PERSECUTION AFTER THE NOVEMBER POGROM

Although forced labor by people discriminated against by the Nazis for being so-called Mischlinge, that is, offspring of mixed Jewish and non-Jewish parentage, frequently has been documented in local studies on the persecution of Jews, neither older nor more recent academic research has focused in any depth on this subject. Only Dieter Maier devoted cursory attention to some forced-labor measures and a few organizational details, but no attention is given to forced labor's origins, development, and background. That author frequently does not even distinguish between the different measures against Jews in mixed marriages and against Mischlinge. Thus until now, research has not examined how the decision to introduce forced labor for Mischlinge came about, who made the decision, and when it occurred. Likewise, studies are lacking on what motivated this kind of forced labor, who organized it, and how it was carried out. Forced labor must, however, be viewed as a basic element of Nazi anti-Jewish policy, and for that reason the following discussion will attempt to close the existing gaps in knowledge about the persecution of Jewish Mischlinge and the so-called jüdisch Versippte, that is, Aryan partners married to Jews.

Since the first persecutory measures, racial classification of the victims had been an ongoing problem for the Nazi leadership. The Nuremberg Laws furnished an accepted hierarchy of full Jews, half-Jews, and so on, but in subsequent years the Nazi leadership had to decide each time anew which groups would be subjected to new anti-Jewish orders.