Jews in the Axis camp

[sylvieK4]

Quote of Csaba:

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

Who was he? I thought most Jews were removed from the regular service and confined to labor battalions. Maybe he died before this measure was in place?

Many Jews were pressed into service with the Labor Battalions, digging trenches, clearing mine fields and performing other non-combatant tasks, often in the front line area. In this capacity, they did serve as members of the "Axis Camp", willing or not.

[Csaba Becze]

sylvieK4,

He was Captain Sándor Boskovits. His Hungarian manufactured Me 210 Ca-1 heavy fighter exploded after the belly landing and the explosion killed "Bob" (it was his nickname). The exact date is 13 April, 1944 (after the "Jewish laws", and after the German occupy)

BTW the Labor Battalions sometimes fought againt the Red Army (with weapons)

Csaba

P.S. If you want more details, write me PMs 8)

[GLADIVM]

Milch was half jewish but there is some arguments about which parent was jewish .
In Who is Who in Nazi Germany is indicated that his mother was jewish and that under Goring pressure she pledged that Erhard Milch was not her son and so stated in an official document .
Instead in Goring bio by David Irving is indicated that Milch father Anton was Jewish and Ehrard had his mother making an official pledge that he was not the offspriing of his father but from an incestual relation of his mother with her uncle who was a christian. To support this Irving also cited some jokes about Milch that were widespread at the time , such " in order to be a christian is was happy to declare his mother a whore and his father a cuckhold " . and that while Milch was a christian his brother was still a Jew
The all thing seems rather dubious and Milch was surely of mixed jewish ancestry but in the third reich many strange things happend and therefore Milch efforts to hide his parents ancestry are in line with the dangerous and strange times he lived in .
By the way , also Field marshall Von Manstein was of half or mixed jewish ancestry but he never regretted it , and often boasted about it .
No doubt he was one of the best generals in Wermacht .
Another example of how stupid racial discriminations are !!!

[observer]

By the way , also Field marshall Von Manstein was of half or mixed jewish ancestry but he never regretted it , and often boasted about it .

Real sources please:

a) who in his familiy tree was Jewish (I know, a couple of authors keep printing it, but I have not seen the proof yet)

b) when did he ever "boast" it (he carefully avoided mentioning it in "Soldatenleben", part of his autobiography that is). Why should he have "boasted" it under Adolf then? It would not have helped him in his trial (nor did it help Milch) after 1945 either.


pilum observans

PS: btw, the American author is Bryan Rigg ("Hitler`s Jewish soldiers")
http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/righitpix.html

[GLADIVM]

dear observer ,

As I am sure you know , Erich von Manstein was born Lewinski on 24/11/1887 , son of a General of Artillery, after the death of his parents he was adopted by the wealthy landowners von Manstein , whose name he subsequently bore .

It was rumored that his real grandfather was jewish and name Lewinsky has a certain polish sound .

Concerning other sources , Anthony Beevor in his book "Stalingrad " at page 16 says " privately he admitted to be of jewish ancestry " .
May be Beevor is wrong but I read also in other books about the fact that von Manstein was not shy of his ancestry and amitted it openly .
Afetr the war this ancestry would have been wieved as an aggravation from the allies judges and certainly would not help him to get a lighter sentence .

[observer]

As I am sure you know , Erich von Manstein was born Lewinski on 24/11/1887 , son of a General of Artillery, after the death of his parents he was adopted by the wealthy landowners von Manstein , whose name he subsequently bore .

It was rumored that his real grandfather was jewish and name Lewinsky has a certain polish sound .

Hi Gladium,

thanks for taking the time!

1) as to his name:

He was born von Lewinski , son of a prussian general, no question. BTW, it was completely uncommon, if not out of the question, in the Prussian kingdom before WW I that sons of Jews became generals. As for the name change (which is due to the fact that a childless maternal aunt - Mrs von Manstein - adopted him, as the von Lewinski family already had 9 or 10 children, actually from his birth on, not just after the death of his parents!), the official name of Erich von Manstein´s descendants still today is von Lewinski, genannt von Manstein .

2) When we hear "Lewinski", we immediatlely associate names like Monica Lewinsky , or in different spellings: Levinsky, which is a common Jewish name with Polish origin to be sure...

3) In his own autobiography ("Soldatenleben" which covers the earlier years as opposed to "Verlorene Siege") Manstein does not at all "boast a Jewish grandfather" named Lewinski or else, but instead gives an explanation which is not completely unplausible for how the family of his real father adopted the name von Lewinski quite a bit earlier (although this theoretically might be a ´cover-up´of the truth, which however then would be the opposite of ´boasting´it):

According to Manstein´s own description, a German noble family (whose name I forgot, but it is in the book) immigrated to the area of West Prussia (west of Danzig) in the 17th century, where it took an estate called `Levinovo´as a polish fief (the area was annexed by Prussia only during one of the polish partitions late 18th century). Mark: the name "Lewin" is not exclusively used in Jewish cultural context! The family gradually adopted the name of the estate (which had been common practice in the late middle ages) calling itself (von) Lewinski instead of (von) something rather. Lewinski in that sense means nothing else but "those from the Lewinovo estate". Such name changes did occur elsewhere, why I am saying it the explanation given by Manstien himself is not completely unplausible. Anyhow, this name change must have occured no later than 1800, as far as I understood it, rather earlier.

On a sociological note, it was also rather uncommon at that time that the gentry "married Jewish". Mixed marriages you rather find in the early 19th century in cities among the petite bourgeoisie , while he Jewish grande bourgeoisie - at least during the 19th century - remained ´among themselves´. Please mark that by this time, West Prussia had ceased to be Polish in case you want to assume that social mobility of Jews (in terms of cross-confessional marriages) would have been greater in Poland.

I am not saying I can confirm he had no Jewish grandfather, I am just cautioning against inferring this from the name (von) Lewinski alone. Until somebody actually produces concrete information (let alone evidence) that this or that person in Manstein´s family tree had a Jewish mother or father with some modest kind of proof, I continue to treat this as nothing but a fancy rumour.

Thanks for sharing your resources though.


Regards

PS: One comment about my interest in this question:
those who believe it, claim that it is part of the reason that Manstein objected to take part in the opposition against Hitler, as he was afraid of being ´discovered´. It is this suggestion that I have a hard time believing. If he had indeed Jewish ancestry - I could not care less. However, if he supposedly was afraid of being exposed by the Nazi-Regime for it, he at least needs to have been convinced about his "Jewishness" (to whatever small degree). But there is no sign of it, at least not in his own autobiograhical books, that he was even aware of something like that. A bit intriguing, isn´t it? Would it not have been logical for someone convicted in a British court for having handed over Jews to an Einsatzkommando (or at least not sheltered them) to at least greatly stress his alleged Jewish ancestry in the 1950s to point out that such charges were obtuse? Then why didn´t he really?

[GLADIVM]

Dear Observer ,

yr reply is very informative and it may be you are right and Manstein had no jewish ancestry at all , I guess we will never know for sure if these rumors had any fondation . .
Concerning what Manstein wrote in his memoirs , I would be a little skeptical as of course he would only try to portrait himself in the best possible light and for me authobios are not too reliable .

As you say that Manstein was of mixed ancestry or not is not at all important , he was an outstanding general and that for a soldier is the only important thing .
From what I read about him it seems however that he was not in the mould of a Hinderburg and would never take over the reins of a state or join a conspirancy against Hitler even if he diskiled the man and believe that by 1944 had understood war was lost but still he confined himself to the technical work of a troop leader .
If he was a quarter jewish or less , why did not use it in the allied courts ?
I guess that he could not deny some of his compromising orders and declaration issued on his name to the troops on eastern front and in which he very strongly argued for a war without limits against bolshevism and jewry , I do not have with me at the moment these sources but recall that were in very forceful terms . Therefore to claim a jewish might have been only an aggravation .
Of course we will never know the truth , besides I believe Manstein was a complex individual who associated bold and daring moves as a commander and planner of campaigns with a not so bold moral courage , but in some occasion he opposed Hitler and got his way on tactical retreats in the eastern front , therefore he could not a coward or a lackey otherwise he would have never argued with the furher .
From books I got the impression that Manstein was a rather cold man but sometimes he impressed his subdorniates as caring and it is difficult to assess his real personality .

[Dan]

Milch's dad was often away at sea, and the father of Milch's mother was a full Jewish man. This was well known at the time, and you will find pleny of information on this both in the archives here, and in the old forum.

Milch's mother signed a document that said her son was the product of incest with her uncle, but this was done more to placate hard core nazis than for anything else.

[AirborneAllTheWay]

Von Der Heydte, in his book Daedalus returned, mentions several jewish fallschirmjager. Will try to find out more when my copy of his book arrives...