Steven R. Welch Lecturer in Modern German History, the University of Melbourne

The Case of Anton Mayer A Half-Jewish Deserter from the Wehrmacht

by Steven R. Welch Lecturer in Modern German History, the University of Melbourne

n 23 July, 1944, the sailor Reich, Anton Mayer was a Mischling, Dr. Bernhard Losener, one of the Anton Mayer, who had been first degree - a "half-Jew." 2 He thus notorious "experts" on Jewish affairs in 0 sentenced to death for belonged to those 100,000 or more the Interior Ministry, estimated in late desertion by a naval court three days individuals who found themselves 1935 that there were then some 45,000 earlier, penned a four-page letter to uncomfortably stranded in a racial no- half-Jewish men of military age in Admiral Donitz, Commander of the man's land carved out by the Nazis to Germany.5 The existence of this German Navy. Mayer pleaded to be separate Aryans on one side from relatively substantial pool of potential given the chance to redeem himself by Volljuden (full-Jews) on the other. soldiers may well have been one of the being dispatched immediately to the factors motivating the Nazi leadership to front. His letter (see illustration 1) create a special category for half-Jews, concluded with the following passage: thus preserving them for future use as soldiers for the Fiihrer. I beg you to believe me when I say that I Mischlinge and the was always a good German; in earlier years I German Military In its eagerness to demonstrate its always suffered under the persecution which loyalty to the principles of the new Nazi afflicted us as Germans in Romania. I was Before we examine in more detail the order, the German military had already proud of my Germanness and in my work as a dismissed its "full-blooded" Jewish language teacher I transmitted German culture tragic case of Anton Mayer, first it is officers and soldiers in the course of and German values! I ask you, Herr Admiral, necessary to survey the bizarre to consider the fact that I am the only son of topography of that no-man's land 1934, well before the promulgation of my elderly parents who sacrificed everything inhabited by the Mischlinge and to the Nuremberg Laws. The initial purging for my studies. I am their sole support in their chronicle their treatment by the German of Jews from the 100,000 man army old age and my disgraceful end would also military. The category of Mischling was involved a relatively small number of mean their death! I beg you, Herr Admiral, to invented in late 1935, in the process of Jewish soldiers and officers, perhaps no allow me the chance to prove myself under the refining the stipulations of the infamous more than 70.6 In spring 1935, when most difficult circumstances! Long live our Nuremberg Laws issued in September of Hitler reinstituted compulsory military great Fiihrer! Long live Greater Germany! 1 that same year. The First Regulation to service - a blatant violation of the As was the case for thousands of the Reich Citizenship Law of 14 provisions of the Versailles Treaty - a other German soldiers sentenced to death November 1935, singled out for new conscription law came into effect. for desertion during World War II, discrimination a new group consisting of Paragraph 15 of that law stipulated that Mayer's request fell on deaf ears. On 21 individuals of "mixed Jewish blood."3 In "Aryan descent is a precondition for August, 1944 he was beheaded by general terms, Mischlinge of the first active military service". 7 A subsequent guillotine in the prison of Brandenburg- degree were persons who descended ordinance issued in late May 1935 Havel west of Berlin. This method of from two Jewish grandparents, while defined as "non-Aryan" anyone who had execution - as opposed to the normal Mischlinge of the second degree had just one Jewish parent or grandparent. At the method of death by firing squad - was one Jewish grandparent. According to a same time, the ordinance also stated that considered particularly dishonourable census taken in 1939 there were 64,000 non-Aryans could petition for acceptance and "unsoldierly" and was reserved for Mischlinge of the first degree (half- into the military, thus leaving open the cases deemed especially heinous by the Jews) and 43,000 Mischlinge of the possibility that exceptions to the harsh military leadership. In Anton Mayer's second degree (quarter-Jews) in exclusionary policy might be approved. 8 case it was apparently his racial origins Germany, including the recently annexed After the Nuremberg Laws were which disqualified him from being territories of Austria and the issued in late 1935, it became necessary executed by firing squad. In the Sudetenland.4 It is unclear how many of for the military to revise its own grotesque racist terminology of the Third the half-Jews were males of military age. definitions of non-Aryans in order to bring them in line with the legal norms cases". Soldiers or their commanders remain in the military as a way of the regime had established. As a result, could submit petitions to the Armed protecting themselves and their Jewish the revamped conscription law of June Forces Command requesting that family members. By performing bravely 1936 distinguished between Jews and individual half-Jews be permitted to on the battlefield they believed they Mischlinge. The former were remain soldiers (see illustration 2). could prove their loyalty and utility to the categorically excluded from military Hitler's secret order appears to have Nazi regime and thus pave the way for service: "A Jew cannot carry out active had little immediate impact. Some units recognition and acceptance in German military service". 9 All Mischlinge, by apparently did not hear about the order, society once the war was over. Although contrast, were required to serve in the in others commanders simply ignored it. these hopes ultimately proved German military. Mischlinge of the first In those units where it did become unfounded, they were temporarily degree, or half-Jews, were, however, known it triggered a surge of petitions as nourished by actions taken by Hitler and prohibited from being promoted to the an army communication of August, 1940 the military leadership in the course of status of non-commissioned officer. Such indicated. 12 Some of these petitions did, 1941. advancement would put them in a in fact, receive Hitler's approval and position of command over Aryans, In July 1941, just weeks after such soldiers were issued a document obviously an unacceptable situation from Operation Barbarossa had been launched which authorised them to remain in the against the Soviet Union, Hitler endorsed the racist point of view endorsed by the Wehrmacht (see illustration 3). A month German military. Quarter-Jews enjoyed a a policy which allowed half-Jews who later Army High Command (OKH) had already served in Wehrmacht and slightly greater degree of equality with complained that "again and again cases their Aryan comrades and could in had been dismissed as a result of his have come to the attention of the OKH in order of April 1940, to apply to be exceptional cases become non- which Jewish Mischlinge of the first commissioned officers. recalled to military service if they had degree (50%) or soldiers married to such won a war decoration (the Iron Cross or a Jewish Mischlinge are still in active Helmut Kruger, a half-Jew born in campaign citation). 16 Every single case military service in violation of the 1913, commented in his memoirs that had to be referred to Armed Forces order...of 20.4.40". 13 The OKH insisted Mischlinge greeted the 1936 law with Command for the Rihrer's personal that all active servicemen had to sign a relief: "Many Mischlinge of military age approval. between 18 and 25 joyfully volunteered declaration attesting to their racial status for the Labor Service or the military in (see illustration 4). What prompted such a policy change on Hitler's part? The introductory the belief that after fulfilling their 'duty It seems quite likely that from comments at the meeting at which the of honour to the German people' they autumn 1940 on many half-Jews signed proposals were discussed provide some might anticipate some additional false Aryan declarations in order to avoid mitigation [of pressure] in their being expelled from the military. Others, clues. The chair of the meeting noted professional lives and above all more unaware of their status as Jewish "that the Fiihrer has indicated that he protection for their Jewish parent". 1° Mischlinge, also signed declarations wishes to show that he is not ungrateful These hopes for better treatment in return affirming that they were of German toward Mischlinge who have fought and for service to the Nazi fatherland were, blood and stayed with their army units. bled for the Third Reich and wishes to however, sadly misplaced as the events Their true status would only come to avoid [a situation] in which after the war of the coming years were to demonstrate. light when they later sought permission front fighters (possibly with war decorations) express publicly at home During the first six months of the war to marry - and were thus required to and abroad their anger and discontent. It Jewish Mischlinge fought alongside their submit documented proof of their Aryan is also intended that 25% Mischlinge, Aryan comrades in the Blitzkrieg against descent - or for some other reason came who exhibit certain characteristics, may Poland as well as in the Sitzkrieg in the to the attention of the Nazi bureaucracy be treated after the war as Germans West. Many, like Helmut Kruger, were which policed racial purity in the Third [Deutschbliitige]." 17 Manpower promoted and decorated for bravery. Reich. considerations, which would not become Nevertheless, on 8 April, 1940, on the An undetermined number of acute until Barbarossa foundered at the eve of the German occupation of Mischlinge, but most likely tens of end of 1941, certainly were not the Denmark and the invasion of Norway, thousands, remained in the German reason for recalling Mischlinge at this Hitler ordered that all half-Jewish military despite Hitler's order for their point. Hitler and the entire Nazi soldiers and all soldiers married to Jews dismissa1. 14 Helmut Kruger, wearer of leadership were convinced in July 1941 or half-Jews be immediately dismissed the Iron Cross, second class, was not that victory could be expected within a from all branches of the Wehrmacht. 11 expelled until April 1941. His brother matter of weeks or at most a few months. Quarter-Jews were allowed to remain, as Answald continued to serve in the army This victory euphoria evidently were half-Jewish officers who had until the summer of 1942, by which time encouraged the sudden concern with previously been declared by Hitler to be he had been wounded in Russia and, like "post-war" considerations. of "German blood" (deutschbliitig). The his older brother, been decorated with the order did allow for exceptions "in special Iron Cross. 15 Many half-Jews sought to (continued on page 12)

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Illustrations

Illustration 1: First page of letter to Admiral Donitz from Anton Mayer requesting that his death sentence for desertion be commuted to a prison sentence which would allow him to redeem himself on the front. Illustration 2: Copy of Hitler's secret order of 8 April 1940 which ordered the dismissal of all half-Jews from the Wehrmacht.

Illustration 3: Copy of an authorisation from Hitler allowing Mischling Ri1diger von B. to remain in the army and stating that he is eligible to be considered for promotions. Illustration 4: An Aryan declaration form. All soldiers were required to fill out such a declaration and indicate whether they and/or their wives were of German blood or were Mischlinge. A Mischling would have to stipulate which category he belonged to: 25 or 50% Jewish Mischling. Illustration 5: First page of the court-martial verdict dated 20 July 1944 which sentenced Anton Mayer to death for desertion. Illustration 6: Notice sent to Anton Mayer's father informing him of his son's execution on 21 August 1944, with the warning that no public announcements of the death were permitted.

■m (continued from page 9) The Court-Martial and trial were pushed back while he Hitler's decision to allow some recovered from his injuries. Jewish Mischlinge to rejoin the of a Mischling At the time of his arrest, Anton Wehrmacht in the summer of 1941 may Deserter Mayer admitted that he was a Mischling, well have been linked to his project of If we return now to the case of Anton and so from the outset of his court- arriving at a "Final Solution" of the Mayer we can begin by observing that he martial the racial issue became a central Jewish problem. While historians still should never have been in the factor in the deliberations. The military debate the exact details of the decision- Wehrmacht. At the time of his call-up court contacted the German authorities in making process which set the Holocaust (via the German embassy in Budapest) in Romania and requested a copy of his in motion, there seems to be a broad January 1942, half-Jews were barred mother's birth certificate in order to consensus that the key decisions leading from serving in the military. Born in verify that she was in fact a full Jew. The to the extermination of European Jewry Budapest in 1911, Mayer was the son of court also discovered that there was no were taken in the course of spring or an Austrian father and a Jewish Aryan declaration from Mayer on file summer 1941. The issue of what should Hungarian mother. Rather than reveal with the military authorities in Budapest be done with the Mischlinge proved to that he was a half-Jew, however, and thus or with his unit. This saved him from a be one of the thorniest and most endanger himself and his parents, Mayer possible additional charge of having intractable for the racial planners of the told officials at the German embassy that made a false declaration. Third Reich. From the Nazi perspective, he was of Aryan descent. In breach of In his pre-trial interrogations Mayer the Mischlinge were not Jews, nor were procedure, he was never asked by the claimed that once he had overstayed his they Germans. They were a troublesome military authorities to fill out the leave he had not returned to his unit out "third race" whose very existence marred standard Aryan declaration required of of fear of the punishment he was bound the simplistic binary divisions between all soldiers. to incur. "I didn't really give any further "us" and "them," between racial comrade Mayer served during 1942 as an thought to my future fate, in particular to and racial other which were so central a the issue of rejoining the army." In army interpreter in France. His unit feature of the Nazi world view. In order response to the question whether he had commander praised his intelligence but to bring recalcitrant reality into line with intended to desert, Mayer said he could noted that "as a soldier [he is] too soft" this world view it was necessary to give no satisfactory answer and went on and that his attitude toward the Third resolve the Mischling issue. Since war to comment: "Two thoughts continually Reich was less than enthusiastic. He had was the ultimate testing ground of went through my head: one, that I should no previous criminal record in civilian worthiness, Hitler may well have decided permanently escape ftom military life and had had only one minor brush to let it function as the final arbiter of the service; the other, that I should turn with the military discipline system when Mischling issue. 18 myself in. Both thoughts constantly he received three days confinement to struggled within in me without either A year later the situation had quarters for lying about the whereabouts winning the upper hand." Throughout all changed. The Eastern front had turned of his boots. of the subsequent court-martial into a war of attrition, and the prospects On home leave in Bucharest with his proceedings Mayer never admitted any for a German victory had evaporated. parents in December 1942, Mayer intention to desert. He argued at one Fantasies about the post-war era gave became ill and did not depart on time for point that he feared being punished more way to premonitions of defeat and ruin. his return to France. After overstaying severely for his absence without leave From the summer of 1942 on, policy his leave by three weeks he finally because of he was a half-Jew and toward Mischlinge became harsher. At boarded a train on 12 January 1943, therefore did not dare to return to his the end of September 1942, the Armed headed for France via Vienna. He unit. But at the time of his desertion the Forces Command issued an order once detrained, however, in Budapest and German military authorities had no again calling for the dismissal of all half- visited his fiancée and various friends knowledge of his racial background. This Jews still in the military. 19 Only those and relatives. He stayed in Budapest and became known to them only after Mayer half-Jewish officers who had earlier been passed himself off as a German himself revealed it to them following his declared to be of German blood were interpreter stationed in the harbour. Five arrest.22 allowed to stay. But in late 1944, these months later, on 22 June 1943, he was Mayer's fear of punishment once he officers were expelled as wel1. 2° On 28 arrested on a city street by a military had overstayed his leave was quite November, 1944, the Armed Forces police patrol. Mayer attempted to run understandable and justified, given the Command, in response to a request from away but was quickly recaptured. Two harsh punishments which were the Security Police, ordered that any half- days later he suffered serious injuries commonly meted out for AWOL and Jews still discovered in the military were when he jumped out of a fourth floor desertion. Just why he overstayed his to be expelled and arrangements made so window of the military jail in an attempt leave in December, however, remains a that they would "be picked up without to escape by way of the roof of mystery. Mayer admitted in court that delay" by the Gestapo. 21 neighbouring house. His interrogation his illness at the end of December had not been so severe that he could not have punishment. 24 During 1944 he was, in first trial. "Although the weight of the returned on time to his unit, and he had fact, subjected to the ordeal of defendant's guilt makes the death failed to consult either a military or a undergoing four court-martial penalty appear appropriate, the court civilian doctor. One is left to speculate proceedings on the charge of desertion. could not decide to apply it since the that he decided at some point in Multiple trials proved necessary because defendant would not have been used in December or even January - as a result of the naval Commander (Oberbefehl- military service if his Mischling status conversations with his parents or friends, shaber) refused after each of the first had been known to the military office or after seeing his fiancée in early three trials to confirm the prison responsible for his induction." The legal January? - not to return to his unit. sentences which had been handed down, section of Navy Supreme Command Perhaps his failure to leave Bucharest on insisting that the death penalty was found this argument no more convincing time was due simply to his desire to see required.25 now than it had back in January. It his fiancée in Budapest. (He had missed rejected the verdict, insisting that "it seeing her when he travelled through In each of the first three trials cannot be permitted that [the defendant] Budapest on his way home in Mayer's status as a Mischling ironically is given preferential treatment vis-à-vis December.) Perhaps he had already worked to his advantage. At his first trial soldiers of German blood on the grounds in Vienna in January 1944, the judge decided weeks or months before that he that he is a Mischling". In order to avoid argued that "since he is a Jewish would use his leave as an opportunity to such an "unsatisfactory outcome" Mayer turn his back on the navy. Or perhaps, as Mischling, first degree, this does not was ordered to stand trial yet again. his comments in his interrogations seem qualify as a crime worthy of death. If the to hint, he never really "decided" to actual situation had been known, the We have no evidence to indicate just desert at all, but let himself be driven defendant would not have become a how this continuous series of court- along by events, partially paralysed by a soldier." Mayer was therefore sentenced martinis affected Anton Mayer, but it mixture of indecisiveness and fear. The to ten years in prison. In the seems safe to assume that the available records do not permit any confirmation process this reasoning was psychological stress must have been resolution of this issue. sharply attacked in the legal opinion incredibly severe. After his first three supplied by the military judge attached sentences were rejected as too lenient From the perspective of the military to the Commander of Naval Operations (although 15 years imprisonment was, in justice system, Mayer's motives were in West: "the fact that the defendant is a practice, the maximum prison sentence any event only of secondary importance. Jewish Mischling, first degree, is in no imposed for desertion), he must have The primary concern was to determine way sufficient to justify a more lenient sensed that his chances for survival were not why but whether he had deserted, judgment". Very much in line with very slim indeed. Brought before a that is, whether he had sought to separate prevailing practice, he argued that the court-martial for the fourth time on 20 himself permanently from the army. death penalty was the only appropriate July 1944, the day of Hitler's 55th What his precise motivation might have penalty. The commander endorsed this birthday, Mayer was finally sentenced to been was a matter that did not demand view and called for a second trial in death (see illustration 5)..The judge now definitive clarification. The military Vienna. dutifully echoed the line of his military judges who dealt with Mayer's case superiors: "to give him preferential In the second trial in March the found little difficulty in deciding that he treatment because he is a Mischling military prosecutor, taking his cue from was guilty of desertion. They were would be an injustice to soldiers of the obvious wishes of his superiors, persuaded by the length of his absence German blood." At last, the naval called for the death penalty. The judge, (over five months) and by his failure to leadership had achieved its goal of however, suggested that part of the contact any military office during that having Mayer's desertion punished with blame fell on the military officials who time that he had indeed deserted. 23 The death. In doing so it had also defended fact that he had continued to wear his failed to secure an Aryan declaration the "principle" that Mischling status from Mayer as they were required to do. military uniform in Budapest was could not be invoked as a way for half- interpreted not as an indication of his He argued that since half-Jews had been Jewish deserters to gain "preferential intention to return at some point to dismissed from the military by Hitler's treatment" over Aryan deserters. On 5 order in 1940, this case of desertion was military service, but rather as a tactic to August, the death sentence was protect him from police scrutiny and different from other desertion cases. A confirmed and sixteen days later, at enable him to make social contacts which sentence of 15 years in prison was 10:56 am (the exact time meticulously would aid him in prolonging his deemed appropriate. Admiral Warzecha noted by the court clerk) on 23 August, desertion. of the Navy High Command refused 1944, Anton Mayer was beheaded His confirmation and ordered a new trial in Anton Mayer's court-martial was, father in Bucharest was notified four Berlin. nevertheless, no simple matter. His status days after the execution. The terse note as a Mischling, first degree, proved to be In the third trial held in June 1944, contained a reminder that since his son's a serious complicating factor when it the judge adopted the same line of death had been dishonourable, "the came to determining the appropriate reasoning that had been presented at the placing of death notices or obituaries in newspapers, magazines, etc. is Nazi racial state actually worked to the Mischlinge by the Wehrmacht forbidden" (see illustration 6). advantage of the half-Jews, since the accurately mirrored the shifting and Anton Mayer's case is perhaps the death rate in the convict battalions was often confused policy toward Mischlinge most dramatic and well-documented of a undoubtedly higher than in the camps in in the Reich at large and reflected the handful of desertion cases involving half- Germany. Ironically, then, Nazi regime's own difficulties in finding Jews which I have discovered among the discrimination against these convicted a solution to a "problem" of its own surviving court-martial records of the Mischlinge greatly enhanced their invention. The history of the Mischlinge, Third Reich. Not all half-Jewish likelihood of survival. unfortunately, remains a rather neglected deserters suffered the same fate as Ironies and paradoxes pervade the aspect of the Third Reich. The case of Mayer. One was executed by firing squad story of Jewish Mischlinge in the Third Anton Mayer provides one small way of in December 1941. Another, sentenced to Reich, as is typically the case with opening up a part of this history and death in December 1943, had his groups posed uneasily along the fault allowing us to examine a very revealing sentence commuted to 12 years in prison lines of a society. The uncertain, dimension of the terrible reality of and was sent to the concentration camp changing, ambiguous treatment of Hitler's racial state. + in Emsland (where nearly all convicted soldiers were confined). Two other half- Jews, both of whom, interestingly, had been involved with the Nazi movement in the early 1930s (one as a party Notes member and SA man, the other as a contact man between the right-wing veterans organisation Stahlhelm and the 1 Letter of 23 July 1944 in BA-ZNS RM I 21-35944. All the material cited in this article on SA) were given prison sentences of four the Mayer case is drawn from this file contained in the German Bundesarchiv branch in years and eight years respectively. And Kornelimtinster. in 1940, one young half-Jewish man who 2 In this article I have retained the distasteful words Mischlinge and half-Jew without had failed to arrive on time at the quotation marks as terminus technicus of the Third Reich. collection point for his induction and 3 An English translation of the Regulation can be found in Inside Hitler's Germany, then stayed in Berlin for five weeks was Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1992, ed. by Benjamin Sax and Dieter Kuntz, pp. tried for desertion but ultimately 404-406. Half-Jews who practiced the Jewish religion or were married to a Jew were sentenced to a five year prison term for considered to belong to the category of full-Jews. The Nazi legal definition of Mischlinge being AWOL. has been summarised by Raul Hilberg in the following terms: "(1) any person who descended from two Jewish grandparents (half-Jewish), but who (a) did not adhere (or As these examples indicate, the adhered no longer) to the Jewish religion on September 15, 1935, and who did not join it treatment of half-Jewish deserters by the at any subsequent time, and (b) was not married (or was married no longer) to a Jewish military justice system was not uniform. person on September 1 1935, and who did not marry such a person at any subsequent But in all but one of the cases, the racial time (such half-Jews were called Mischlinge of the first degree), and (2) any person status of the defendants was a factor descended from one Jewish grandparent (Mischling of the second degree)". Cited in which the courts-martial took into Hilberg's The Destruction of the European Jews, New York: Harper and Row, 1961, p. account in rendering their judgments. In 48. several of the verdicts the judges invoked 4 Hilberg, Destruction, p. 268. crude Jewish stereotypes or made 5 Cited in Hilberg, Destruction, p. 47. denigrating remarks about the racial 6 Manfred Messerschmidt, "Juden im preuBisch-deutschen Heer" in Deutsche Jiidische inferiority of the defendant. Those half- Soldaten 1914-1945, edited by the Militargeschichtlichen Forschungsamt, Freiburg, 1982, Jews who were given prison sentences p. 115. Jewish soldiers who were veterans of World War I were initially allowed to remain were also treated differently than other in the army. (An estimated 100,000 German Jews had served in World War I; about military convicts in one crucial respect: 12,000 were killed, just under 30,000 were decorated, and 2,000 became officers.) The because they were Mischlinge they were prohibited from being sent back to the purge process was initially set in motion by an order issued on 28 February 1934 by front in so-called penal battalions. Minister of Defense General Werner von Blomberg. Non-Aryan soldiers were to be Service in such battalions theoretically expelled from the military on grounds of "unfitness for duty." See Rolf Vogel, Ein Stuck offered the opportunity of rehabilitation von uns: Deutsche Juden in deutschen Armeen 1813-1976. Eine Dokutnentation. Mainz: and possible reintegration into the regular Hase & Koehler Verlag, 1977, p. 222. army (although this rarely happened). 7 Paragraph 15 is reprinted in Vogel, Stuck, p. 231. Since half-Jews had been denied the right 8 Ibid, p. 232. to serve in the military, they were also 9 Messerschmidt, "Juden," p. 118. considered unsuitable for the convict 10 Helmut Krtiger. Der halbe Stern. Leben als deutsch-jiidischer "Mischling" im Dritten battalions. Here the twisted logic of the 11 OKW Az 12 10-20J (Ic) Nr. 524/40 geh. 8 April simply dismiss him rather than court-martial him 1940, for desertion. 12 Allgemeine-Heeres-Mitteilung 1940, Ziff. 849, 23 Mayer's lawyer advanced a very clever defence in dated 7 August, 1940, cited in Kruger, Stern, pp. an attempt to have his client sentenced for AWOL 75-76. rather than desertion. Dr. Postisen argued that since 13 Allgemeine-Heeres-Mitteilung 1940, Ziff. 1041, Mayer was a half-Jew and was therefore not dated 18 September, 1940, cited in Kruger, Stern, allowed to serve in the military, he could not fulfill p. 76. the subjective condition of intending to withdraw 14 The exact number of Mischlinge who served in the permanently from military service. Since he could Wehrmacht is unknown. In his memoirs Helmut at any time, simply by pointing out his racial status, Kruger notes that documents he had consulted listed immediately effect his release from military service, a total of 80,000 in 1943/44. This figure almost why would he take the much more dangerous certainly includes Mischlinge of both first and method of desertion? The difficulty with this second degree as well as soldiers married to approach was that Mayer himself stated quite Mischlinge. Kriiger, Stern, p. 75, note 30. explicitly in both his first and second trials that he 15 Kruger, Stern, p. 71. was unaware that he would have been dismissed 16 Aktenvermerk detailing a meeting of OKW section from the military if his racial status were known. I, (Ic) held in Berlin 10 July 1941. BA-ZNS 24 Under German military law desertion was normally Sammlung jildische Mischling. The proposals punishable by either a (usually lengthy) prison outlined at this meeting were issued 6 days later and sentence or by death. The desire on the part of distributed throughout the Wehrmacht. OKH Nr. Hitler and the military leadership to "maintain 6840/41 g PA 2 (Ic) 16 July 1941. An airforce manly discipline" in the Wehrmacht and prevent the communication (Merkblatt 99) dated 26 February disintegration which they believed had occurred at 1942 also followed the policy outlined in the July the end of World War I meant that the death penalty 1941 meeting. came to be regarded as the "standard" punishment 17 Aktenvermerk detailing a meeting of OKW sec Lion for desertion. Of 1314 desertion cases which I have (Ic) held in Berlin 10 July 1941. BA-ZNS studied, 894 or 68%, resulted in death sentences. Sammlung jiidische Mischling. 25 If a military court sentenced a defendant to death or 18 This line of interpretation is reinforced by an order to a prison term of more than one year the decision , issued just three weeks later on 2 August, 1941, in had to be referred to one of the Commanders of the which Hitler directed that all Mischlinge who had appropriate branch of service. A military judge been given permission to remain in service or attached to the staff of the Commander had to draft allowed to rejoin be sent immediately to units a legal opinion commenting on the case and fighting on the Eastern front. Their conduct in indicating whether he thought the sentence should combat would serve as the basis for deciding be confirmed. If the Commander gave his whether they would be given equality with Germans confirmation, the sentence became legal and after the war. OKH Br. 7486/41 PA 2 (1/Ic) 4 binding. If the sentence was not confirmed, another August 1941, BA-ZNS Sammlung jUdische court-martial had to be convened and the matter Mischling. retried. The top military leadership in the Third 19 Cited by Messerschmidt, "Juden," p. 118. Reich thus had the final say in determining how 20 Heerespersonalamt Nr. 13 640/44 g Ag P 2/3b, 26 soldiers charged with serious offenses (like October, 1944, BA-ZNS Sammlung jildische desertion and subversion) would be punished. In my Mischling. sample of 889 desertion cases 100, or some 11%, 21 OKW Az. I i 20.12 NSF W/4 (J) lb, dated 28 were ordered to be retried. In 94 of these 100 cases November, 1944, BA-ZNS Sammlung jtidische the reason was that the penalty was considered too Mischling. lenient. Anton Mayer's case was one of only four in 22 Mayer explained that he had revealed his half- my sample, however, which were tried a total of Jewish background because he believed it might four times before being resolved. help to exonerate him. Perhaps he was hoping that if his background were known the military would ■