Werner Goldberg was a German

Germany

Germany , 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...

 of partial Jewish ancestry, or Mischling

Mischling

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 Nazi terminology, who served briefly as a soldier 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...

 and whose image appeared in a German newspaper as "The Ideal German Soldier".

Biography

His father himself had grown up in Königsberg

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

 as a member of the Jewish community but had himself baptized in the local Lutheran church as he wished to become assimilated and had married a 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...

. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Mr. Goldberg lost his position under the Nazi law of April 1933, Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service

Law 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...

, which expelled Jews from the German Civil Service.

Werner left school in 1935 and became an apprentice at Schneller und Schmeider, a clothing company jointly owned by a Jew and a non-Jew, where many of his colleagues were Jews or mischlinge. Werner's uncle on his mother's side was an opportunist who joined the Nazi party and refused to be seen with the Goldberg family, even avoiding Werner's mother.

At the beginning of 1938 Werner served a six month term in the Reich Labour Service whose uniform, as Werner later recalled, "had a swastika on an armband". On December 1 1938 Werner joined the German Army

German Army

The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...

. He took part in the invasion of Poland on September 1 1939, serving alongside childhood friend Karl Wolf whose father was now a high-ranking SS officer.

Shortly after the beginning of the War, Werner's photograph appeared in the Sunday edition of the Berliner Tageblatt

Berliner Tageblatt

The Berliner Tageblatt or BT was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872-1939. Along with the Frankfurter Zeitung, it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time.-History:...

newspaper with the caption "The Ideal German Soldier"; the photograph had been sold to the newspaper by the official army photographer. It was later used on recruitment posters.

In 1940 following the Armistice with France

Armistice with France (Second Compiègne)

The Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed at 18:50 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne, in the department of Oise, between Nazi Germany and France...

, Werner was expelled from the army under Hitler's order of April 8 1940 which stated that all Mischlinge were to be expelled from the military. He returned to his former workplace which had now changed its name to the Feodor Schmeider Company, having been obliged to remove the Jewish name Schneller. Werner played an increasingly more responsible role within the company, obtaining contracts for uniforms from the army and the navy. He also attended the Reich Board of Labour Studies School (Reichsaussschuss für Arbeitsstudie) where he was one of 4 out of 80 students who passed the test to become a REFA teacher. He then became a Labour Studies Board lecturer on the clothing business, and delivered lectures to organizations and company directors, even publishing an article in the weekly trade publication Textilwoche.

In December 1942, Werner's father was admitted to the Bavaria Hospital. The Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

 however raided the hospital and sent him to a Jewish hospital which had been requisitioned by the Gestapo for use as prison, with Jews being taken from and sent to Auschwitz. On Christmas Eve, gambling that the guards would be drunk or absent, Werner took his father from the hospital. Mr. Goldberg was soon back in the hands of the Gestapo and in April 1943 was summoned for deportation, but Werner told him not to show up and he was again saved. He became the only member of Werner's family to survive the War.

Werner Goldberg's story formed part of the 2006 documentary Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, a 58 minute film produced by Larry Price in association with the Israel Broadcasting Authority

Israel Broadcasting Authority

Israel Broadcasting Authority is Israel's state broadcasting network.It grew out of the radio station Kol Yisrael, which made its first broadcast as an independent station on . The name of the organisation operating Kol Yisrael was changed to Israel Broadcasting Service in 1951...

.

Werner Goldberg featured in an episode of the Yesterday TV series "Nazi Collaborators", first screened in the UK in December 2010.

Werner Goldberg died in Berlin on September 28, 2004; he was survived by his wife Gertrud Goldberg, and three children.