Editing Mischling (section)

==Nazi definitions of Mischling==
{{Main article|Mischling test}}
[[File:Nuremberg laws Racial Chart.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The diagram shows the [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] racial division, according to the Nuremberg Laws, which was the basis of the racial policies of Nazi Germany. Only people with four German grandparents (four white circles – leftmost column) were considered to be Germans of “full-blood”. German nationals with three or four Jewish ancestors (at rightmost) were considered Jews. The center column shows the [[Mischling Test|''Mischling'' grade]], either 1 or 2, depending on the number of one's Jewish ancestors. All Jewish grandparents were automatically defined as members of the [[Judaism|Jewish religious community]] (regardless of whether they actually identified their religion as such.)]]
Nazis relied on one's ancestors' religious backgrounds to determine whether someone was of "German or related blood" ("Aryan") or a "Jew" ("non-Aryan").<ref>Diemut Majer, ''"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich'', page 40</ref> Thus, the [[Nuremberg Laws]] in 1935 defined a "full [[Jews|Jew]]" (''Istjude'' or ''Volljude'' in Nazi terminology) as a person – regardless of religious affiliation or self-identification – who had at least three grandparents who had been enrolled with a Jewish congregation or were married to a Jewish spouse.<ref>Cf. §5 (1) "Jude ist, wer von mindestens drei der Rasse nach volljüdischen Großeltern abstammt. § 2 Abs.[atz] 2 Satz 2 findet Anwendung." (translated: A Jew is defined as one who descends from at least three (racially) fully Jewish grandparents. § 2 section 2 sentence 2 is applying.), whereas §2 (2) says: "Jüdischer Mischling ist, wer von einem oder zwei der Rasse nach volljüdischen Großelternteilen abstammt, sofern er nicht nach § 5 Abs.[atz] 2 als Jude gilt. Als volljüdisch gilt ein Großelternteil ohne weiteres, wenn er der jüdischen Religionsgemeinschaft angehört hat." (translated: A Jewish Mischling is defined as one who descends from one or two (racially) fully Jewish grandparents, unless he is considered a Jew in accordance with § 5 (2). A grandparent is offhandedly considered fully Jewish if he has membership with the Jewish religious body.), see: [http://www.verfassungen.de/de/de33-45/reichsbuerger35-v1.htm ''Erste Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz vom 14. November 1935'' (First ordinance on the Reich's Citizen Act of 14 November 1935)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111207071001/http://www.verfassungen.de/de/de33-45/reichsbuerger35-v1.htm |date=7 December 2011 }}, retrieved on 23 January 2013.</ref> A person with two Jewish grandparents was also legally "Jewish" (so-called ''[[Geltungsjude]]'', roughly speaking, in {{langx|en|"Jew by legal validity"}} or "to be deemed/reckoned as a Jew") if that person met any of these racial conditions created by Nazis:
*Was enrolled as a member of a Jewish congregation when the Nuremberg Laws were issued or joined later<ref>A later secession from the Jewish community did not affect the classification as ''Geltungsjude''. Secession from religious Jewish congregations remained possible until July 1939, when the [[Gestapo]] transformed them all into its subdivisions, forced to enlist every person discriminated against as ''Geltungsjude'' or a Jew according to the Nuremberg Laws.</ref>
*Was married to a "full Jew".
*Was the offspring from a marriage with a Jew, which was concluded after the ban on [[Anti-miscegenation laws#Nazi Germany|mixed marriages]].
*Was the offspring of an extramarital affair with a Jew, born out of wedlock after 31 July 1936''.<ref>Cf. §5 (2) d of [http://www.verfassungen.de/de/de33-45/reichsbuerger35-v1.htm ''Erste Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz vom 14. November 1935'' (First ordinance on the Reich's Citizen Act of 14 November 1935)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111207071001/http://www.verfassungen.de/de/de33-45/reichsbuerger35-v1.htm |date=7 December 2011 }}, retrieved on 23 January 2013.</ref>
A person who did not belong to any of these categorical conditions, but had two Jewish grandparents was classified as a Jewish ''Mischling'' of the first degree according to the racial constructs implemented by Nazis. A person with only one Jewish grandparent was classified as a ''Mischling'' of the second degree.<ref>R. Hilberg, ''Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders'', pp. 150ff.</ref>

Following the passage of the Nuremberg Laws, in November 1935, the Citizenship Law gained its first amendment, and it stated that Jews were to be stripped of all of their civil rights, including the right to vote. Within the amendment the Law for the Defense of German Blood and Honor took effect, defining various forbidden marriage scenarios for Mischling specifically. Nazis claimed that it was acceptable for Mischling of the first degree to marry “full Jews” in turn becoming Jewish as well as marry other Mischling. However, this law prohibited Mischling from marrying Germans and thereby mixing “races”. Hitler’s goal of this amendment was to have as many Mischling as possible become a “full Jew” through marriage. A month later a second amendment was added to the Citizenship Law on December 21, 1935, which continued the persecution against Jews by removing “full Jews” or Mischling from professions such as those in the education, health, and civic departments.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Friedlander |first1=Saul |title=Nazi Germany and the Jews |date=1997 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=0-06-092878-6 |pages=149–150 |edition=1 |url=http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/28107437-Nazi-Germany-and-the |access-date=13 May 2021 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

According to the 1939 Reich census, there were about 72,000 ''Mischlinge'' of the 1st degree, ~39,000 of the 2nd degree, and potentially tens of thousands at higher degrees, which went unrecorded as those people were considered Aryans by the Reich.<ref>D. Bankier, in ''Holocaust and Genocide Studies'', Volume 3, Number 1 (1988), pp. 1–20.</ref>

[[File:Erhard Milch.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Erhard Milch]] (1942), whose father was Jewish]]
According to historian [[Bryan Mark Rigg]], up to 160,000 soldiers who were one-quarter, one-half, and even fully Jewish served in the German armed forces during [[World War II]]. This included several generals, admirals, and at least one field marshal: [[Erhard Milch]].<ref>Bryan Mark Rigg, ''Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws And Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military'' (Modern War Studies) (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004), {{ISBN|0-7006-1358-7}} (see also "External links"). On p. 300 Rigg discusses Jewish conversion to Roman Catholicism and to Lutheranism but does not offer a deduction on which of those two largest religious orientations among Germans was more likely to attract the Jewish converts.</ref>