Jewish Aircrew & PoWs

It has crossed my mind with the treatment by the Germans of the Jews - a question. Geneva convention aside, were there any cases of Jewish soldiers or downed airmen, being segregated and mistreated by the German authorities on account of their religion/beliefs. It makes one think that if they would persecute Jews of their own nationality, what's to say they wouldn't do this to Jewish prisoners as well.

 

It has crossed my mind with the treatment by the Germans of the Jews - a question. Geneva convention aside, were there any cases of Jewish soldiers or downed airmen, being segregated and mistreated by the German authorities on account of their religion/beliefs. It makes one think that if they would persecute Jews of their own nationality, what's to say they wouldn't do this to Jewish prisoners as well.


Cant really tell, I have not read of any accounts of Jewish crewmen being seperated from the rest.

 

The Jewish servicemen POWs who ran the greater risk of death and vanishing via the Nazi policy of "Nacht und Nebel" were the former German Jews who had been recruited into the British forces.

All were highly motivated to strike against their former oppressers.Many served with distinction in all three services and had the advantage of speaking German as their first language.

For their protection all were registered under assumed Anglicised names.

 

Harry it poses another question if an uneasy one. With the moles/ferrets planted in the camp, a German speaking Jew would have to be careful what he said. Saying that if a German Jew was taken away and was in the service of the Allies surely it would come under Geneva convention. If this happened I can imagine they would get round it by saying that he was a German citizen - still registered as one and hence a traitor or the like. But in a shower how could a person explained the obvious circumcision. Saying that it makes you think how black servicemen were treated. Would they be treated like the Jews or the soviet"untermensh". Hitler had a devout hatred for the Jews and Slavs, and he did walk out at the presentation of medals to the black US athletes in Berlin.

 

Thanks Adam, that's cleared up a point about the circumcision. You have to feel for the bloke who was told to discard his dogtag. He felt guilt, but his comrades in arms thought more of him than a dogtag. It is natural to feel guilt for others of his faith, but he was helpless to do so. But in saying that if they had chance to ditch their dogtags I believe they would. It is probable that they didn't get the chance to do so. Also in the initial shower/de-licing whatever it would have took some explaining away. They must have known they would be marked men, I can only assume that they didn't get chance to ditch them.

It is a bit of a sickener how the authorities told them not to talk about it. Funny how they can sweep the sacrifices of their citizens under the carpet to keep in with a few Nazi scientists. Double standards afoot.

 

Some were shipped to concentration camps, if their dogtags or paybooks had the magic word on them. Many American and British servicemembers of Jewish origin left their religion off their dogtags for that reason.

In Hong Kong's Sai Wan War Cemetery lies a Canadian serviceman named Rosenberg, who has no religion on his tombstone. He was killed in the battle for Hong Kong. He obviously kept his religion off of his dogtag in case the Germans got him. The Japanese did instead, which is a great irony.

Barga: Prisoners of Another War, describes the fate of Jewish GIs captured in the Bulge. They were sent to a concentration camp at Barga and used for slave labor.

 

The Japanese did instead, which is a great irony.

They treated all prisoners the same.............very poorly!

 

Thanks Adam, that's cleared up a point about the circumcision. You have to feel for the bloke who was told to discard his dogtag. He felt guilt, but his comrades in arms thought more of him than a dogtag. It is natural to feel guilt for others of his faith, but he was helpless to do so. But in saying that if they had chance to ditch their dogtags I believe they would. It is probable that they didn't get the chance to do so. Also in the initial shower/de-licing whatever it would have took some explaining away. They must have known they would be marked men, I can only assume that they didn't get chance to ditch them.

It is a bit of a sickener how the authorities told them not to talk about it. Funny how they can sweep the sacrifices of their citizens under the carpet to keep in with a few Nazi scientists. Double standards afoot.

Circumcision can never be the ultimate test for one's religion.

Regarding "special treatment" for those POWs who were circumcised.The German authorities were always conscious of retaliation by the Allies on German POWs.

The other important point was that it would be foolhardy for a POW get rid of his identity disc.This important aspect of POW identity was a "lifesaver" in the event of recapture when "on the run".Carrying forged papers as a foriegn worker etc was all very well until the POW was recaptured.To receive treatment again as a POW according to the Geneva Convention and not harsh treatment or death,the POW had to provide evidence that he was indeed a POW.If the POW could not supply official identity,the best he could do was to plead his being as a POW.He could be considered to be lucky not to be caught up with local Nazi Party thugs or as the war went on,the younger fanatics of the Hitler Youth.

However, there were cases of course of "persistence escapers" being murdered on recapture,identity discs or not,usually with a note to the Protecting Power,"shot while attempting to escape."Some these POWs vanished as "Nacht und Nebel",their final movements and resting place still unknown.

Then there is the infamous case of the 50 who were murdered on the mass escape from Stalag Luft 111,murdered on the whim of Hitler as an example and actioned down the Gestapo chain of command to the local thugs.

 

Agree with you on the circumcision question. It would be up to the individual parents concerned and some children were circumcised on health /medical grounds. My comment is that of the logic in Adams article where a non - Jew was taken away due to his being circumcised. The logic implied here by them, "he's circumcised, he must be jewish".

Good point about the dog tags, I can see where you're coming from with the point about not having them could mean not being able to prove pow status. My comment is reflected in the comment that the Germans saw the H on the dog tag marking them out as Jewish. It would be interesting to see if numbers of men who had the H on their dogtags disappeared on Nacht und Nebel as you put it. Maybe the reason those who were led away kept their tags is like you say not otherwise being able to prove pow status, but saying that do they weigh it up by disposing of the potential incriminating h embossed tag.

Something must have filtered through for this soldier to ditch his tag. Were cases of atrocities to Jews getting through to the pows.

 

It's my understanding that Jewish servicemen were treated by the Nazis in exactly the same way as Jews all over Europe - it didn't matter whether they were German Jews or not (who, incidentally, had their German citizenship revoked by the Nazis). On the subject of circumcision, it was - and is - common practice for American boys to be circumcised at birth, regardless of their religon, so it could never be used as a determining factor in the treatment meted out.

 

Agree with you on the circumcision question. It would be up to the individual parents concerned and some children were circumcised on health /medical grounds. My comment is that of the logic in Adams article where a non - Jew was taken away due to his being circumcised. The logic implied here by them, "he's circumcised, he must be jewish".

Good point about the dog tags, I can see where you're coming from with the point about not having them could mean not being able to prove pow status. My comment is reflected in the comment that the Germans saw the H on the dog tag marking them out as Jewish. It would be interesting to see if numbers of men who had the H on their dogtags disappeared on Nacht und Nebel as you put it. Maybe the reason those who were led away kept their tags is like you say not otherwise being able to prove pow status, but saying that do they weigh it up by disposing of the potential incriminating h embossed tag.

Something must have filtered through for this soldier to ditch his tag. Were cases of atrocities to Jews getting through to the pows.


I don't think the Jews of Britain, Canada, and America needed to hear about cases of atrocities before they became POWs...while the Holocaust was still mostly secret, the Nazis had made no secret of their anti-Semitism, and Kristallnacht, concentration camps, and Nazi anti-Semitic brutality was well-known. Jews who had fled Hitler told their harrowing tales to relatives when they reached their safe havens. So Jews going in the military, before they got captured, knew it was not wise to get captured.

I would say Americans felt the same way about being caught by the Japanese, for different reasons.

 

I am sure I have read somewhere that RAF aircrew and British Army & Navy used to replace the Jewish religion on all dogtags and official documents with Roman Catholic if there was the chance the Jew would fall into enemy hands. ie. if he was on the front line or flying over enemy held territory.
I'd quite like to know if this were true.

 

Some interesting info here about Jewish participation.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ww2/sugar1.html

Jewish RAF Special Operators in Radio Counter Measures with 101 Squadron

(September 1943–May 1945)

By Martin Sugarman

(Archivist, British Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women – AJEX - Jewish Military Museum, London)

 

First off, gentlemen, thanks so much for great links! This is something very useful, as I do research on Jewish soldiers in WW2 of Czechoslovakian origin since my 13 or so... Thanks! Useful!

I did quite a big project on "Jews in the Czechoslovakian Army in USSR". However, it is still not translated into English due to its 85 pages... And astill, I have to rework it and enhance with more Jewish vets' memoirs - http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=79723&postcount=44


What I know from there concerning the Jewish POW's - but those who fought under Czechoslovakian Foreign Army in USSR - http://www.czechpatriots.com/csmu/ - where, when fell into captivity, all tortured and murdered...

There were also numerous people of Jewish origin fighting in the Czechoslovak army in Great Britian, Middle East and, of course, i RAF. To avoid them, getting caught by Germans, most of the Czechoslovakian Jews serving in RAF were forced to either serve as mechanic staff or do the administration or medical service...

 

I was browsing in a bookshop earlier today & looked at a book called POW: Allied Prisoners in Europe 1939-45 by Adrian Gilbert. By chance, I opened it at the section dealing with this subject. According to it, American & British Commonwealth Jews weren't treated differently from other POWs in Stalags, although there were claims that Jewish GIs were murdered after capture in the Battle of the Bulge. Some men concealed their faith but others didn't. Towards the end of the war the Germans tried to segregate Jewish POWs, but still in the same camps. Where the senior Allied officers protested vigorously at this measure the Germans backed down. In those camps where the Jews were segregated they weren't in fact treated any worse than their comrades. Throughout the war the Germans were apparently concerned over the potential for retaliation against their POWs held by the Western Allies.

Some Palestinian Jews serving in the British Labour Corps were captured on Crete. The British senior officers successfully protested any attempt to treat them differently, such as the refusal of Red Cross parcels. On one occasion, a Palestinian who died of illness was, on the insistence of the British senior officer, given a military funeral & buried in a grave marked by a Star of David.

The above refers, of course, to American & British Commonwealth Jews. The book says that Soviet Jews were, if they were lucky, shot on capture.

 

I was browsing in a bookshop earlier today & looked at a book called POW: Allied Prisoners in Europe 1939-45 by Adrian Gilbert.

I'm waiting for this book to arrive from my bookclub - is it as good as the blurb states?

 

I'm waiting for this book to arrive from my bookclub - is it as good as the blurb states?

I only spent 5 minutes browsing through it & didn't buy it as I've got too many unread books at the moment, with more likely to arrive on 25 December. It seemed to be comprehensive & to possess a rare combination of detailed research & readability.

 

Tell me, I have piles of unread books...