Jews in the Axis camp

[christianT]

With all this talk of racial purity, etc. etc. by the German leadership, I wonder if there are any concrete and documented instances of people of jewish descent fighting for the germans?

The jewish ghetto police in Warsaw comes to mind.....and how about Reinhard Heydrich? I remember I saw/read somewhere/sometime ago that he was half jewish?

shalom

-christianT

[Fjy]

Finnish army had judes in service during the war. Atleast one got 2nd class irongross from Germans (Im Namen des Führers )

Shalom

[JariL]

Hi,

The one sentence note on Finnish Jews is totally misleading. The Finnish Jews were certainly not fighting for Germany, they were fighting for their way of life and the country they lived in. They were called in just as anyone else and they obeyed.

If we are to believe for example Max Jacobsson, Finnish jews new pretty well what was happening in German occupied Europe much before Finnish general public. This lead the Jewish soldiers and Jewish population in general to wonder what sort of stand they should take and was it safe to stay in Finland in the first place. They decided to stay even if they probably had a chance to get into Sweden. There was most likely also a contingency plan drafted by the "Jewish council" should things turn ugly in Finland. Even the army may have had a plan to evacuate the Jewish soldiers to Sweden if need be.

After the war when the full extent of the Holocaust had been revealed many Finnish Jewish soldiers had extremely mixed feelings: they had survived but Finland had fought on the "wrong side". There were many ways of trying to dissolve the dilemma, one being going to fight for Israel in 1948. Disproportionately many young Finnish Jews did so. The whole Jewish population of Finland was about 2.000 people back then. One of the most touching explanations was the one man who said that "at the time when human value was disgraced all over Europe, I at least had a chance to fight for mine".

And the two iron crosses were not accepted!

Regards,

Jari

[Luca]

And the two iron crosses were not accepted!

Im very surprised and curious! Please, can You add some informations concern Your affermation?
Thank You

[Octavianus]

Ave amici,

Recently there has been or will be (:-)) published a book about Hitler's Jewish soldiers by one American author, where he gives a detailed statistic about several thousands of German soldiers who fought in Wehrmacht. In addition to German Army, some Jews apparently also served in the following formations:
* 33rd Waffen-SS Grenadier Division "Charlemagne"
* Finnish Army (as already mentioned before)
* Royal Hungarian Army (Istvan Sors, 1936 Olympic sieger from Berlin was a Reserve Captain in Hungarian Army; later majority of Jews were gathered in various labour battalions)
* most likely some Jews served in Royal Romanian, Italian and Bulgarian Forces as well. It is hard to speak here about any numbers, because most likely we are talking here about a small number of them, who joined or volunteered in the army as inviduals and in many cases most likely also denied their Jewsih roots.
* Croatian Army (a few managed to evade harsh racial standards at the beginning, only to face arrestment and execution later)

In addition, Jewish people formed their own armed forces during the war, a brigade size unit (The Jewish Brigade) that saw some action on Italian Front in early 1945, actively took part in the Syria and Lebanon Campaign 1941 against Vichy French and many of them served in various British intelligence branches in the Middle and Far East and in various commando-intelligence centres in Egypt and Palestine. A substantial number of Jewish agents was parachuted into the occupied Europe with a task to check the disturbing news that were coming from Europe regarding the "Holocaust".

Hope this helps.

Gratia,

Octavianus

[JariL]

Hi Luca,

I don't have the references at hand so this is still a bit vague. There are a couple of good books about the subject written in Finnish, like "Suomen juutalaisten aseveljeys".

Anyway Ltnt Skurnik led an attachment that freed some encircled German troops in Kiestinki area. For this he received an iron cross which he refused to accept because of the German policy towards Jews. The other one was earned for saving some wounded German soldiers under fire. That too was refused for the same grounds. Interestingly, the Finnish superiors of the two Jewish officers did not have any objections. Germans on the other hand did not see any need to make a scene either, it was not worth it. They probably thought "just wait till we have won the war".

I would almost like to claim that the only provocation on the Jewish issue was the field synangogue that was loacted about 1 km behind the line of the German 163:rd division. It's positioning was silently approved possibly as high as in the Finnish HQ (they certainly knew about it) and it was there partly to make a point. Apart of offering a possibility to religious comfort to the Jewish soldiers fighting on that sector of course.

For Finnish Jews one of the touchest moments was probably a meeting of Jewish veterans held in Israel sometime late 1980's early 1990's. Finnish participants were not exactly popular when the other found out that they had been on the axis side. It took some effort to explain the special circumstances. But this story may only be a story, don't know how true it is even if it is mentioned in one of the books.


Regards,

Jari

[Luca]

That too was refused for the same grounds. Interestingly, the Finnish superiors of the two Jewish officers did not have any objections.

Incredible!
Thank You!

For Finnish Jews one of the touchest moments was probably a meeting of Jewish veterans held in Israel sometime late 1980's early 1990's. Finnish participants were not exactly popular when the other found out that they had been on the axis side. It took some effort to explain the special circumstances.

[JTV]

Some links about Finnish Jews and WW2 (the first one seems to have most details):

http://www.finemb.org.il/Historia.htm

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/vjw/Finland.html

http://www.jchelsinki.fi/history.htm

Some time ago there also was a documentary about the subject in Finnish TV. Among the people interviewed was one of the two Finnish jews that resigned from being rewarded with iron cross. According him he said them straight that he would not accept it because he was a jew, this made Germans who were present astonished but not angry. Germans accepted his reason fully and he didn't have any problems with them later either.

[JTV]

Just bit more:

I think that the veteran interviewing in that TV program was Lieutenant Skurnik .

Another matter that might also be worth mentioning would be special POW camp Finns arranged for Soviet POWs that were jewish during Continuation War (1941 - 1944). The idea for that came from leaders of jewish synagogue in Helsinki (Finnish capital). The camp was isolated (one of the main ideas seems have been hiding its POWs from Germans), but its living conditions were somewhat better then in average Finnish POW camps (guards were there also to make sure that outsiders would keep off and Finnish civilians helped some with food supply). Decision about that one came from pretty high also (Mannerheim & Ryti probably).

[Juha Hujanen]

Here's some additional info.

In Winter War most united Jewish unit was 3th Company of III/infantry Regiment 10.Over half of it's men were Jews.One of unit's best known men was Sergeant Nathan Maischlich,who was promoted in the field for 2th Liutenant.
One Finnish Jew who was offered EK 2th class was Medical Major Leo Skurnik.He was chief doctor in IR53 and he organized medical care in Kiestinki August 41.SS Nord was also under his medical supervision.Finnish and German troops were encirceled and evacuation of wounted organized by him saved lifes of over 600 wounted.It was said that he did not only helped wounted Germans in field dressing station but picked them from under enemy fire.When Germans wanted award him with EK 2th class,he declined because he is a Jewish officer.
The other was Captain Salomon Klass.Before Winter War he spend 5 years in Palestine,fighting against Brittish.He won fame in Winter War fighting in Raattee road,exploding bridge of Purasjoki whitch stopped enemy advance.Later he fought in lake Lagoda.In continuation war he was Battalion commander and his Battalion saved an German unit whitch was encircled by Russians.When German Colonel Pilgrim came to him with meda l"Colonel Pilgrim thanked me for job well done.I asked him to sit and offered coffee.Then he asked did i came from Baltic,because my German sounded like that.I replied that i was born in Finland,learned Germany at school and my parents did emigrade from Latvia.When i did get started,i said that i was a Jew and my home language was Jiddis(whitch resembles Germany).Colonel stared at me,he stands up,takes my hand and said.-I don't have anything personal against you as Jew-.Then he said Heil Hitler and left.
There was no conflict over that mater.Germans didn't want to raise Jew question up to table.Many Finnish Jew soldiers said that Werchmacht officers had business-like attitude against them.There is no known incitend that Germans had refused to work with Finnish Jew officers.

40 years after the war Josef Lefko(visch) said"we were given amazing grace that we could fight for our freedom and human right at the time when our unarmed faithbrothers were slaughtered in Europe".

I think that sums it up pretty well.

Juha

[Starinov]

Agnieszka Holland made a movie some ten years ago based on a true story about a young Jew who escaped from Germany to Poland in 1938, from Poland to USSR in 1939, was sent to the Komsomol. In 1941, the guy was caught by the Wehrmacht, and since he spoke Russian and German, he was used as a translator. During the 1941/42 winter he got the Iron Cross and was sent to a HJ school (maybe even Napola, I am not sure). He integrated into the society and became a full HJ. In 1945 he took part in the defense of Berlin. He survived the war. The movie is called "Europe Europa". I don't know if a book was published previous to that, probably.

[Ogorek]

The author was : Perel, Soloman

First published in Germany in 1992 as : Ich War Hitlerjunge Salomon

Then in the US, 1997 : Europa, Europa - A Memoir of World War II

Interesting movie.... Also, has anybody see THE TWENTY-FIFTH HOUR????

Fiction, but about a Roumanian deported as a Jew who eventually became an SS poster boy? I put a link in the MOVIES section of this forum.

[tyskaorden]

Wasn't the Luftwaffe General Erhard Milch of jewish ancestery?

/Marcus Karlsson

[kobold]

Agnieszka Holland made a movie some ten years ago based on a true story about a young Jew who escaped from Germany to Poland in 1938, from Poland to USSR in 1939, was sent to the Komsomol. In 1941, the guy was caught by the Wehrmacht, and since he spoke Russian and German, he was used as a translator. During the 1941/42 winter he got the Iron Cross and was sent to a HJ school (maybe even Napola, I am not sure). He integrated into the society and became a full HJ. In 1945 he took part in the defense of Berlin. He survived the war. The movie is called "Europe Europa". I don't know if a book was published previous to that, probably.

I haven't seen the book but i did see the film some years ago - it was an amazing story - very good, and I am so glad hollywood did not make it.

Dave

[Csaba Becze]

I know a Jewish pilot in Royal Hungarian Air Force, who sacrificed his life for Hungary (BTW not for Germany).

Csaba