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Gray Zones
This chapter is in the book Gray Zones
– Chapter 9 –HITLER’SJEWISHSOLDIERSBryan Mark RiggNotes for this section begin on page 126.Recently, the interest in World War II and the Holocaust has grown dra-matically. Books on these topics frequently hit the best-seller list and news-papers run articles nearly every week on some aspect of this time period.Whether it is a controversial study calling the vast majority of Germans“Hitler’s willing executioners” or an exposé of IBM’s role in the Holocaust,it seems that the general public cannot get enough of the subject matter.With the release of films such as Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s Listand Sav-ing Private Ryan,the thirst for knowledge about the Third Reich, WorldWar II, and the Holocaust has only increased.It is true, however, that there are numerous areas relating to the Holo-caust and the Nazi era in general that remain largely unexamined or poorlyunderstood. This research about Jews and Mischlinge(partial Jews) in theWehrmachtrepresents a close study of one such area and, while it does notpresume to offer the final word, it is hoped that it will provide its readerswith a new way of looking at one of the central issues of the history of theThird Reich and the Holocaust, namely, Jewish identity.1Tounderstand this research, one must first be aware of Jewish law, Ha-lacha,and how it defines a Jew. For most Jews today, especially those whoare observant, a Jew is a person who is born of a Jewish mother or who con-verts to Judaism.2Knowing this will help one understand the confusion sur-rounding the individuals researched here and whether they are consideredto be Jewish or not. For the purposes of this essay one must also have a fundamental under-standing of the Nazi racial laws. In 1935 the Nazis issued the Nuremberg
© 2022, Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford

– Chapter 9 –HITLER’SJEWISHSOLDIERSBryan Mark RiggNotes for this section begin on page 126.Recently, the interest in World War II and the Holocaust has grown dra-matically. Books on these topics frequently hit the best-seller list and news-papers run articles nearly every week on some aspect of this time period.Whether it is a controversial study calling the vast majority of Germans“Hitler’s willing executioners” or an exposé of IBM’s role in the Holocaust,it seems that the general public cannot get enough of the subject matter.With the release of films such as Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s Listand Sav-ing Private Ryan,the thirst for knowledge about the Third Reich, WorldWar II, and the Holocaust has only increased.It is true, however, that there are numerous areas relating to the Holo-caust and the Nazi era in general that remain largely unexamined or poorlyunderstood. This research about Jews and Mischlinge(partial Jews) in theWehrmachtrepresents a close study of one such area and, while it does notpresume to offer the final word, it is hoped that it will provide its readerswith a new way of looking at one of the central issues of the history of theThird Reich and the Holocaust, namely, Jewish identity.1Tounderstand this research, one must first be aware of Jewish law, Ha-lacha,and how it defines a Jew. For most Jews today, especially those whoare observant, a Jew is a person who is born of a Jewish mother or who con-verts to Judaism.2Knowing this will help one understand the confusion sur-rounding the individuals researched here and whether they are consideredto be Jewish or not. For the purposes of this essay one must also have a fundamental under-standing of the Nazi racial laws. In 1935 the Nazis issued the Nuremberg
© 2022, Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS vii
  3. LIST OF FIGURES xi
  4. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiii
  5. PROLOGUE The Gray Zones of the Holocaust xv
  6. Part One: Ambiguity and Compromise in Writing and Depicting Holocaust History
  7. Introduction 1
  8. Chapter 1 The Ambiguities of Evil and Justice: Degussa, Robert Pross, and the Jewish Slave Laborers at Gleiwitz 7
  9. Chapter 2 “Alleviation” and “Compliance”: The Survival Strategies of the Jewish Leadership in the Wierzbnik Ghetto and the Starachowice Factory Slave Labor Camps 26
  10. Chapter 3 Between Sanity and Insanity: Spheres of Everyday Life in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando 37
  11. Chapter 4 Sonderkommando: Testimony from Evidence 61
  12. Chapter 5 A Commentary on “Gray Zones” in Raul Hilberg’s Work 70
  13. Chapter 6 Incompleteness in Holocaust Historiography 81
  14. Part Two: Identity, Gender, and Sexuality During and After the Third Reich
  15. Introduction 93
  16. Chapter 7 Choiceless Choices: Surviving on False Papers on the “Aryan” Side 97
  17. Chapter 8 “Who Am I?” The Struggle for Religious Identity of Jewish Children Hidden by Christians During the Shoah 107
  18. Chapter 9 Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers 118
  19. Chapter 10 A Gray Zone Among the Field Gray Men: Confusion in the Discrimination Against Homosexuals in the Wehrmacht 127
  20. Chapter 11 Pleasure and Evil: Christianity and the Sexualization of Holocaust Memory 147
  21. Chapter 12 The Gender of Good and Evil: Women and Holocaust Memory 165
  22. Part Three: Gray Spaces: Geographical and Imaginative Landscapes
  23. Introduction 179
  24. Chapter 13 Hitler’s “Garden of Eden” in Ukraine: Nazi Colonialism, Volksdeutsche, and the Holocaust, 1941–1944 185
  25. Chapter 14 Life and Death in the “Gray Zone” of Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-Occupied Europe: The Unknown, the Ambiguous, and the Disappeared 205
  26. Chapter 15 “Almost-Camps” in Paris: The Difficult Description of Three Annexes of Drancy—Austerlitz, Lévitan, and Bassano, July 1943 to August 1944 222
  27. Chapter 16 Alternate Holocausts and the Mistrust of Memory 240
  28. Chapter 17 Laughter and Heartache: The Functions of Humor in Holocaust Tragedy 252
  29. Chapter 18 The Holocaust in Popular Culture: Master-Narrative and Counter-Narratives in the Gray Zone 270
  30. Chapter 19 The Grey Zone: The Cinema of Choiceless Choices 286
  31. Part Four: Justice, Religion, and Ethics During and After the Holocaust
  32. Introduction 293
  33. Chapter 20 Gray into Black: The Case of Mordecai Chaim Rumkowski 299
  34. Chapter 21 Catalyzing Fascism: Academic Science in National Socialist Germany and Afterward 311
  35. Chapter 22 Postwar Justice and the Treatment of Nazi Assets 325
  36. Chapter 23 The Gray Zones of Holocaust Restitution: American Justice and Holocaust Morality 339
  37. Chapter 24 The Creation of Ethical “Gray Zones” in the German Protestant Church: Reflections on the Historical Quest for Ethical Clarity 360
  38. Chapter 25 Gray-Zoned Ethics: Morality’s Double Binds During and After the Holocaust 372
  39. Epilogue: An Intense Wish to Understand 390
  40. Select Bibliography 395
  41. About the Editors and Contributors 399
  42. Index 407
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782382010-014

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. CONTENTS vii
  3. LIST OF FIGURES xi
  4. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiii
  5. PROLOGUE The Gray Zones of the Holocaust xv
  6. Part One: Ambiguity and Compromise in Writing and Depicting Holocaust History
  7. Introduction 1
  8. Chapter 1 The Ambiguities of Evil and Justice: Degussa, Robert Pross, and the Jewish Slave Laborers at Gleiwitz 7
  9. Chapter 2 “Alleviation” and “Compliance”: The Survival Strategies of the Jewish Leadership in the Wierzbnik Ghetto and the Starachowice Factory Slave Labor Camps 26
  10. Chapter 3 Between Sanity and Insanity: Spheres of Everyday Life in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando 37
  11. Chapter 4 Sonderkommando: Testimony from Evidence 61
  12. Chapter 5 A Commentary on “Gray Zones” in Raul Hilberg’s Work 70
  13. Chapter 6 Incompleteness in Holocaust Historiography 81
  14. Part Two: Identity, Gender, and Sexuality During and After the Third Reich
  15. Introduction 93
  16. Chapter 7 Choiceless Choices: Surviving on False Papers on the “Aryan” Side 97
  17. Chapter 8 “Who Am I?” The Struggle for Religious Identity of Jewish Children Hidden by Christians During the Shoah 107
  18. Chapter 9 Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers 118
  19. Chapter 10 A Gray Zone Among the Field Gray Men: Confusion in the Discrimination Against Homosexuals in the Wehrmacht 127
  20. Chapter 11 Pleasure and Evil: Christianity and the Sexualization of Holocaust Memory 147
  21. Chapter 12 The Gender of Good and Evil: Women and Holocaust Memory 165
  22. Part Three: Gray Spaces: Geographical and Imaginative Landscapes
  23. Introduction 179
  24. Chapter 13 Hitler’s “Garden of Eden” in Ukraine: Nazi Colonialism, Volksdeutsche, and the Holocaust, 1941–1944 185
  25. Chapter 14 Life and Death in the “Gray Zone” of Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-Occupied Europe: The Unknown, the Ambiguous, and the Disappeared 205
  26. Chapter 15 “Almost-Camps” in Paris: The Difficult Description of Three Annexes of Drancy—Austerlitz, Lévitan, and Bassano, July 1943 to August 1944 222
  27. Chapter 16 Alternate Holocausts and the Mistrust of Memory 240
  28. Chapter 17 Laughter and Heartache: The Functions of Humor in Holocaust Tragedy 252
  29. Chapter 18 The Holocaust in Popular Culture: Master-Narrative and Counter-Narratives in the Gray Zone 270
  30. Chapter 19 The Grey Zone: The Cinema of Choiceless Choices 286
  31. Part Four: Justice, Religion, and Ethics During and After the Holocaust
  32. Introduction 293
  33. Chapter 20 Gray into Black: The Case of Mordecai Chaim Rumkowski 299
  34. Chapter 21 Catalyzing Fascism: Academic Science in National Socialist Germany and Afterward 311
  35. Chapter 22 Postwar Justice and the Treatment of Nazi Assets 325
  36. Chapter 23 The Gray Zones of Holocaust Restitution: American Justice and Holocaust Morality 339
  37. Chapter 24 The Creation of Ethical “Gray Zones” in the German Protestant Church: Reflections on the Historical Quest for Ethical Clarity 360
  38. Chapter 25 Gray-Zoned Ethics: Morality’s Double Binds During and After the Holocaust 372
  39. Epilogue: An Intense Wish to Understand 390
  40. Select Bibliography 395
  41. About the Editors and Contributors 399
  42. Index 407
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