HALF-JEWISH PEOPLE AND THE HOLOCAUST

There are apparently two equal and opposite myths about the adult children and other descendants of intermarriage during the Holocaust.  One myth says that Hitler intended to systematically kill all of the descendants of intermarriage.

Another myth suggests that we were in no danger at all, thanks to our good connections with the Christian world, and were able to save ourselves while our fellow born Jews died by the millions. The actual truth falls between these two myths, and is stranger than any fiction.

First, we need to look at the (formerly) "top secret" meeting minutes of the Wansee Conference, a famous gathering of Nazi officials held in the Wansee district of Berlin on January 20, 1942 to discuss the details of the "final solution."  Included in the summary of their recommendations were comments on the fate of adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage:

"IV.  In the course of the final solution plans, the Nuremberg
Laws should provide a certain foundation, in which a prerequisite
for the absolute solution of the problem is also the solution to
the problem of mixed marriages and persons of mixed blood.

     The Chief of the Security Police and the SD discusses the
following points, at first theoretically, in regard to a letter
from the chief of the Reich chancellery:

1) Treatment of Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree

     Persons of mixed blood of the first degree will, as regards
the final solution of the Jewish question, be treated as Jews.

     From this treatment the following exceptions will be made:

     a)   Persons of mixed blood of the first degree married to
          persons of German blood if their marriage has resulted
          in children (persons of mixed blood of the second
          degree).  These persons of mixed blood of the second
          degree are to be treated essentially as Germans.

     b)   Persons of mixed blood of the first degree, for whom
          the highest offices of the Party and State have already
          issued exemption permits in any sphere of life.
          Each individual case must be examined, and it is not
          ruled out that the decision may be made to the
          detriment of the person of mixed blood.

     The prerequisite for any exemption must always be the
personal merit of the person of mixed blood. (Not the merit of
the parent or spouse of German blood.)

     Persons of mixed blood of the first degree who are exempted
from evacuation will be sterilized in order to prevent any
offspring and to eliminate the problem of persons of mixed blood
once and for all.  Such sterilization will be voluntary.  But it
is required to remain in the Reich.  The sterilized "person of
mixed blood" is thereafter free of all restrictions to which he
was previously subjected.

2) Treatment of Persons of Mixed Blood of the Second Degree

     Persons of mixed blood of the second degree will be treated
fundamentally as persons of German blood, with the exception of
the following cases, in which the persons of mixed blood of the
second degree will be considered as Jews:

     a)   The person of mixed blood of the second degree was born
          of a marriage in which both parents are persons of
          mixed blood.

     b)   The person of mixed blood of the second degree has a
          racially especially undesirable appearance that marks
          him outwardly as a Jew.

     c)   The person of mixed blood of the second degree has a
          particularly bad police and political record that shows
          that he feels and behaves like a Jew.

     Also in these cases exemptions should not be made if the
person of mixed blood of the second degree has married a person
of German blood.

3) Marriages between Full Jews and Persons of German Blood.

     Here it must be decided from case to case whether the Jewish
partner will be evacuated or whether, with regard to the effects
of such a step on the German relatives, [this mixed marriage]
should be sent to an old-age ghetto.

4) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree
and Persons of German Blood.

     a)   Without Children.

          If no children have resulted from the marriage, the
          person of mixed blood of the first degree will be
          evacuated or sent to an old-age ghetto (same treatment
          as in the case of marriages between full Jews and
          persons of German blood, point 3.)

     b)   With Children.

          If children have resulted from the marriage (persons of
          mixed blood of the second degree), they will, if they
          are to be treated as Jews, be evacuated or sent to a
          ghetto along with the parent of mixed blood of the
          first degree.  If these children are to be treated as
          Germans (regular cases), they are exempted from
          evacuation as is therefore the parent of mixed blood of
          the first degree.

5) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree
and Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree or Jews.

     In these marriages (including the children) all members of
the family will be treated as Jews and therefore be evacuated or
sent to an old-age ghetto.

6) Marriages between Persons of Mixed Blood of the First Degree
and Persons of Mixed Blood of the Second Degree.

     In these marriages both partners will be evacuated or sent
to an old-age ghetto without consideration of whether the
marriage has produced children, since possible children will as a
rule have stronger Jewish blood than the Jewish person of mixed
blood of the second degree.

     SS-Gruppenfuehrer Hofmann advocates the opinion that
sterilization will have to be widely used, since the person of
mixed blood who is given the choice whether he will be evacuated
or sterilized would rather undergo sterilization.

     State Secretary Dr. Stuckart maintains that carrying out in
practice of the just mentioned possibilities for solving the
problem of mixed marriages and persons of mixed blood will create
endless administrative work.  In the second place, as the
biological facts cannot be disregarded in any case, State
Secretary Dr. Stuckart proposed proceeding to forced
sterilization.

     Furthermore, to simplify the problem of mixed marriages
possibilities must be considered with the goal of the legislator
saying something like: 'These marriages have been dissolved.' "

(thanks to  http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/wansee-transcript.html for permission to copy this information).

[Website under construction -- more information to come.]