Mischling Test refers to the
legal test
In law, a test is a commonly applied method of evaluation used to resolve matters of jurisprudence. In the context of a trial, a hearing, discovery, or other kinds of legal proceedings, the resolution of certain questions of fact or law may hinge ...
under
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
's
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...
that was applied to determine whether a person was considered a "
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
" or a ''
Mischling
(; " mix-ling"; plural: ) was a pejorative legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed "Aryan" and non-Aryan, such as Jewish, ancestry as codified in the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935. In German, the word has the general denota ...
'' (mixed-blood).
Background
On 11 April 1933 the regime promulgated the ''First Supplementary Decree for the Execution of the
Law of Restoration of the Professional Civil Service'', colloquially known as the ''First Racial Definition''. This implementing decree stipulated that a person would be regarded as a racial Jew for purposes of the law if he had one Jewish parent or one Jewish grandparent, ''i.e.'' if the ancestor was "of the Jewish faith."
[The decree stipulated in particular that for purposes of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service ] A person is ... non-Aryan f... descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. This holds true even if only one parent or grandparent is ... non-Aryan ... ndespecially obtains if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith.
See ''Mendes-Florh'' p. 642 for the text and for his commentary, in which he also notes that the term "non-Aryan" was the common circumlocution
Circumlocution (also called circumduction, circumvolution, periphrasis, kenning, or ambage) is the use of an unnecessarily large number of words to express an idea. It is sometimes necessary in communication (for example, to work around lexical ga ...
for "Jew" in legal documents until the Nuremberg Laws.
Under the law, Jews were to be discharged from the civil service, unless they had been employed since before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
or unless they had fought on the
front lines in the war, or had a father or son who had been killed in the war.
The "one Jewish grandparent" rule was predominant for a period of time in the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, and had typically been the test incorporated into the
Aryan Paragraph
An Aryan paragraph (german: Arierparagraph) was a clause in the statutes of an organization, corporation, or real estate deed that reserved membership and/or right of residence solely for members of the "Aryan race" and excluded from such rights a ...
, which had been in currency before
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's assumption of power on 30 January 1933. However, various social and political factions militated in favor of a new set of discriminatory laws, which were forthcoming at the
NSDAP
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
party rally in 1935 in Nuremberg.
The
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...
, as originally promulgated in September 1935, used the term "Jew" but did not define the term. The definition of the term was problematic for the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
and it was not until the issuance of a supplementary regulation in mid-November 1935 that a legal test that was specific to the Nuremberg laws was formally published.
The original draftsmen of the Nuremberg Laws, puzzled over the problem and pressed for a quick solution, solved it by the simple expedient of limiting the meaning of the term to encompass only "full Jews" (german: Volljuden). This test was relatively easy to state and apply, but Hitler vetoed the idea, without stipulating what he wanted as a replacement.
Meetings among Government and Party officials after the September 1933 annual Nuremberg party rally revealed the existence of two factions:
*the radicals, generally non-government party officials, who wanted a broad meaning of the term "Jew," with the concomitant effect of a stricter standard for having "German blood." Their focus was
ideological
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...
and their justification was the extreme Hitlerian rhetoric of the last ten years. The radicals wanted "quarter-Jews" classified as "Jews": a person with one Jewish grandparent would be deemed "Jewish." Persons with less Jewish ancestry would be considered "Mischlinge."
*the pragmatists, generally government officials, who were concerned with foreign policy and international implications, including possible economic sanctions at a time that the
economy of Nazi Germany
Like many other Western nations at the time, Germany suffered the economic effects of the Great Depression with unemployment soaring around the Wall Street Crash of 1929. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he introduced poli ...
was still fragile. Their view was that only persons with three or four Jewish grandparents would be classified as "Jewish," with others considered "Mischlinge."
Obviously there was a considerable divergence of opinion. The resulting compromise was implemented by the First Supplementary Decree. The practical application of "mischling" first and second degree were further elaborated in the
Wannsee Conferences and meetings on the "final solution".
Categories
The First Supplementary Decree of 14 November 1935 (Decree) addressed this issue by defining three categories:
*Persons of German or kindred blood
*Jews
*Persons of mixed Jewish blood (Mischlinge)
By applying the test, a person would be classified into exactly one of the preceding categories.
The test
The Decree sets up the legal test defined here.
Part one
The first part of the test is implemented by setting up three categories as follows:
*A person with 3 or more Jewish grandparents is considered to be a Jew.
*A person with exactly two Jewish grandparents is considered to be either a Jew or a Mischling of the first degree (discussed below, second part of test)
*A person with only one Jewish grandparent is considered to be a Mischling of the second degree.
[Second degree Mischlinge were entitled only to marry "true Germans" (i.e. neither Jews nor Mischlinge) under the subsequent Nazi racial regulations. In this fashion their "Jewishness" would eventually be diluted in their descendants. Second degree Mischlinge did not suffer, for the most part, the racial persecution aimed at the Jews, the Nazis being content with a policy of assimilation for them.]
Part two
The remaining problem was the treatment of a person with two Jewish and two non-Jewish grandparents. This leads to the second part of the test, which has four subdivisions. A person with exactly two Jewish grandparents was deemed a Jew (specifically, a )
[These persons were "Jews under (or by virtue of) the law" (german: Geltungsjuden)] if either:
*(a) he is a member of the Jewish religious community on 14 November 1935 or later becomes a member; or
*(b) he is married to a Jew on 14 November 1935 or later marries a Jew; or
*(c) his parents were married on or after 17 September 1935, and one of his parents is Jewish; or
*(d) he is born out of wedlock after 31 July 1936, and one of his parents is Jewish.
If such a person is not classified as a Jew under any of these four subtests, then he is a Mischling of the 1st degree (by the terms of Part One).
Examples
![Nuremberg laws Racial Chart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Nuremberg_laws_Racial_Chart.jpg)
The following ''Examples'' demonstrate how Part Two of the Decree's legal test operates. Remember that in every case, X always has ''exactly two Jewish grandparents''. Unless this initial condition applies, there is no point in applying these tests, as the categorization into the three basic classes (Jew, Mischling, German) is only complicated in the case of "exactly two" Jewish grandparents.
Test A
*X had always worshiped as a Jew but on 1 November 1935 he converted to Catholicism. He is a Mischling (1st degree) as a result. If he had waited two more weeks to convert, he would be classified as (and would always remain) a Jew.
*X had left the Jewish religious community but rejoins it on 1 December 1935. He was a Mischling but on 1 December he will be classified as a Jew.
Test B
*X had been married to a Jew for years but on 1 November 1935, their divorce becomes final. He is a Mischling (1st degree) as a result. If the divorce proceedings had lasted for two more weeks, he would be classified as (and would always remain) a Jew.
*X was a lifelong bachelor but married a Jew on December 1, 1935. He was a Mischling but on December 1 he will be classified as a Jew.
Test C
*X has one Jewish and one non-Jewish parent and they are married 15 September 1935. He is born two years thereafter. He is a Mischling (1st degree). Same result if he is born on 1 October 1935.
*X has one Jewish and one non-Jewish parent and they are married 15 October 1935. He is born two years thereafter. He is classified as a Jew. Same result if he is born 1 November 1935.
Test D
*X has one Jewish and one non-Jewish parent, who never marry right. He is born 10 August 1936. He is classified as a Jew. If he had been born two weeks earlier (e.g. 27 July 1936), he may have been classified as a Mischling (1st degree), depending on when his parents married (or if they did at all).
*X has one Jewish and one non-Jewish parent. He is born 27 July 1936.
:*if his parents were married on 15 September 1935, he is a Mischling (1st degree).
:*if his parents were married on 15 October 1935, he is a Jew.
:*if his parents never marry, he is a Mischling (1st degree).
See also
*
Ahnenpass
The ''Ahnenpaß'' (literally, "ancestor pass") documented the Aryan lineage of people "of German blood" in Nazi Germany. It was one of the forms of the Aryan certificate (''Ariernachweis'') and issued by the "Reich Association of Marriage Regis ...
*
Antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
*
Geltungsjude
*
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
*
Metic
In ancient Greece, a metic (Ancient Greek: , : from , , indicating change, and , 'dwelling') was a foreign resident of Athens, one who did not have citizen rights in their Greek city-state (''polis'') of residence.
Origin
The history of foreign m ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
* (''Kershaw'')
*
*{{cite book , last = Toland , first = John , title = Adolf Hitler , url = https://archive.org/details/adolfhitler02tola , url-access = registration , author-link=John Toland, publisher = Doubleday & Company , year = 1976 , location = New York , isbn = 0-385-03724-4
External links
Reich Citizenship Law of 15 September 1935 and 14 November 1935 Supplementary Decree
Law in Nazi Germany
Nazi eugenics
Multiracial affairs in Europe