Prestigious Jew

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The National Socialist term “ valid Jew” does not appear literally in the Nuremberg Laws of the National Socialist German Reich or in the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act of November 14, 1935, but it was in use and describes that part of the "half-breeds" who, in contrast to the people who were designated as Jewish half-breeds according to the ordinance , were by definition legally considered to be Jews .

definition

In the aforementioned First Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law, the group of the later so-called valid Jews is defined in Section 5 (2):

The Jewish mongrel, descended from two Jewish grandparents, is also considered a Jew ,
a) who [...] belongs to the Jewish religious community ...
b) who was married to a Jew when the law was passed [...],
c) who comes from a marriage with a Jew [...] that was concluded after [...] September 15, 1935 (note: this made it impossible to circumvent the marriage by entering into a foreign country / a different deadline was valid for Austria)
d) who came from extramarital relations with a Jew [...] and was born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936.

Each of these so defined persons was considered a Jew by the National Socialists, therefore the term “valid Jew” is to be explained. The term "valid Jew" is defined in a report from the Reich dated February 2, 1942, which reports on the effects of the obligation to label Jews with the " Jewish star ":

I. Marked:
1. Full Jews (with 4 or 3 Jewish grandparents)
2. Half-Jews, first-degree mixed race raised in the Mosaic faith , so-called validation Jews.

The legal term “Jewish mongrel” was reserved for those “half Jews” and “quarter Jews” who “did not tend towards Judaism”. This was the case when the Jewish spouse in a mixed marriage did not belong to the Jewish religious community and the legitimate children were brought up in a Christian manner. Such marriages were referred to as “privileged mixed marriages ”, the “fully Jewish” part of which was then exempt from wearing the Star of David if there were children.

In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, “first-degree half-breeds” were classified as “valid Jews” regardless of whether they belonged to a Jewish religious community if they were 14 years of age.

Consequences

According to the provisions of the Reich Citizenship Act of 1935, Jews and the “valid Jews” who were legally equivalent to them could not become citizens of the Reich and, according to this Act, also had no right to vote politically. Applicable Jews were subject to the same discriminatory provisions and sanctions as “full Jews”.

A marriage with a “quarter Jew” was forbidden to valid Jews.

Applicable Jews were mostly postponed when German Jews were deported , provided they were not married to a “full Jew”. In 1942, at the Wannsee Conference, there was a dispute about whether all valid Jews should be included in the extermination process. Wilhelm Stuckart pointed out that in the meantime more than 3000 valid Jews had been reclassified to “Jewish mixed race” upon their application. These decisions, approved by Hitler in accordance with Section 7 of the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Law, would appear completely incomprehensible if all Jews of validity were now deported as full Jews without exception. Furthermore, an Aryan parent saved the Jewish spouse as well as the children classified as valid Jews from deportation; Solitary Jews were not deported to the extermination camps, but instead brought to the " Theresienstadt Old Age Ghetto ".

Exemptions

In 1939 there were still around 330,000 people classified by the National Socialists as “Jews” based on their origins and 64,000 “Jewish first-degree mixed race”, 7,000 “recognized Jews” and 42,000 “Jewish second-degree mixed race” with only one Jewish grandparent. It is estimated that around 7,000 people in the Altreich were classified as “valid Jews”, with around 1,500 more likely to come from Austria .

According to Section 7 of the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Law , Hitler personally reserved the right to consent if the criteria for classification as a Jew (or legal Jew) and a Jewish mixed race were deviated from.

Declarations of German bloodiness and better positions

Corresponding applications for a better position or classification as Aryans were examined by several instances before the Reich Ministry of the Interior, in agreement with the staff of the Deputy of the Fuehrer (later "Party Chancellery") decided on forwarding them to the Reich Chancellery . Hans Heinrich Lammers presented the requests to the “Führer” personally. Of more than 10,000 requests for improvement, only a few were successful. The participation of the petitioners in the world war and political services to the "movement", their racial appearance and their character assessment were essential criteria.

By 1941, 260 "first degree half-breeds" had achieved their equality with a " German-blooded " person . Such “declarations of German blood” (“Certificate of classification within the meaning of the first ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Act of November 14, 1935”) were issued at the end of the procedure by the Reich Office for Family Research ; however, unlike other such notices of parentage, written on blue paper. In numerical terms, such equality had the lowest proportion.

Only in two cases were “full Jews” benefited and achieved a better position. In 1,300 cases, petitioners were reclassified from “valid Jews” to “Jewish mixed race”. The historian Beate Meyer believes higher numbers are likely. Uwe Dietrich Adam quotes from a letter from Wilhelm Stuckart from 1942, in which he states that so far 3,000 valid Jews have been equated with the “ half-Jews ” (“first-degree Jewish half- breed”).

Beate Meyer refers to an order to simplify the administration of August 26, 1942: According to this, such requests for a more favorable classification for the duration of the war should no longer be accepted and processed. Apparently, however, applications from valid Jews were still being processed.

Honorary arians

In connection with the exemptions and better positions, there is occasionally also talk of an "appointment as an honorary Aryan". Beate Meyer only casually uses the word “Ehrenarian” for exceptional cases in which “deserving companions” with a Jewish background approached the party chancellery directly or through prominent advocates or personally to Hitler and achieved a status improvement without a formal process. Steiner and Cornberg point out that the term "honorary Aryan" did not officially exist and that it was only used colloquially.

The rumor was spread among contemporaries about the high-ranking Air Force officer Erhard Milch that Hermann Göring had made him an "honorary Aryan" after doubts about the paternity of his father, an official of Jewish origin, had arisen. As a result, his ancestry was examined by the Reich Office for Family Research. The Hamburg Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann declared two “half-Jewish” stepchildren of one of the applicants he sponsored to be “Aryan” and received a generous donation for a foundation that he personally controlled. Joseph Goebbels provided more than 275 artists who were regarded as " Jewish whipped " or "mixed race" with special permits for further professional practice; a formal improvement in status was not associated with it.

Stéphanie zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (1891–1972) was called "dear princess" by Hitler; through her strategic marriage and high social intelligence she came to the top of society. In 1938 the dictator personally attached her the gold medal of the NSDAP and made her an "honorary Aryan" despite her Jewish origins.

In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , the Czech Protectorate Government had planned in 1939 in a draft on the “Legal Status of Jews in Public Life” to exempt selected Jews from certain restrictions because of special merits and thereby to declare them “honorary Aries”. Reich Protector Konstantin von Neurath , however, rejected all applications without exception.

In 1938, Franz Lehár's wife was declared an "honorary Aryan" .

literature

  • John M. Steiner , Jobst Freiherr von Cornberg: arbitrariness in arbitrariness. Liberation from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 46 (1998), issue 1, p. 162 (online PDF ).
  • Wilhelm Stuckart , Hans Globke : Comments on the German race legislation. Volume 1, Munich / Berlin 1936.
  • Federal Minister of Justice (Ed.): In the name of the German people. Justice and National Socialism. Exhibition catalog. Science and politics, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-8046-8731-8 (tables for illustration p. 115).
  • Maria von der Heydt: "Who likes to ride the Jewish star in the tram?" - The ambivalence of the "traditional Jewish " everyday life between 1941 and 1945. In: Doris Bergen, Andrea Löw (ed.): The everyday life in the Holocaust. Jewish life in the Greater German Reich 1941–1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-70948-3 , pp. 65-79.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinz Boberach: Reports from the Reich 1938–1945. Pawlak, Herrsching 1984, ISBN 3-88199-158-1 , Volume 8, p. 3246.
  2. ↑ Lisa Hauff (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (collection of sources), Volume 11: German Reich and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia April 1943–1945 . Berlin / Boston 2020, ISBN 978-3-11-036499-6 , p. 776.
  3. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Jüdische Mischlinge" - Racial Policy and Experiences of Persecution 1933–1945 . 2nd edition, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , p. 105.
  4. ↑ Maria von der Heydt: Who likes to ride the Jewish star in the tram… In: Doris Bergen, Andrea Löw (Ed.): Everyday life in the Holocaust: Jewish life in the Greater German Reich 1941–1945. Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-70948-3 , pp. 74-75.
  5. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Jüdische Mischlinge" - Racial Policy and Experiences of Persecution 1933–1945. 2nd Edition. Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , p. 162.
  6. ↑ Maria von der Heydt: Who likes to ride the Jewish star in the tram… In: Doris Bergen, Andrea Löw (Ed.): Everyday life in the Holocaust: Jewish life in the Greater German Reich 1941–1945. Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-70948-3 , p. 66.
  7. ^ Text of the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Law (1935) .
  8. ↑ Beate Meyer: Between rule and exception - "Jewish mixed race" under special law. In: Magnus Brechtken, Hans-Christian Jasch, Christoph Kreutzmüller, Niels Weise (Eds.): The Nuremberg Laws - 80 Years Later: Prehistory, Origin, Effects . Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8353-3149-5 , p. 212f.
  9. ↑ John M. Steiner, Jobst F. v. Cornberg: arbitrariness within arbitrariness. Liberation from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 46 (1998), pp. 147–148.
  10. ↑ Beate Meyer: Between rule and exception - "Jewish mixed race" under special law. In: Magnus Brechtken, Hans-Christian Jasch, Christoph Kreutzmüller, Niels Weise (Eds.): The Nuremberg Laws - 80 Years Later: Prehistory, Origin, Effects . Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8353-3149-5 , p. 212.
  11. ↑ Beate Meyer: Between rule and exception - "Jewish mixed race" under special law. In: Magnus Brechtken, Hans-Christian Jasch, Christoph Kreutzmüller, Niels Weise (Eds.): The Nuremberg Laws - 80 Years Later: Prehistory, Origin, Effects . Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-8353-3149-5 , p. 213.
  12. ↑ John M. Steiner, Jobst F. v. Cornberg: arbitrariness within arbitrariness. Liberation from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 46 (1998) p. 149 or p. 151 speaks of 6% success
  13. ↑ Beate Meyer: “Jüdische Mischlinge.” Racial policy and experience of persecution 1933–1945. Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , pp. 105, 108, 157.
  14. ↑ Uwe Dietrich Adam: Jewish policy in the Third Reich. Unv. Reprint Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-7700-4063-5 , p. 228.
  15. ↑ Beate Meyer: "Jüdische Mischlinge" ... , p. 105 / With Manfred Wichman (Ed.): Jüdisches Leben in Rotenburg. PD-Verlag, Heidenau 2010, ISBN 978-3-86707-829-0 , p. 53 is, however, a document dated April 17, 1944 regarding the exemption from the provisions of § 5 Paragraph 2 of the I. VO. printed on the RBG .
  16. ↑ John M. Steiner, Jobst F. v. Cornberg: arbitrariness within arbitrariness. Liberation from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 46 (1998), p. 152.
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Encyclopedia of National Socialism. 5th edition. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-34408-1 , p. 483.
  18. ↑ Beate Meyer: “Jüdische Mischlinge” - Racial Policy and Persecution 1933–1945. 2nd Edition. Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , p. 152.
  19. ^ John M. Steiner , Jobst Freiherr von Cornberg: "Arbitrariness in the arbitrariness. Liberation from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws ”. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 46 (1998), p. 162 ( PDF )
  20. ↑ Beate Meyer: “Jüdische Mischlinge” - Racial Policy and Persecution 1933–1945. 2nd Edition. Dölling and Galitz, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 , p. 155.
  21. ↑ Vlg .: Karina Urbach : Hitler's secret helpers. The nobility in the service of power . Theiss Verlag, Darmstadt 2016.
  22. ↑ Andrea Löw (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (source collection), Volume 3: German Reich and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, September 1939 - September 1941. Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3 -486-58524-7 , p. 24 / Document VEJ 3/296.
  23. ↑ Stefan Frey: What do you think of this success? Franz Lehár and the popular music of the 20th century . Insel, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-458-16960-1 , p. 338 f.