died just so they could live?"

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, says that the soldiers' individual stories are well known but that there does not seem to have been a serious scholarly attempt to piece them together into a larger picture. The new research also poses vexing questions.

"If there were Jews who served in the armed forces to save their own lives, that is one thing. If there were others who served knowing what was going on and made no attempt to save [lives], well then that is unacceptable and dishonorable," Hier said.

Rigg said he believes the old soldiers must be judged by the standards of their time. "They were very young, and it's foolish to expect them to have known everything then that we know today. They didn't," he said.

In the homes he visits, Rigg often sees menorahs and books about Judaism. Many of the veterans "have learned Hebrew," he said, "and a few have converted to Judaism and gotten circumcised in their 40s and 50s." He said a professor once told him that "a Jew is a person who continually struggles with the question, 'Who is a Jew?' Many of these people, they struggle with that."

The Nazi regime reeked of hypocrisy, Rigg's new research makes plain. He documents the case of Field Marshal Erhard Milch, deputy to Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering. Long rumored to have been Jewish, Milch in fact had a Jewish father, which, according to Nazi code, made him unacceptable to serve in the armed forces. But in 1935, Rigg's research shows, Goering, Hitler's chosen successor, falsified documents to declare Milch of Aryan descent by asserting that his mother's brother was really his father.

Rigg has also brought light to folklore surrounding the derring-do rescue by German soldiers of Rebbe Joseph Schneersohn, the leader of ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher Jews, who was trapped in Warsaw when the war began in 1939.

Schneersohn was spirited to safety after an appeal to Germany by the then-neutral United States. Lubavitcher tradition says the rebbe was saved by a German Jew. Rigg has identified him as bayonet-scarred, bemedaled Maj. Ernest Bloch, a professional soldier whose father was a Jew.

Bloch was one of the officers who won a coveted declaration: "I, Adolf Hitler, leader of the German nation, approve Maj. Ernest Bloch to be of German blood. However, after the war, Ernest Bloch will be reevaluated to see if he is still worthy to have such a title."


Bloch was eventually promoted to colonel. But he was dismissed in 1944, along with other high-ranking officers of Jewish heritage.

About 100,000 Jews served in the German army in World War I, and about 12,000 of them were killed. Veterans thought their service would protect them against the Nazi crackdown early in World War II, Rigg said.

"When the transports came to pick them up for deportation, they came out in uniforms with their medals. Some of them even went to the gas chamber with their medals," he said.

In 1940, Jews and those of mixed ancestry with two Jewish grandparents were expelled from the armed forces. Those from the latter group lived as civilians for four years, impotent witnesses as Jewish families -- sometimes their families -- were wiped out by deportations.

"Many of them lost relatives in the Holocaust and knew they had been sent to Auschwitz or other camps.
Yet in 1944, when these men themselves got postcards ordering them to report to a certain train station for deportation, most of them went," Rigg said. "If they really knew what happened to their parents and grandparents, why did they go?"

Initial reports of Rigg's findings, published in London, have triggered spirited debate among historians. There has been applause for the young American's dogged quest but also sharp criticism.

David Cesarani, professor of Modern European Jewish history at Southampton University, said that, beyond the volume of the research and the intimate details of particular cases, there is little new in Rigg's work. And it is fundamentally incorrect, he maintained, to approach the soldiers as Jews.

They "didn't think they were Jewish and wanted to prove they weren't Jewish by fighting for the Fuehrer.
They wanted to be regarded as Germans," Cesarani said. "Posthumously declaring them Jews is denying the way in which they defined themselves and conceding the way the Nazis defined them. It was their tragedy, but not the tragedy of the Jews."


But Yale's Turner said: "It is no less a tragedy if a family was destroyed because it was defined as Jewish by the Nazis than if it was a family of practicing Jews."

At Cambridge, Steinberg -- a New Yorker who has taught in England for three decades -- said Rigg's findings will deepen history's view of the Holocaust.

"It only reinforces what we have thought. Hitler didn't like making exceptions for soldiers of Jewish descent. He thought they were fundamentally tainted and did all he could to keep them out of the armed forces," Steinberg said.

Rigg's quest began at Yale, when he started researching his family history in Germany. First he learned that his great-grandparents, who arrived in the United States as Protestants, had been born in Germany as Jews.

Then, one night in 1992, he went to see "Europa, Europa," a film about a Jewish adolescent who hid in the German army during World War II. After the movie, Rigg struck up a conversation with an elderly German Jew who told him his own story as a soldier in the Wehrmacht. Rigg listened until dawn. Since then, such stories have multiplied.

Time is not on Rigg's side. Once, he bicycled 100 miles to interview an 83-year-old man who had been the adjutant to a field marshal. A few weeks later, he got a letter from the man's wife telling him her husband had died. About 30 of the old soldiers he has interviewed over four years, or roughly 10%, have died, he said.

Still, the rookie historian hopes to do 400 more interviews.

"The thing is, I don't give up," Rigg said. "I have a list of people, and I go there. If I have to carry 60 pounds on my back, I do it. If I have to sleep in a train station, I do it -- to get to those people."

Mining the past on a few dollars a day has had its disconcerting moments. A landlady in Berlin evicted Rigg from a rented room when she learned what he was studying. Arabs in Berlin with whom he had been practicing martial arts rejected him when he announced that he had Jewish ancestors. Back home in Texas, on learning he was of Jewish heritage, an old friend teased, "No wonder you're so good with money."

While Rigg's quest has at times proved unsettling for him, for many of the old soldiers that he interviews, a visit from the young, earnest American scholar is cathartic -- even liberating.

"I've gotten letters and phone calls from kids and grandkids of these people, saying: 'Thank God you've come. Now our daddy or grandfather will talk to us about all of this,' " he said.
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Re: Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, by Jerry Klinger

Postby admin » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:38 am

Emil Maurice
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 4/16/18

Image
Emil Maurice wearing the Blood Order medal
Born 19 January 1897
Died 6 February 1972
Allegiance German Empire
Nazi Germany
Service/branch Flag of the Schutzstaffel.svg Schutzstaffel
Years of service 1920–45
Rank SS-Oberführer
Commands held Schutzkommando (protection command)
Battles/wars World War II
Other work Reichstag deputy, Luftwaffe Officer

Emil Maurice (19 January 1897, Westermoor – 6 February 1972, Munich) was an early member of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and a founding member of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Together with Erich Kempka, he served as one of Hitler's personal chauffeurs. Unusually, he was one of the few Mischlinge, (a person of mixed Jewish and ethnic German ancestry), to serve in the SS.[1]

Early life and association with Hitler

A watchmaker by trade, Maurice was a close early associate of Adolf Hitler; their personal friendship dated back to at least 1919 when they were both members of the German Workers Party (DAP).[2] His party number was 594 (the count began at 501).[3] With the founding of the Sturmabteilung in 1920, Maurice became the first Oberster SA-Führer (Supreme SA Leader). Maurice led the SA stormtroopers in fights that were known to break out with other groups during those early days. Hitler later in his book Mein Kampf mentions one fight in particular from November 1921 where Maurice was at the forefront of the SA unit during the fighting.[3]

In 1923 Maurice also became a member of the Stabswache (Staff Guard), a small separate bodyguard dedicated to Hitler's service rather than "a suspect mass" of the party, such as the SA.[4] It was given the task of guarding Hitler at Nazi parties and rallies. Later that year, the unit was renamed Stoßtrupp (Shock Troop) 'Adolf Hitler'.[5] Maurice, Julius Schreck, Joseph Berchtold, and Erhard Heiden, were all members of the Stoßtrupp.[6] On 9 November 1923 the Stoßtrupp, along with the SA and several other paramilitary units, took part in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. In the aftermath of the putsch Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Maurice and other Nazi leaders were incarcerated at Landsberg Prison.[7] The Nazi Party and all associated formations, including the Stoßtrupp, were officially disbanded.[8]

After Hitler's release from prison, the Nazi Party was officially refounded. In 1925, Hitler ordered the formation of a new bodyguard unit, the Schutzkommando (protection command).[9] It was formed by Julius Schreck and included old Stoßtrupp members, Maurice and Heiden.[6][10] That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national level. It was renamed successively the Sturmstaffel (storm squadron), and finally on 9 November the Schutzstaffel (SS).[11] Hitler became SS member No. 1 and Emil Maurice became SS member No. 2.[2] At that time, Maurice became an SS-Führer in the new organization, although the leadership of the SS was assumed by Schreck, the first Reichsführer-SS.[12] Maurice became Hitler's chauffeur. When Maurice informed Hitler in December 1927 that he was having a relationship with Hitler's half-niece Geli Raubal, Hitler forced an end to the affair. Maurice was dismissed from Hitler's personal service, but allowed to remain a member of the SS.[13][14]

When the SS was reorganized and expanded in 1932, Maurice became a senior SS officer and would eventually be promoted to the rank SS-Oberführer. While Maurice never became a top commander of the SS, his status as SS member #2 effectively credited him as an actual founder of the organization. Heinrich Himmler, who ultimately would become the most recognized leader of the SS, was SS member #168.[15]

Conflict with Himmler over Jewish heritage

After Himmler had become Reichsführer-SS, Maurice fell afoul of Himmler's racial purity rules for SS officers when he had to submit details of his family history before he was allowed to marry in 1935. Himmler stated, "without question...Maurice is, according to his ancestral table, not of Aryan descent".[16] All SS officers had to prove racial purity back to 1750, and it turned out that Maurice had Jewish ancestry: Charles Maurice Schwartzenberger (1805–1896), the founder of the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, was his great-grandfather.

Even though Maurice had been a party member since 1919, taken part in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch, for which he was awarded the prestigious Blood Order, and been a bodyguard for Hitler, Himmler considered him to be a serious security risk given his "Jewish ancestry".[3][17] Himmler recommended that Maurice be expelled from the SS, along with other members of his family. To Himmler's annoyance, Hitler stood by his old friend.[16] In a secret letter written on 31 August 1935, Hitler compelled Himmler to make an exception for Maurice and his brothers, who were informally declared "Honorary Aryans" and allowed to stay in the SS.[18]

Later life

In 1936 he became a Reichstag deputy for Leipzig and from 1937 was the chairman of the Munich Chamber of Commerce. From 1940 to 1942, he served in the Luftwaffe as an officer.[16] After the war, in 1948, he was sentenced to four years in a labor camp. He died on 6 February 1972 in Germany.[16]

Citations

1. Raul Hilberg (1973). The Destruction of the European Jews. p. 677.
2. Hamilton 1984, p. 160.
3. Hoffmann 2000, p. 50.
4. McNab 2009, pp. 14, 16.
5. McNab 2009, p. 16.
6. McNab 2009, pp. 10, 11.
7. Hamilton 1984, pp. 160, 161, 172.
8. Wegner 1990, p. 62.
9. Weale 2010, p. 26.
10. Weale 2010, pp. 16, 26.
11. Weale 2010, p. 29.
12. Hamilton 1984, p. 172.
13. Görtemaker 2011, p. 43.
14. Kershaw 2008, p. 220.
15. Biondi 2000, p. 7.
16. Hamilton 1984, p. 161.
17. Hamilton 1984, pp. 160–161.
18. Hoffmann 2000, pp. 50, 51.

Bibliography

• Biondi, Robert, ed. (2000) [1942]. SS Officers List: (as of 30 January 1942): SS-Standartenfuhrer to SS-Oberstgruppenfuhrer: Assignments and Decorations of the Senior SS Officer Corps. Atglen, PA: Schiffer. ISBN 978-0-7643-1061-4.
• Görtemaker, Heike B. (2011). Eva Braun: Life with Hitler. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-59582-9.
• Hamilton, Charles (1984). Leaders & Personalities of the Third Reich, Vol. 1. R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 0-912138-27-0.
• Hoffmann, Peter (2000) [1979]. Hitler's Personal Security: Protecting the Führer 1921–1945. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-30680-947-7.
• Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.
• McNab, Chris (2009). The SS: 1923–1945. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906626-49-5.
• Weale, Adrian (2010). The SS: A New History. London: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-1408703045.
• Wegner, Bernd (1990). The Waffen-SS: Organization, Ideology and Function. Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-14073-5.
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