Were There Jews in the Nazi Army?

chronicle.com ^ | May 3, 2002 | DANNY POSTEL

[SSN558]

It is not crap. In the summer of 1987 I worked with two veterans of Hitlers Army. Hans and Heinrich were drafted at age 14 and 16. Heinrich had Jewish mother was married to a Jew, and praticed the Jewish faith his whole life.

These two characters were the best of friends and used to enjoy shocking everyone with their war stories and jokes about lamp shades and other things that would now be branded offensive.

They were not enthusastic supporters of the third reich and committed acts of sabotage during their service to the fatherland. According to them this was common place among German soliders in the regular army. They stole supplies, threw hand grenades down the smoke stacks of tug boats, disabled vehicles, all in good fun and trying to get out of combat.

[SauronOfMordor]

Doesn't Israel have some definition of jewishness?

"Jewishness" is matrilinial -- ie you are Jewish if your mother is Jewish. Your mother is Jewish if HER mother was Jewish, and so on. So you can be Jewish under the Israeli "Law of Return", even if you and your parents have never been practicing Jews, as long as your lineage is correct

[MinuteGal]

History of events and civilizations is composed of bits and pieces of oral and written words. It's not just the chronicles of great battles and the like, but the sum of remembrances of men and women concerning their individual lives that give a face to history.

Any roadblocks and criticisms of this young man in his quest because of the Jewish subject are disgusting.

I found this article quite fascinating. I hope Mr. Riggs does well with his book and puts the denyers and naysayers to shame.

Leni

[Edmund Burke]

Sure there were plenty of Jews who joined up, but at the time they only saw it as a way to make a buck.

[LarryLied]

Well just take the Nazi/Wannsee Conference definition for a Jew.

You can also take the definition of a Jew spelled out in Israel's right of return. Or whether these soldiers would have been eligible for reparations if they had gone to the camps instead of enlisting or being drafted in the Wehrmacht. In both cases the answer is yes, they are Jews. So if the state of Israel considers them Jews, who is to say they were not? Could be some of their kids even live in Israel after having been granted citizenship based on their heritage.

[Bohemund]

I went to college with this guy and his wife. (I knew his wife, but I can't say I ever met Rigg.) His research got a lot of play at Yale, and though he may be a bit of a publicity hound he is no anti-Semite.

[Marduk]

Interesting site with pictures:

http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/righitpix.html

According to this website there were a few Jews in the French Charlemagne SS division:

http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-33b.htm

"Charlemange consisted mainly of french volunteers (some of whom where transfered from the Horst Wessel division) but also of volunteers from Switzerland, the french colonies and a few from other counties such as Japan and Sweden. The French volunteers included a few from Indo-China (present day Vietnam), Laos and even a few Jews (!) who had served in the collaborationist forces in France. Apparently a black man from Martinique also volunteered but he was not accepted.

The division fought on the eastern front but most of it was destroyed during the soviet offensive though some parts fought in the battle of Berlin and some surrendered to the western allies."

[LarryLied]

The Wehrmacht also had nearly 2,000,000 foreign volunteers. Countries from India to Great Britain were represented:

http://www.feldgrau.com/foreign.html

[Marduk]

Indeed. Thanks for the link.

This site gives a list of foreign volunteers in the SS:

http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/military-foreign.htm

Indian volunteers in the SS and German Army:

http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-india.htm http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/heer-infanterie-reg-950.htm

Medal for the Indian volunteers:

http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/awards-azadhind.htm

Hispanic volunteers for the SS:

http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/heer-infanterie-div-250.htm http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-span-101.htm http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-span-102.htm

British volunteers in the SS in the Britisches Freikorps:

http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-uk.htm

American volunteers in the SS:

http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-usa.htm

Cossack volunteers in the German Army:

http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/heer-kossaken-kavallerie-div.htm

[jonatron]

Wrong. These were people who were not hallakally jewish, meaning they would not be able to move to israel.

Larry, judging by all of your cynical comments, you seem to have a lot of issues with jews.

Have you considered therapy?

[jonatron]

This article seems a little disingenuous, as if it's little more than a publicity promo - kinda like an infomercial.

[Marduk]

"These were people who were not hallakally jewish, meaning they would not be able to move to israel. "

Most of these were half-jews. If their mothers were Jews they would qualify as "Jews" according to Israel's law of return.

Jews also served in the Nazi police and security forces as ghetto police and concentration camp guards, which were known as Kapos.

[Aliska]

I didn't take the time to read the entire article, but I saw a foreign film about this very thing. A young Jew hid in the German Army, having a couple close calls because of his circumcision. Sure wish I could remember the name of it. If I find out the title, I'll try to post back to this thread.

[jonatron]

Most of these were half-jews. If their mothers were Jews they would qualify as "Jews" according to Israel's law of return.

Yes, that's what I said, but people with jewish mothers would be jewish to jews and raised as jews - therfore these Mischlinge people are paternally jewish, which means they could not, as Larry suggested make Aliyah. If their mothers or mothers' mothers were jewish, they would be jewish according to Halakha, and not Mischlinge.

[swarthyguy]

Yes, there are so many eddies and swirls in the river of history -- to hopelessly cliche out.....Some of the best stories come from there -- for example, Lisbon in WW2.

[Marduk]

"Yes, that's what I said, but people with jewish mothers would be jewish to jews and raised as jews - therfore these Mischlinge people are paternally jewish, which means they could not, as Larry suggested make Aliyah. "

If there were as many Jews as Rigg suggests then chances are at the very least several thousand were Jews on their mother's side. Chances are at least some were not raised as Jews and even if they were raised as Jews they could still have managed to get into Hitler's army.

[aristeides]

SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich was a doubtful Halbjude, but there is no doubt that Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch, the operational head of the Luftwaffe, really was a half-Jew (in fact, in Jewish terms, simply a Jew, as his mother was Jewish.) Speaking of field marshalls, Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein was born von Lewinski, and he seems to have descended from a grand rabbi of Warsaw.

[swarthyguy]

von Lewinski,-- You just can't make this stuff up!

[swarthyguy]

Not to mention being passed of as distant cousins or suchlike of German Christians.

[swarthyguy]

Well just goes to show how hopeless the whole idea of filtering out the 'bad' jewish blood from the 'pure' aryan blood was. BTW, had no idea about the GeneralStaff--Thanks