Whatever happened to Germans/"Aryans" who were married to Jews?

by montewar

I mean obviously, if your wife/husband was being taken by the SS or Gestapo you would've done something right?

silverappleyard
FuckErisStoneface

Just a short thing about one case that is raher well known- Victor Klemperer, a german jew, born in Prussia He converted to protestantism, so an ethnic Jew, but not of jewish religion. (English isn't my native language, so idk whether that's an okay way to word it.)
Victor moved to study, he studied Philosophy, romanism and Germanistik (study of german language) and he worked/lectured at universities (naples and Dresden- not at the same time)He also worked as journalist for a time in berlin before returning to study and finishing.
He then worked at the Dresden university and, because he fought & was decorated in WW I, he was able to work a little bit longer.
Nazis forbid Jews to teach at universities pretty fast, but there was the exemptions for soldiers of WWI.
And klemperer not only felt german-ore german as jewish, he was german,s o fleeing was ou of the question for him for a long time. Its something shown a lot- a lot of jews were just integrated in german society, they were germans, so the idea that the regime could mean them? could attack them even tho they did so much? People couldn't, or maybe didn't want to believe.
(one other example is a group of of Jewish soldiers who fought for germany in WWI who published a leaflet, asking whether 1200 dead jews who fought and fell for Germany wasn't enough to deny the accusations of lacking patriotism of german Jews.) ^1

So he did write a daily Diary about his time and experiences under Nazi regime while living in Dresden, I'd recommend everyone who is a little bit interested in that time to read it-not only is it really informative
(an example: he noticed the way that nazi propaganda used language, its construction, neologisms etc. and documented it extensively. This he later used to publish a work about the use of Language in the propaganda of the third reich, called:
"LTI Lingua tertii Imperii") as it describes the effect Nazis terror, laws and all had his environment and himself.
Raids that lead to the deportation of friends, discrimination, loss of work, even the right to own a pet (they had a cat the had to give away.), all the small and big ways used to discriminate, dehumanize and grind down jewish people and those like him who had a bit of indirect protection because they were married to aryan partners nd had those stay with them and not divorce, like it was encouraged (an of course, marriage between Jews and aryan were by the Nuremberg Race laws made illegal)
He had a german wife and was in a way shielded from the worst (deportation to a KZ therefore almost certain death) for a long time, but repression hit her too, and the ban on work for jewish people meant she had to work to earn income for both. The couple wasn't allowed to own a car and to drive, so those discriminating restrictions were a way to grind people down- seeing how friends, families disappeared or straight out committed suicide was also disheartening- and the normalization of antisemitism from people he thought were safe.
(So like the people who would say that they of course wouldn't believe in anti semitism and dont like nazis but just do it because they want to have a certain job which would demand membership in the NSDAP, but then would say something antisemitic nonetheless or would slowly start to "fit in"
They also were 1940 placed in a so called Judenhaus- had to leave their flat and live in horrible conditions, his husband risked harassment and abuse by gestapo and HJ when he ventured outside.
In february 45 victor noticed that deportation orders were given to the few jewish people who still lived in dresden. he assumed that meant certain death, so during the bombing he managed to detach the yellow star and together with his wife managed to join the trail of refugees that went toward the allied zone, hiding Maybe this is too much judgement, but its interesting how something that destroyed the livelihood and life of many people managed to save others- those who managed to flee during the commotion and panic.

So.. the Diary in a way i think describes how life under regime was not only for jews but also in this case for the partners who still stayed with them. Who did not divorce, but staid together.
The Diaries are translated and should be available in english.
So the diaries 39-45 were published as a two parter and you can also get his diaries 45-59, dealing with the aftermath.

I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 ISBN-10: 0375753788 I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years ISBN-10: 0375756973

The Lesser Evil: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, 1945–1959 ISBN-10: 0753817942 all translated by Martin chalmers

And of course if you are interested in language (especially of nazi propaganda) then I'd recommend his LTI, which was also translated:

V.Klemperer: Language of the Third Reich: LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii ISBN-10: 1472507215

I haven't read the translations, so I can't talk about the language, but in german klemperers language is.. well it's great to read. It's sometimes hard to read what they had to go through and i find it interesting because it is very much focused around the daily life of an oppressed but vaguely shielded person in nazi germany and so of course also talks about his wife and how everything influences them.


1 ) (image of the leaflet here:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/1920_poster_12000_Jewish_soldiers_KIA_for_the_fatherland.jpg
as it is in german, I'll give a translation:

To all german mothers:
(on a tombstone, on its left sits a crying woman)
[12000 jewish Soldier died for the Fatherland on the Field of Honor]
christian and jewish Heroes fought together and lie together in foreign ground.
12000 fell in battle!
Blind Hate does not even stop at the grave.^a
German women, do not tolerate the derision for the Pain of jewish Mothers Reichsbund jüdischer frontsoldaten

a) The german Says "Blindwütiger Parteihass"-
which means they do refer to a political party that blindly drives anti semitic hate ignoring even the honor of death soldiers.
This leaflet was printed out 1920, so it shows that Antisemitism only two years after the war was seen as an acceptable tool that anti semitic parties could use to attack jewish people.
The NSDAP was founded in February 1920, but before that there was a small party for around a year, 1919-1920, named DAP- german Workers party which also was antisemitic and i dont doubt they were the only ones voicing antisemitic prejudices.
(The name DAP isn't exclusive to this, there was a DAP 1903, but that was for in Austria hungary.
Both parties had basically the same interest and positions.. Anti Semitic, anti slavic, anti catholic, not liberal.
All in all its very very similar to the other DAP and, like german DAP became the NSDAP
(Nationalsozialistische deutsche arbeiterpartei: national socialist german workers party)
the Austro-hungarian DAP became the DNSAP:
(Deutsche nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei german national socialist workers party)