Bryan Mark Rigg - Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military

modern war studies

Theodore A. Wilson

General Editor

Raymond Callahan

Jacob W. Kipp

Allan R. Millett

Carol Reardon

Dennis Showalter

David R. Stone

James H. Willbanks

Series Editors

Lives of Hitlers Jewish Soldiers

Untold Tales of Men of Jewish Descent

Who Fought for the Third Reich

Bryan Mark Rigg

university press of kansas

2009 by the University Press of Kansas
All rights reserved

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs and documents are from the Bryan Mark Rigg Collection, German National Archives (Bundesarchiv).

Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66045 ), which was organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rigg, Bryan Mark, 1971

Lives of Hitler's Jewish soldiers : untold tales of men of Jewish descent who fought

for the Third Reich / Bryan Mark Rigg.

p. cm. (Modern war studies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7006-2340-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-7006-2341-9 (e-book)

1. Jewish soldiersGermanyHistory20th century. 2. World War, 19391945Participation, Jewish. 3. Children of interfaith marriageGermanyHistory20th century. 4. National socialism. 5. GermanyHistory, Military20th century.I.

Title.

DS134.255.R54 2009

940.54'04dc22 2008042553

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication is recycled and contains percent postconsumer waste. It is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials z39.481992 .

Do not judge thy comrade until thou hast stood in his place.

Hillel, the Jewish Sage

This book is dedicated to Harvard Knowles and David Weber, two incredible teachers at Phillips Exeter Academy. They inspired me to write and explore the power of language. It is also dedicated to two fellow Yale students and friends, Kee Bong Kim and Stuart White, both of whom helped me to explore military history and the men who fought during World War II. It is dedicated to my Cambridge adviser, Jonathan Steinberg, who went beyond the call of duty to help me with this study. And finally, it is dedicated to my Starpoint TCU teacher Mary Stewart, who healed my soul and taught me how to read. After I failed first grade twice, she got me back on track and has been an angel in my life.

Half Jew First Lieutenant Joachim Sonntags grave on the Russian front. This picture was taken in November 1942 by Achim von Bredow, a 37.5 percent Jew according to Nazi law.

preface

In 1942 a former German soldier entered SS headquarters in Berlin. He walked uneasily. His civilian jacket was adorned with medals he had earned in battle. An SS officer asked what he wanted. Hugo Fuchs wished to know where they had taken his Jewish father. The SS officer, upset, said, I would send you straight where your father is if you didnt have those medals! Fuchs would never see his father again. He had been killed in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

It was winter 1942 and Walter Gross ran for his life across snow-covered tundra on the eastern front in Russia. He heard the loud explosions of mortar shells and the whizzing of bullets as the enemy took aim at him. Things had gone wrong while he led a reconnaissance patrol. The enemy had killed everyone in his unit and he was desperately trying to make it back to his lines. As he reached the edge of the defensive trench, an explosion and shrapnel slammed his body against the earth. As he rolled over at the bottom of the ditch, he looked at his lacerated belly as his entrails poured out onto his legs. The warm blood soaked into his pant legs. With unbearable pain, he started to scream. One of his closest comrades, Joachim Schmidt, who had remained behind in the defensive trench, tried to shove his guts back into his body but he did so in vain. Gross and his comrade knew he was dying. Gross gave his friend a strange smile, shook his head, and said that this was a shitty war. He was dying for a country that had persecuted him and his family. He asked Schmidt to protect his Jewish mother. Schmidt promised. He knew that Gross was a Mischling . Blood continued to pour out of Gross. When his head slumped over and his body went limp, another Jewish soldier had died for the Fatherland. His mother committed suicide before her deportation to Auschwitz two months later.

Fuchs and Gross were not alone in bravely serving their country while the Nazis murdered their families. During World War II, likely thousands of Jews and tens of thousands of partial Jews ( Mischlinge ) served in the Wehrmacht. A few even held high positions in it. Here follow some of their stories.

Knocked-out Russian T-34 tank with a dead body in front of it (top) and Russian corpses on the battlefield (bottom). These pictures were taken on the Russian front in 1943 by Achim von Bredow, a 37.5 percent Jew according to Nazi law. These were the types of tanks men like quarter-Jew Horst von Oppenfeld, half-Jew Helmuth Kopp, and half-Jew Horst Geitner attacked during their time in combat.

acknowledgments

Several of the men whose stories appear in the following pagesalong with their familiesoffered support, advice, and often food and housing. Their help was critical for my research, and from the bottom of my heart, I thank them all.

Also, many historians, academics, and writers gave invaluable help. Foremost on the list is Michael Berenbaum. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to Michael Berenbaum of the University of Judaism for his constant support and willingness to help make my work strongerit is not often that one has the help of one of the foremost Holocaust historians, and I am grateful for his support.

Next, Mark Bernheim of the University of Miami in Ohio was a tremendous help. He provided invaluable advice and feedback not only for this book, but also for my first book, Hitlers Jewish Soldiers . His insights and constructive criticism have made both works better.

Many thanks go to the lawyer Peter Schliesser, himself a half-Jew under the Nazis, for his extensive editorial help. His guidance and extensive editing throughout the writing of this book have been greatly appreciated. He is a true mensch. I would also like to thank the journalist David Seeley and author Michael Skakun for their comments.

Warm thanks go to my graduate advisor at Cambridge University, Jonathan Steinberg, who encouraged the exploration of such a project back in 1996 . His years of guidance and help mean more than he knows. Author of Frontsoldaten , Stephen Fritz, and Gnther Montfort, Bundes-archiv-Militrarchiv in Freiburg, provided useful feedback on the structure and content of the book.

James Tent, an expert on the Mischlinge (see his excellent book,