Socials studies

Discovering Jewish Blood

The Nuremberg Laws turned Jews from German citizens into “residents of Germany.”

Technically, the law made intermarriage between Jews and German citizens a criminal offense,

but existing marriages were not dissolved or criminalized, perhaps in order to maintain public

support.

The laws transformed the lives of Jews all over Germany, including thousands of people who

had not previously known their families had Jewish heritage. Among them were Marianne

Schweitzer and her siblings.

Although we were not a churchgoing family, we observed Christmas and Easter in the

traditional ways and belonged to the Lutheran church. My parents, my three siblings and I

were all baptized and I took confirmation classes with Martin Niemöller, the former

U-boat commander and his brother who substituted when Martin was in prison for

anti-Nazi activities.

It was in 1932 that my [older] sister Rele provoked my father to reveal our Jewish ancestry

for the first time. She played the violin and rejected a violin teacher because he “looked too

Jewish.” Our father had responded in a rather convoluted way by saying, “Don’t you know

that your grandmother came from the same people as Jesus . . . ?”

Our mother’s side, the Körtes, were “Aryan” by Hitler’s standards. But our father’s parents,

Eugen Schweitzer and Algunde Hollaender were Jews born in Poland who had been

baptized as adults. My father and his two brothers were considered Jews by Hitler’s laws.

Though all were married to non-Jewish wives, our lives were dramatically changed. The

whole family was devastated and worried about our future. My mother’s “Aryan” side

stood by my father. My Körte grandmother said, “If Hitler is against Ernst [my father], I

am against Hitler.”

We heard no anti-Jewish remarks at home, but the antisemitism of that time was so

pervasive and the images in periodicals such as Der Stürmer* so ugly, that Rele later wrote

of her shock at learning her relation to “monsters.” She considered herself “the typical

German girl with blond, curly hair.” I took the news more in stride. I was happy to be able

to stay in school and glad not to be eligible to join Hitler Youth. . . .

In September of 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were introduced. My “Jewish” father was

barred from treating “Aryan” patients, employing “Aryans,” attending concerts or the

theater, or using public transportation. Rele had passed her Abitur, the certification of

completing a high school degree, but as a Mischling**, was ineligible to attend university.

She couldn’t marry her “Aryan” boyfriend Hans, a medical student.

Der Stürmer* - anti-semitic newspaper

Mischling** - ‘mixed blood’