Historian: 150 thousand Jews served in the Nazi army

"They served in the German army but lost family members in Auschwitz," says the researcher. A soldier named Goldberg even appeared on a Nazi propaganda poster

concentration of sources

"At least 150 thousand Jewish fighters or of Jewish origin served in the German army in World War II" - so says Professor Brian Mark Rigg, American historian and author of the book "Jews in Hitler's Army".

"Not everyone who wore a Nazi army uniform was a Nazi, and not everyone who was of Jewish origin was persecuted by the Nazis," Rigg said. "They served in the German army but lost family members in Auschwitz."

Historians have previously investigated the service in the Wehrmacht of soldiers of Jewish origin, known as "Mischling" (mixed). However, Rigg's research points to the large scope of the phenomenon.
Rig told "Maariv": "According to the data I collected, 60 soldiers had a Jewish parent, and 90 had a Jewish grandparent.

"There was even a case of a soldier named Goldberg, who, because of his 'Aryan' appearance, blond with blue eyes, got to appear on Nazi propaganda posters."

According to the racial laws passed in Germany in 1935, anyone defined as Jewish or of Jewish origin was prohibited from serving in the army. Despite this, soldiers of Jewish origin fought for Nazi Germany throughout the war. "They believed that serving in the army would save their loved ones from destruction," said the researcher.

Rig also discovered that there were senior officers of Jewish origin who received a certificate indicating that they were Armenian. "I found certificates attesting to such a permit that was personally granted by Hitler," he said.

Rigg, a 32-year-old lecturer at the Virginia Military Academy, began researching the phenomenon as a young student, when he met a veteran soldier of Jewish origin in Germany.

"He described the schizophrenic and impossible situation in which he lived," said Rigg. "I went through hundreds of such survivors and discovered that no one wanted to talk to them about what they went through during the war."
Gad Shimron, Maariv

Holocaust / Research: 150 thousand German army soldiers were half Jewish

Haaretz, 31/10/03

Berlin (Reuters). 150 of the German army in World War II were half-Jewish, and some even served with the consent of Hitler himself, according to a study by an American historian published yesterday.
The study relies on hundreds of interviews with former soldiers. Brian Mark Rigg, a professor of history at the US Military University in Virginia, said that historians have rarely studied the subject and it was taboo until recently. "Not everyone who wore a Nazi uniform was a Nazi, and not everyone who was of Jewish origin was murdered," Rigg said. "Then where do they belong? They served in the Nazi army, and lost their mother in Auschwitz."

According to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, those with Jewish blood in their veins were barred from serving in the army, but Rigg located and interviewed more than 400 half-Jews, called by the Nazis "Mischling" - that is, half-half, who served as soldiers in the Wehrmacht. which was the regular army of Germany, as opposed to the SS, which was the Nazi army. According to the study, about 60 soldiers served in the Wehrmacht, one of whose parents was Jewish, and 90 who were grandchildren of Jews. Rigg explained that "they thought to themselves: 'If I'm a good soldier, they won't hurt me or my family.'" However, when they returned at the beginning of the war from the battle for Poland and discovered that the persecution of the Jews in Germany only got worse, many of them began to complain, which precipitated Hitler's decision in 1940 to release them from military service.

However, many of the half-Jewish soldiers continued to serve, either because there were delays in receiving the liberation orders, which were late in reaching the front, or because they hid their Jewishness. Many of the senior officers who were half-Jewish obtained special permits to continue their service from Hitler himself. "History is not completely black and white. The history of the 'Mischlings' proves how shaky the Nazi racial laws actually were," said Rigg.

Rigg's numbers surprised many, although the fact of the service of half-Jews in the German army was well known thanks to famous half-Jewish figures such as the former chancellor, Helmut Schmidt; and Field Marshal Erhard Milch, who was the deputy of Hermann Goering, commander of the German Air Force.

Rigg's story, "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" was called in the daily newspaper "Die Walt": "one of the most important studies on the subject of the Holocaust in recent years." Rigg visited Berlin on the occasion of the publication of the German edition of the book. "In terms of the research, the 'Mischling' suffered from the same problem that they suffered in real life - there was no one to speak for them," Rigg explained, "People were afraid that their words would be misinterpreted, as if they were saying: 'They did this to themselves.'"

Rigg, who served in the Marine Corps in the US Army and as a volunteer in the IDF, began researching the issue after he discovered in his family tree that one of his ancestors was Jewish, and after he met a Jewish man who was a soldier in the Wehrmacht. Many of the interviewees he spoke with revealed their story for the first time in their lives. In some cases, their family knew nothing about their Jewish origin. "They poured out their hearts to me, and told me everything about their schizophrenic story," Rig said.

Rig claims that most of the Jewish soldiers were not aware of the systematic murder of the Jews by the Nazis, and noted that most of the half-Jews were sent for deportation in 1944. According to him, "the majority say that they do not feel guilty for serving in the army, but for not doing enough to save the their families".