Mischling
Encyclopedia
Mischling was the German term used during the Third Reich to denote persons deemed to have only partial Aryan
ancestry. The word has essentially the same origin as mestee in English
, mestizo
in Spanish
and métis
in French
. In German, the word has the general meaning of hybrid, mongrel, or half-breed
.
in 1935, a Jew ( in Nazi terminology) was a person - regardless of religious affiliation or self-identification - who had at least three Jewish grandparents, who had been enrolled with a Jewish congregation. A person with one or two Jewish grandparents was also legally "Jewish" (so-called Geltungsjude
, about in Jew by legal validity) if they met any of these conditions:
People who did not belong to these categorical conditions but had two Jewish grandparents were classified Mischling of the first degree. Someone with only one Jewish grandparent was Mischling of the second degree. See Mischling Test
.
on 7 April 1933. Using this law, the regime aimed to dismiss – along with all politically suspect persons (such as social democrats, socialists, communists and many liberals of all religions) – all "non-Aryans" from all government positions in society, including public educators and those practicing medicine in state hospitals.
As a result, the term "non-Aryan" had to be defined in a way compatible with Nazi ideology. Four days after the passing of this act, under the so-called "First Racial Definition" supplementary decree of 11 April, that was issued to clarify portions of the 7 April law, a "non-Aryan" (i.e. a Jew) was defined as one who had at least one Jewish parent or grandparent.
According to the philosophy of Nazi antisemitism, Jewry was considered as being a group of people bound by close, so-called genetic (blood) ties who formed an ethnic unit
which one could neither join nor secede from. Early 20th century books on Nordicism such as Madison Grant
's The Passing of the Great Race
, had a profound effect on Hitler's antisemitism. Hitler was convinced that the Nordic Race/Culture constitutes a superior branch of Humanity, and viewed International Jewry as a parasitic and inferior race, that was determined to corrupt and exterminate the Nordic peoples and their culture through Racial Pollution
and Cultural Corruption. Another important factor in Nazi antisemitism was the growing presence of Marxism
/Bolshevism in Europe, but particularly in Germany. Hitler declared that Marxism
was constructed by International Jewry, with the aim of Bolshevising the earth, which would then allow Jewry to dominate/exterminate the Aryan race. With this in mind, Hitler viewed Russia as a nation of Untermenschen, who were dominated by their Judaic masters, and which posed the gravest threat to Germany and the whole of Europe.
The Nazis defined Jewishness in part genetically, but did not use formal genetic tests or physiognomic features to determine one's status (although the Nazis talked a lot about physiognomy as a racial characteristic). In practice records on the religious affiliation(s) of one's grandparents were often the deciding factor (mostly christening records and membership registers of Jewish congregations).
However, while the grandparents had been able to choose their religion, their grandchildren in the Nazi era were compulsorily classified as Jews and thus non-Aryans if at least three grandparents had been enrolled as members of a Jewish congregation (regardless if the persecuted themselves were Jews). According to Jewish Halachah [that one is Jewish by birth from a Jewish mother or by conversion], apostates, irreligionists or Christian
s). Thus Jews who had converted to Christianity could be regarded as especially deceitful and subversive, while Gentile
s who had converted to Judaism were perceived as traitors to the "Aryan race" and were among the first to be persecuted and killed.
al records) that all direct ancestors born since 1750 were not Jewish, or they could apply for a German Blood Certificate
.
, most of them becoming Protestants rather than Roman Catholics. Two thirds of the German population were Protestant. Protestants comprised a plurality in the nation as a whole until 1938, when the Anschluß annexation of Austria to Germany added 6 million Roman Catholics. The addition of 3.25 million Catholic Czechoslovaks of German ethnicity (Sudeten
Germans) increased the percentage of Roman Catholics in Greater Germany to 41% (approximately 32.5 million vs. 45.5 million Protestants or 57%) in a 1939 population estimated at 79 millions. One percent of the population was Jewish.
Converts from Judaism usually adopted that Christian denomination dominant in the area of Germany where they used to lived. Therefore about 80% of the Gentile Germans persecuted as Jews according to the Nuremberg Laws
were affiliated with one of the 28 regionally delineated Protestants church bodies. In 1933 approximately 77% of German Gentiles with Jewish ancestry were Protestant, the percentage dropped to 66% in the 1939 census, after the annexations of 1938 (due in particular to the acquisition of Vienna
and Prague
, with their relatively large and well-established Catholic populations of Jewish descent). Converts to Christianity and their descendants had often married Christians with no recent Jewish ancestry.
As a result – by the time the Nazis came to power – many Protestants and Roman Catholics in Germany had some traceable Jewish ancestry (usually traced back by the Nazi authorities for two generations), so that a majority of 1st- or 2nd-degree Mischlinge was Protestant, many Catholics. A considerable number of German Gentiles with Jewish ancestry were irreligionists.
Lutherans with Jewish ancestry were largely in northwestern and Northern Germany
, Evangelical
Protestants of Jewish descent in Middle Germany
(Berlin and its southwestern environs) and the country's east. Catholics with Jewish ancestry lived mostly in Western
and Southern Germany
, Austria
, and what is now the Czech Republic
.
) were personally reviewed by Adolf Hitler
. Apparently, he considered the issue important enough to him that he found time to review a few thousand such files. A reclassification approved by the Nazi party chancery and Hitler was considered an act of mercy (Gnadenakt). Further de facto reclassifications, however, missing any official document, were privileges accorded certain artists and other experts by way of special protection by high-ranking Nazis.
A second way of reclassification was by way of declaratory action in court. Usually the discriminated person took the action, doubting his genetical descent from the Jewish-classified man until then regarded the biological (grand)father. Paternity suits aiming for reclassification appeared mostly with deceased, divorced or illegitimate (grand)fathers. They usually aimed at improving the discriminated and persecuted litigant's status from Jewish-classified to Mischling of first degree, or Mischling of first degree to second degree. The numbers of such suits soared when the Nazi government imposed new discriminations and persecutions (Nuremberg Laws 1935, November Pogrom 1938, and systematic deportations of Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent to concentration camps, 1941).
The procedures, most humbling for the (grand)mothers, who had to declare in court they had committed adultery, more often ended with the wished success, than the other way around. Success resulted from several reasons. First, some lawyers specialised in such procedures and prepared them professionally, also refusing hopeless cases. There was no danger in the procedures, because in case of failure, this did not downgrade the classification of the litigant. Second, usually all the family members - including the sometimes still living doubted (grand)father - co-operated. Usually very likely alternative fathers were named, who either appeared themselves in court confirming their most likely fatherhood or who were already dead, but known as good friends, neighbours or subtenants of the (grand)mother. Fourth, the included obligatory, and most humbling body examinations of doubted father and child especially searched for allegedly racial features of outward appearance as conceived among anti-Semites to be typically Jewish, besides the blood typing test etc. already usual in earlier regular paternity suits.
Especially when the doubted (grand)father was already dead, emigrated or deported (as after 1941), the examination concentrated on these supposedly abnormous outward features considered Jewish, to be found in the physiognomy of the descendant (child). Since the anti-Semitic clichés on Jewish outward appearance were so stereotyped, the usual litigant did not show features clearly indicating his Jewish descent in the eyes of the expert witnesses, so they often delivered in their medical evidences ambiguous results. Fifth the judges then tended to believe the (grand)mothers, alternative fathers, doubted fathers and other witnesses, who paid such a high price publicly humbling themselves, and not recorded for earlier perjuring, and declared the prior paternity annulled, ensuing the status improvement for the litigant.
The extent of assimilation of Jews and Gentiles of Jewish descent into their Gentile (and Christian) surroundings was a factor much more complicated than the Nazis anticipated; widespread corruption and lack of any ethical moorings among many Nazi leaders frequently gave way to bribery, extortion, and other subterfuges over documentation of who was or was not a Jew.
.
Regarding ancestry, Orthodox
and Conservative Judaism
consider the offspring of a Jewish mother to be Jewish (matrilineal descent): the ancestry of the father is irrelevant. In the postwar era, Reform Judaism
adopted the innovation of patrilineal, or bilineal descent: a person with a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother may also be considered Jewish if (s)he identifies as such.
Karaite Judaism
, including only the Tanakh
/Pentateuch in its canon, traces Jewishness exclusively through the father's line, (patrilineal descent).
Regarding conversion, the various streams of Judaism apply different levels of stringency with respect to the prospective convert's level of observance and commitment, but all agree that the ancestry of the convert is irrelevant. People of all parentage and backgrounds have joined and continue to join the Jewish religion.
The modern State of Israel
allows anyone who does not practise a religion other than Judaism to settle in Israel as a beneficiary of the Law of Return
, provided that the person has one Jewish grandparent, a Jewish spouse, or that the person is a valid convert to Judaism.
Finally, a person of Jewish ancestry who converted to another religion is still considered Jewish in Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, whereas Reform Judaism
and the State of Israel consider such people not to be Jewish.
According to historian and Israeli Army and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Bryan Mark Rigg
, up to 160,000 one-quarter, one-half, and even full Jewish men served in the German armed forces during World War II
, including several generals and at least one field marshal, Erhard Milch
.
.
In January 1937 the Nazi government forbade that organisation, allowing a new successor organisation named 1937 Association of Provisional Reich Citizens of not purely German-blooded Descent . This name cited the insecure legal status of Mischlinge, who had been assigned the revocable status of preliminary Reich's citizens by the Nuremberg Laws, while Jewish-classified Germans had become second-class state citizens (Staatsbürger) by these laws. The 1937 Association was prohibited to accept state citizens as members – like Spiero – with three or four grandparents, who had been enrolled with a Jewish congregation. Thus that new association had lost its most prominent leaders and faded, having become an organisation solely for Mischlinge. The 1937 Association was compulsorily dissolved in 1939.
Pastor Heinrich Grüber and some enthusiasts started a new effort in 1936 to found an organisation to help Protestants of Jewish descent (Mischlinge and their (grand)parents, of whom at least one was classified as non-Aryan), completely neglected by the then official Protestant church bodies in Germany (see The Forsaken Children of the Church – Protestants of Jewish Descent).
After the war some Mischlinge founded the still-existing Notgemeinschaft der durch die Nürnberger Gesetze Betroffenen (Emergency association of the aggrieved by the Nuremberg Laws).
Mischlinge, those of first degree more than those of second degree, had restricted access to higher school and university education and were generally forbidden to attend higher schools and universities in 1942. As to vocation most jobs connected with one's work in the public, such as journalism, teaching, performing arts, government positions, politics etc. were blocked for Mischlinge, however, with exceptions for some prominent persons and those, who gained the needed German blood certificates.
.
and Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia, this was not the case in Eastern Europe
. Persons, who would have been classified as Mischlinge in the West, were simply classified as Jews in German-annexed Poland
(Danzig-West Prussia, Warthegau, etc.), German-occupied Poland (General Government
), German-occupied parts of the Soviet Union
and the German-occupied Soviet-annexed Baltic
states and eastern Poland.
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
ancestry. The word has essentially the same origin as mestee in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and métis
Métis
A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...
in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. In German, the word has the general meaning of hybrid, mongrel, or half-breed
Half-breed
Half-breed is an historic term used to describe anyone who is mixed Native American and white European parentage...
.
Nuremberg laws
As defined by the Nuremberg lawsNuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic 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 antisemitism...
in 1935, a Jew ( in Nazi terminology) was a person - regardless of religious affiliation or self-identification - who had at least three Jewish grandparents, who had been enrolled with a Jewish congregation. A person with one or two Jewish grandparents was also legally "Jewish" (so-called Geltungsjude
Geltungsjude
Geltungsjude was the term for persons that were considered Jews by the first supplementary decree to the Nuremberg Laws from November 14, 1935. The term wasn't used officially, but was coined because the persons were considered Jews rather than exactly belonging to any of the categories of the...
, about in Jew by legal validity) if they met any of these conditions:
- Were enrolled as member of a Jewish congregation when the Nuremberg Laws were issued, or joined later
- Were married to a Jew
- Were the issue from a marriage with a Jew, which was concluded after the ban on mixed marriages
- Were the issue of an extramarital relationship with a Jew, born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936.
People who did not belong to these categorical conditions but had two Jewish grandparents were classified Mischling of the first degree. Someone with only one Jewish grandparent was Mischling of the second degree. See Mischling Test
Mischling Test
Mischling Test refers to the legal test under Nazi Germany's Nuremberg Laws that was applied to determine whether a person was considered a "Jew" or a "Mischling".-Background:...
.
Jewish identity
Soon after passage of the Enabling Act of 1933, the Nazi government promulgated several antisemitic statutes, including the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil ServiceLaw for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service , also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-establish the Civil Service, was a law passed by the National Socialist regime on April 7, 1933, two months after Adolf...
on 7 April 1933. Using this law, the regime aimed to dismiss – along with all politically suspect persons (such as social democrats, socialists, communists and many liberals of all religions) – all "non-Aryans" from all government positions in society, including public educators and those practicing medicine in state hospitals.
As a result, the term "non-Aryan" had to be defined in a way compatible with Nazi ideology. Four days after the passing of this act, under the so-called "First Racial Definition" supplementary decree of 11 April, that was issued to clarify portions of the 7 April law, a "non-Aryan" (i.e. a Jew) was defined as one who had at least one Jewish parent or grandparent.
According to the philosophy of Nazi antisemitism, Jewry was considered as being a group of people bound by close, so-called genetic (blood) ties who formed an ethnic unit
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
which one could neither join nor secede from. Early 20th century books on Nordicism such as Madison Grant
Madison Grant
Madison Grant was an American lawyer, historian and physical anthropologist, known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist...
's The Passing of the Great Race
The Passing of the Great Race
The Passing of The Great Race; or, The racial basis of European history was an influential book of scientific racism written by the American eugenicist, lawyer, and amateur anthropologist Madison Grant in 1916. The book was largely ignored when it first appeared but went through several revisions...
, had a profound effect on Hitler's antisemitism. Hitler was convinced that the Nordic Race/Culture constitutes a superior branch of Humanity, and viewed International Jewry as a parasitic and inferior race, that was determined to corrupt and exterminate the Nordic peoples and their culture through Racial Pollution
Rassenschande
Rassenschande or Blutschande was the Nazi term for sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans, which was punishable by law...
and Cultural Corruption. Another important factor in Nazi antisemitism was the growing presence of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
/Bolshevism in Europe, but particularly in Germany. Hitler declared that Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
was constructed by International Jewry, with the aim of Bolshevising the earth, which would then allow Jewry to dominate/exterminate the Aryan race. With this in mind, Hitler viewed Russia as a nation of Untermenschen, who were dominated by their Judaic masters, and which posed the gravest threat to Germany and the whole of Europe.
The Nazis defined Jewishness in part genetically, but did not use formal genetic tests or physiognomic features to determine one's status (although the Nazis talked a lot about physiognomy as a racial characteristic). In practice records on the religious affiliation(s) of one's grandparents were often the deciding factor (mostly christening records and membership registers of Jewish congregations).
However, while the grandparents had been able to choose their religion, their grandchildren in the Nazi era were compulsorily classified as Jews and thus non-Aryans if at least three grandparents had been enrolled as members of a Jewish congregation (regardless if the persecuted themselves were Jews). According to Jewish Halachah [that one is Jewish by birth from a Jewish mother or by conversion], apostates, irreligionists or Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s). Thus Jews who had converted to Christianity could be regarded as especially deceitful and subversive, while Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
s who had converted to Judaism were perceived as traitors to the "Aryan race" and were among the first to be persecuted and killed.
Standards of the SS
The SS used a more stringent standard: In order to join, a candidate had to prove (presumably, through baptismBaptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
al records) that all direct ancestors born since 1750 were not Jewish, or they could apply for a German Blood Certificate
German Blood Certificate
A German Blood Certificate was a document provided by Hitler to Mischlinge , declaring them deutschblütig . This practice was begun sometime after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and allowed exemption from most of Germany's racial laws...
.
Mischlinge often Protestant
In the 19th century many Jewish Germans converted to ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, most of them becoming Protestants rather than Roman Catholics. Two thirds of the German population were Protestant. Protestants comprised a plurality in the nation as a whole until 1938, when the Anschluß annexation of Austria to Germany added 6 million Roman Catholics. The addition of 3.25 million Catholic Czechoslovaks of German ethnicity (Sudeten
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
Germans) increased the percentage of Roman Catholics in Greater Germany to 41% (approximately 32.5 million vs. 45.5 million Protestants or 57%) in a 1939 population estimated at 79 millions. One percent of the population was Jewish.
Converts from Judaism usually adopted that Christian denomination dominant in the area of Germany where they used to lived. Therefore about 80% of the Gentile Germans persecuted as Jews according to the Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic 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 antisemitism...
were affiliated with one of the 28 regionally delineated Protestants church bodies. In 1933 approximately 77% of German Gentiles with Jewish ancestry were Protestant, the percentage dropped to 66% in the 1939 census, after the annexations of 1938 (due in particular to the acquisition of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, with their relatively large and well-established Catholic populations of Jewish descent). Converts to Christianity and their descendants had often married Christians with no recent Jewish ancestry.
As a result – by the time the Nazis came to power – many Protestants and Roman Catholics in Germany had some traceable Jewish ancestry (usually traced back by the Nazi authorities for two generations), so that a majority of 1st- or 2nd-degree Mischlinge was Protestant, many Catholics. A considerable number of German Gentiles with Jewish ancestry were irreligionists.
Lutherans with Jewish ancestry were largely in northwestern and Northern Germany
Northern Germany
- Geography :The key terrain features of North Germany are the marshes along the coastline of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and the geest and heaths inland. Also prominent are the low hills of the Baltic Uplands, the ground moraines, end moraines, sandur, glacial valleys, bogs, and Luch...
, Evangelical
Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)
The Prussian Union was the merger of the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church in Prussia, by a series of decrees – among them the Unionsurkunde – by King Frederick William III...
Protestants of Jewish descent in Middle Germany
Middle Germany
Central Germany is an economic and cultural region in Germany. Its exact borders depend on context, but it is often defined as being a region within the federal states of Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, or a smaller part of this region .The name dates from the German Empire, when the region...
(Berlin and its southwestern environs) and the country's east. Catholics with Jewish ancestry lived mostly in Western
Western Germany
The geographic term Western Germany is used to describe a region in the west of Germany. The exact area defined by the term is not constant, but it usually includes, but does not have the borders of, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse...
and Southern Germany
Southern Germany
The term Southern Germany is used to describe a region in the south of Germany. There is no specific boundary to the region, but it usually includes all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and the southern part of Hesse...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and what is now the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
.
Reclassification procedure
Requests for reclassification (e.g., Jew as Mischling of 1st degree, 1st degree as 2nd degree) or Aryanization (see German Blood CertificateGerman Blood Certificate
A German Blood Certificate was a document provided by Hitler to Mischlinge , declaring them deutschblütig . This practice was begun sometime after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and allowed exemption from most of Germany's racial laws...
) were personally reviewed by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. Apparently, he considered the issue important enough to him that he found time to review a few thousand such files. A reclassification approved by the Nazi party chancery and Hitler was considered an act of mercy (Gnadenakt). Further de facto reclassifications, however, missing any official document, were privileges accorded certain artists and other experts by way of special protection by high-ranking Nazis.
A second way of reclassification was by way of declaratory action in court. Usually the discriminated person took the action, doubting his genetical descent from the Jewish-classified man until then regarded the biological (grand)father. Paternity suits aiming for reclassification appeared mostly with deceased, divorced or illegitimate (grand)fathers. They usually aimed at improving the discriminated and persecuted litigant's status from Jewish-classified to Mischling of first degree, or Mischling of first degree to second degree. The numbers of such suits soared when the Nazi government imposed new discriminations and persecutions (Nuremberg Laws 1935, November Pogrom 1938, and systematic deportations of Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent to concentration camps, 1941).
The procedures, most humbling for the (grand)mothers, who had to declare in court they had committed adultery, more often ended with the wished success, than the other way around. Success resulted from several reasons. First, some lawyers specialised in such procedures and prepared them professionally, also refusing hopeless cases. There was no danger in the procedures, because in case of failure, this did not downgrade the classification of the litigant. Second, usually all the family members - including the sometimes still living doubted (grand)father - co-operated. Usually very likely alternative fathers were named, who either appeared themselves in court confirming their most likely fatherhood or who were already dead, but known as good friends, neighbours or subtenants of the (grand)mother. Fourth, the included obligatory, and most humbling body examinations of doubted father and child especially searched for allegedly racial features of outward appearance as conceived among anti-Semites to be typically Jewish, besides the blood typing test etc. already usual in earlier regular paternity suits.
Especially when the doubted (grand)father was already dead, emigrated or deported (as after 1941), the examination concentrated on these supposedly abnormous outward features considered Jewish, to be found in the physiognomy of the descendant (child). Since the anti-Semitic clichés on Jewish outward appearance were so stereotyped, the usual litigant did not show features clearly indicating his Jewish descent in the eyes of the expert witnesses, so they often delivered in their medical evidences ambiguous results. Fifth the judges then tended to believe the (grand)mothers, alternative fathers, doubted fathers and other witnesses, who paid such a high price publicly humbling themselves, and not recorded for earlier perjuring, and declared the prior paternity annulled, ensuing the status improvement for the litigant.
The extent of assimilation of Jews and Gentiles of Jewish descent into their Gentile (and Christian) surroundings was a factor much more complicated than the Nazis anticipated; widespread corruption and lack of any ethical moorings among many Nazi leaders frequently gave way to bribery, extortion, and other subterfuges over documentation of who was or was not a Jew.
Comparison with Jewish law
All streams in Judaism agree that there are two routes to Jewishness: ancestry and conversionConversion to Judaism
Conversion to Judaism is a formal act undertaken by a non-Jewish person who wishes to be recognised as a full member of the Jewish community. A Jewish conversion is both a religious act and an expression of association with the Jewish people...
.
Regarding ancestry, Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
and Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
consider the offspring of a Jewish mother to be Jewish (matrilineal descent): the ancestry of the father is irrelevant. In the postwar era, Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
adopted the innovation of patrilineal, or bilineal descent: a person with a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother may also be considered Jewish if (s)he identifies as such.
Karaite Judaism
Karaite Judaism
Karaite Judaism or Karaism is a Jewish movement characterized by the recognition of the Tanakh alone as its supreme legal authority in Halakhah, as well as in theology...
, including only the Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
/Pentateuch in its canon, traces Jewishness exclusively through the father's line, (patrilineal descent).
Regarding conversion, the various streams of Judaism apply different levels of stringency with respect to the prospective convert's level of observance and commitment, but all agree that the ancestry of the convert is irrelevant. People of all parentage and backgrounds have joined and continue to join the Jewish religion.
The modern State of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
allows anyone who does not practise a religion other than Judaism to settle in Israel as a beneficiary of the Law of Return
Law of Return
The Law of Return is Israeli legislation, passed on 5 July 1950, that gives Jews the right of return and settlement in Israel and gain citizenship...
, provided that the person has one Jewish grandparent, a Jewish spouse, or that the person is a valid convert to Judaism.
Finally, a person of Jewish ancestry who converted to another religion is still considered Jewish in Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, whereas Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
and the State of Israel consider such people not to be Jewish.
Numbers of people considered Mischlinge
According to the 1939 Reich census, there were about 72,000 Mischlinge of the 1st degree, some 39,000 of the 2nd degree, and probably tens of thousands more of higher degrees, which, however, were not recorded.According to historian and Israeli Army and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Bryan Mark Rigg
Bryan Mark Rigg
Bryan Mark Rigg born 1971, is an American author and speaker who received his PhD from Cambridge University. He is based at Southern Methodist University in Dallas....
, up to 160,000 one-quarter, one-half, and even full Jewish men served in the German armed forces during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, including several generals and at least one field marshal, Erhard Milch
Erhard Milch
Erhard Milch was a German Field Marshal who oversaw the development of the Luftwaffe as part of the re-armament of Germany following World War I, and served as founding Director of Deutsche Luft Hansa...
.
Organisations of Mischlinge
On 20 July 1933 - initiated by the actor Gustav Friedrich - Christian Germans of Jewish descent founded a self-help organisation, first named Reich Federation of Christian German Citizens of non-Aryan or not purely Aryan descent . The federation first counted only 4,500 members. In October 1934 the name was shortened to Reich association of non-Aryan Christians . In 1935 the members of the federation elected the known literary historian Heinrich Spiero their new president and under his auspices the federation's journal was improved and the number of members rose to 80,000 by 1936. In September 1936 the federation renamed into the more confident St Paul's Covenant Union of non-Aryan Christians after the famous Jewish convert to Christianity Paul of Tarsus (Sha'ul)Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
.
In January 1937 the Nazi government forbade that organisation, allowing a new successor organisation named 1937 Association of Provisional Reich Citizens of not purely German-blooded Descent . This name cited the insecure legal status of Mischlinge, who had been assigned the revocable status of preliminary Reich's citizens by the Nuremberg Laws, while Jewish-classified Germans had become second-class state citizens (Staatsbürger) by these laws. The 1937 Association was prohibited to accept state citizens as members – like Spiero – with three or four grandparents, who had been enrolled with a Jewish congregation. Thus that new association had lost its most prominent leaders and faded, having become an organisation solely for Mischlinge. The 1937 Association was compulsorily dissolved in 1939.
Pastor Heinrich Grüber and some enthusiasts started a new effort in 1936 to found an organisation to help Protestants of Jewish descent (Mischlinge and their (grand)parents, of whom at least one was classified as non-Aryan), completely neglected by the then official Protestant church bodies in Germany (see The Forsaken Children of the Church – Protestants of Jewish Descent).
After the war some Mischlinge founded the still-existing Notgemeinschaft der durch die Nürnberger Gesetze Betroffenen (Emergency association of the aggrieved by the Nuremberg Laws).
Prominent Mischlinge
Some examples of Mischlinge:- Commander Paul AscherPaul AscherPaul Ascher was the artillery officer aboard the Panzerschiff Admiral Graf Spee during her cruise in the South Atlantic. He was later interned in Argentina in December 1939 after the scuttling of the ship, but escaped back to Germany.Paul Ascher was Fregattenkapitän aboard the Bismarck at the time...
, 1st degree Mischling receiving the German Blood CertificateGerman Blood CertificateA German Blood Certificate was a document provided by Hitler to Mischlinge , declaring them deutschblütig . This practice was begun sometime after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and allowed exemption from most of Germany's racial laws...
. - Ice hockey player and participant of the 1936 Olympic Games1936 Winter OlympicsThe 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. Germany also hosted the Summer Olympics the same year in Berlin...
Rudi BallRudi BallRudi Victor Ball was a champion ice hockey player.Ball was born in Berlin, Germany and died in Johannesburg, South Africa....
, 1st degree Mischling - Erich Collin, second tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
of the Comedian HarmonistsComedian HarmonistsThe Comedian Harmonists were an internationally famous, all-male German close harmony ensemble that performed between 1928 and 1934 as one of the most successful musical groups in Europe before World War II...
, emigrated to the US in 1935, 1st-degree Mischling - Muriel GardinerMuriel GardinerMuriel Morris Gardiner Buttinger was an American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist.-Early Life and career:...
, psychoanalyst and psychiatristPsychiatristA psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, anti-Fascist activist, emigrated in autumn 1939 to the US, 1st-degree Mischling - Iron Cross-awarded soldier Horst Geitner, 1st degree Mischling
- future German writer and journalist Ralph GiordanoRalph Giordano (writer)Ralph Giordano is a German writer and publicist.Giordano was born to a Sicilian father and a Jewish mother....
, 1st-degree Mischling - Wehrmacht soldier and Nazi model Werner GoldbergWerner GoldbergWerner Goldberg was a German of partial Jewish ancestry, or Mischling in Nazi terminology, who served briefly as a soldier during World War II and whose image appeared in a German newspaper as "The Ideal German Soldier".-Biography:His father himself had grown up in Königsberg as a member of the...
, 1st-degree Mischling - Hans von HerwarthHans von HerwarthHans Heinrich Herwarth von Bittenfeld , also known as Johnnie or Johann von Herwarth, was a German diplomat who provided the Allies with information prior to and during the Second World War....
, German diplomatDiplomatA diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, providing the Allies with information prior to and during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, 2nd degree Mischling, later ranged with full Aryans - Rainer HildebrandtRainer HildebrandtRainer Hildebrandt was a German anti-communist resistance fighter, historian and founder of the legendary Checkpoint Charlie Museum. He was involved in the resistance to the communist regime of the Soviet occupation zone since the 1940s, as a member of the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit...
, anti-communist resistance fighter, historian and founder of the Checkpoint Charlie MuseumCheckpoint Charlie MuseumThe Checkpoint Charlie Museum is a museum in Berlin. It is named after the famous crossing point on the Berlin Wall, and was created to document the so-called "best border security system in the world"...
, 1st degree Mischling - Colonel Walter H. Hollaender, 1st degree Mischling receiving the German Blood CertificateGerman Blood CertificateA German Blood Certificate was a document provided by Hitler to Mischlinge , declaring them deutschblütig . This practice was begun sometime after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and allowed exemption from most of Germany's racial laws...
. - German sculptor Ingeborg HunzingerIngeborg HunzingerIngeborg Hunzinger was a German sculptor.Hunzinger was born Ingeborg Franck to a Jewish mother. In 1932 Ingeborg joined the Communist Party. She began her studies in arts in 1935 and was master pupil of Ludwig Kasper in 1938/39. In 1939 the Nazis prevented her from studying further and she...
, 1st degree Mischling - Helene JacobsHelene JacobsHelene Jacobs was a member of the Confessing Church and of the German Resistance against National Socialism.- Life :...
, member of the Confessing ChurchConfessing ChurchThe Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...
and of the German ResistanceGerman ResistanceThe German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
against National Socialism, 1st degree Mischling - Elisabeth LanggässerElisabeth LanggässerElisabeth Langgässer was a German author and teacher. She is known for lyrical poetry and novels...
, author and teacher, 1st degree Mischling - world champion Olympic fencer and participant of the 1936 Olympic Games Helene MayerHelene MayerHelene Mayer was a world champion Olympic fencer who competed for Nazi Germany in the 1936 Summer Olympics, despite having been forced to leave Germany and resettle in the United States because she was of Jewish family background.She was Jewish, and was born in Offenbach am Main.-Fencing...
, 1st degree Mischling - Harry MeyenHarry MeyenHarry Meyen was a German film actor. He appeared in over 40 films and television productions between 1948 and 1975. In the 1960s he worked as a successful theatre director in West Germany....
, future GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
film actor, 1st degree Mischling - German actress and future TV performer Inge MeyselInge MeyselInge Meysel was a German actress. From the early 1960s until her death, Meysel was one of Germany's most popular actresses...
, 1st degree Mischling - LuftwaffeLuftwaffeLuftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
Field Marshall Erhard MilchErhard MilchErhard Milch was a German Field Marshal who oversaw the development of the Luftwaffe as part of the re-armament of Germany following World War I, and served as founding Director of Deutsche Luft Hansa...
(Jewish father and Gentile mother, 1st degree Mischling) reclassified as Aryan by Adolf Hitler. - HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
's future first post-war First Burgomaster (i.e. simultaneous mayor and governor of the city state) Rudolf PetersenRudolf PetersenRudolf Hieronymus Petersen was a German businessman, politician and First Mayor of Hamburg ....
, 1st degree Mischling - Kriegsmarine captain Bernhard RoggeBernhard RoggeBernhard Rogge was a Captain of the German Navy who, during World War II, commanded a merchant raider....
, 2nd degree Mischling - then Wehrmacht soldier and future German federal chancellor Helmut SchmidtHelmut SchmidtHelmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt is a German Social Democratic politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Prior to becoming chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting...
, would-be 2nd degree Mischling - Jona von UstinovJona von UstinovJona Baron von Ustinov was a German journalist and diplomat who worked for MI5 during the time of the Nazi regime...
, German diplomat in London and British MI5 agent, would-be 2nd degree Mischling - Otto Heinrich WarburgOtto Heinrich WarburgOtto Heinrich Warburg , son of physicist Emil Warburg, was a German physiologist, medical doctor and Nobel laureate. He served as an officer in the elite Uhlan during the First World War and won the Iron Cross for bravery. Warburg was one of the twentieth century's leading biochemists...
, physiologist, medical doctor and Nobel laureate, leading biochemistsBiochemistryBiochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
, 1st-degree Mischling - Luftwaffe general Helmut Wilberg, 1st degree Mischling and declared Aryan in 1935 by Hitler.
- General and 1st degree Mischling Arty Johannes Zukertort, who received the German Blood CertificateGerman Blood CertificateA German Blood Certificate was a document provided by Hitler to Mischlinge , declaring them deutschblütig . This practice was begun sometime after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and allowed exemption from most of Germany's racial laws...
; brother of General Karl Zukertort. - General and 1st degree Mischling Karl Zukertort, who received the German Blood CertificateGerman Blood CertificateA German Blood Certificate was a document provided by Hitler to Mischlinge , declaring them deutschblütig . This practice was begun sometime after the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and allowed exemption from most of Germany's racial laws...
; brother of General Arty Johannes Zukertort.
Discrimination in education, vocation and marriage
Persons discriminated as Mischlinge were generally restricted whom to marry or to chose as partner. Mischlinge of first degree generally needed a permission to marry. Usually only other Mischlinge were allowed to become their spouses or Jewish-classified persons, however, this would make the Mischling recategorised as Geltungsjude. After 1942 marriage permissions were generally not granted any more - arguably due to the war - until further notice. Mischlinge of second degree could marry a spouse classified as Aryan without permission required. Any marriage with other Mischlinge of which degree ever was unwelcome, arguing not to increase or maintain the percentage of Jewish ancestry the eventual children would have.Mischlinge, those of first degree more than those of second degree, had restricted access to higher school and university education and were generally forbidden to attend higher schools and universities in 1942. As to vocation most jobs connected with one's work in the public, such as journalism, teaching, performing arts, government positions, politics etc. were blocked for Mischlinge, however, with exceptions for some prominent persons and those, who gained the needed German blood certificates.
Recruitment into the Organisation Todt
Beginning autumn of 1944, between 10,000 to 20,000 half-Jews (Mischlinge) and persons related to Jews by a so-called mixed marriage were recruited into special units of the Organisation TodtOrganisation Todt
The Todt Organisation, was a Third Reich civil and military engineering group in Germany named after its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi figure...
.
Mischlinge in German-occupied Europe
While the classifications of Mischling also applied in occupied Western and Central Europe, well documented for the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia, this was not the case in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. Persons, who would have been classified as Mischlinge in the West, were simply classified as Jews in German-annexed Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(Danzig-West Prussia, Warthegau, etc.), German-occupied Poland (General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
), German-occupied parts of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the German-occupied Soviet-annexed Baltic
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
states and eastern Poland.
See also
- Mischling TestMischling TestMischling Test refers to the legal test under Nazi Germany's Nuremberg Laws that was applied to determine whether a person was considered a "Jew" or a "Mischling".-Background:...
- Who is a Jew?Who is a Jew?"Who is a Jew?" is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question is based in ideas about Jewish personhood which themselves have cultural, religious, genealogical, and personal dimensions...
- Rhineland BastardRhineland BastardRhineland Bastard was a derogatory term used in Nazi Germany to describe Afro-German children of mixed German and African parentage who were fathered by Africans serving as French colonial troops occupying the Rhineland after World War I...
- Nazi eugenicsNazi eugenicsNazi eugenics were Nazi Germany's racially-based social policies that placed the improvement of the Aryan race through eugenics at the center of their concerns...
- Nazi Nuremberg Laws
- Rosenstrasse protestRosenstrasse protestThe Rosenstrasse protest was a nonviolent protest in Rosenstraße in Berlin in February and March 1943, carried out by the non-Jewish wives and relatives of Jewish men who had been arrested for deportation. The protests escalated until the men were released...