Between Persecution and Complicity: The Life Story of a Former ‘Jewish Mischling’

Abstract

The particular treatment of persons of ‘mixed’ Jewish and non-Jewish ancestry during the Holocaust remains an under-explored topic in scholarly research on the Holocaust. Drawing on the relatively new field of biography studies in Germany, this essay looks at the life history of a former ‘Jewish Mischling’ in Germany to exemplify the ways in which circumstances such as age, gender and religious affiliation affected the diverse treatment of individuals belonging to this persecuted group. Ralf G’s personal narrative is contextualised within the Nazi debate on the definition and treatment of ‘mixed-race Jews’ to show how these discourses and political practices impacted on the individual self-construction of persons from intermarried backgrounds at the time of persecution and into the post-war period.

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Cathy S. Gelbin

Cathy S. Gelbin (Ph.D., Cornell University) is currently based in the Department of German Studies at the University of Manchester. Her research and teaching focus on constructions of Jews and gender in nineteenth- and twentieth-century German culture. Select publications include An Indelible Seal: Race, Hybridity and Identity in Elisabeth Langgässer’s Writings (2001), AufBrüche: Kulturelle Produktionen von Migrantinnen, Schwarzen und jüdischen Frauen in Deutschland (co-ed., 1999), and Archiv der Erinnerung: Interviews mit Überlebenden der Shoah. Videographierte Lebenserzählungen und ihre Interpretationen (co-ed., 1998).