During Yom ha-Shoah, a documentary was broadcast with the misleading title (thought up by whatever yellow journaljismer) "Hitler's 150,000 Jewish soldiers". The documentary itself was fairly historical, except for, as noted, the title. Needless to say, such sensationalism not only makes people watch, but is grist on the mill of Israel's enemies, as can be seen in the talkbacks to this article. Here are my own comments:
The 1939 census of the Third Reich found 70,000 "first-degree Mischlinge" [two Jewish grandparents, not married to Jews and not members of the Jewish religion], 40,000 "second-degree Mischlinge" [one Jewish grandparent], and tens of thousands of Mischlinge of higher orders.Jews according to the Nazi (y"sh) definition (three or more Jewish grandparents, or two and married to a Jew, or two and members of the Jewish religious community) could NOT serve and did NOT serve [in the Wehrmacht].
[The SS had a more stringent standard: candidates had to furnish proof of Aryan ancestry going back to 1750. Many made a living in Nazi Germany as "Ahnenforscher" (genealogy researchers) who furnished such documentation.]
The misleading title "Hitler's Jewish soldiers" refers to Mischlinge of the 1st and 2nd degrees, who were at various times eligible for drafting into the Wehrmacht but could not become officers. (Mischlinge were half-citizens in a kind of legal limbo: their status was to be clarified after the war. Thank G-d the Nazis lost it.) As the total number of Mischlinge of all degrees was about 150,000 --- and only a small section of them was of military age --- every single word in the "150,000 Jewish soldiers" is wrong: there weren't 150,000, and most of those were not Jewish by any relevant standard (no Jewish mother, not members of the Jewish religion, not identifying with Jewish culture,...) In addition, many of those drafted were recalled in early 1940 and never saw frontline action.
Those seeking a more "Aryan" classification could apply for a change in status (from Jew to 1st degree, from 1st to 2nd, from 2nd to Aryan,...) Such application were PERSONALLY reviewed by Hitler (y"sh) himself, and a couple thousand people obtained status changes or "Aryanization" certificates. For instance, a high Luftwaffe officer (Erhard Milch, also the 1st CEO of Lufthansa) with a Jewish legal father was "Aryanized" after (dubiously, but with the support of Goering y"sh) claiming that his biological father was his mother's Aryan lover.
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