Situation within the German Reich[edit]
During the Nazi era, half-Jews was not a legal term. The term was not used in the Nuremberg Race Laws and the related ordinances. In 1941 the word half-Jew was included in the Duden for the first time: the group of "Jewish half-breeds" was further divided into "Jewish half-breeds of the first degree" with two Jewish grandparents and "Jewish half-breeds of the second degree" with one Jewish grandparent.[1] However, first-degree hybrids were classified in different categories, despite the assumption of the same "biological-racial ancestry". They were not regarded as "hybrids" but as "full Jews" if they belonged to the Jewish religious community, were married to a Jew or married a Jew after 1935. The term "Geltungsjude" was later coined for this group of "half-Jews".
This differentiated classification, which is blurred by the term "Halbjude", was of existential importance for those affected. If they were classified unfavourably, they were not admitted to university; they were forced to work at an early stage or were refused a marriage permit. During the Second World War, in marital union with a "full Jew", "half-Jews" classified as "Jews of Geltungsjuden" were deported with their spouses to ghettos or extermination camps. This danger also threatened "half-Jewish" children if the non-Jewish spouse had converted to the Jewish faith, and even if the spouses separated again to spare the children persecution.[2]
The Nazi Party tried - as discussed at the Wannsee Conference - to classify all "half-Jews" legally as "full Jews" and to deport them. The fact that many "half-Jews" were also "half-Christians" was always ignored.[3]
Situation in the Occupied Territories[edit]
In the occupied Eastern territories, "half-Jews" were included in the extermination process indiscriminately like "full Jews". The Jewish Department at the Reich Security Main Office attempted to influence the controversial decision-making process within the Reich by also creating facts in the Western occupation areas. In August 1941 Adolf Eichmann, in agreement with Arthur Seyß-Inquart, decided to equate the "half-Jews" living in the Netherlands with the "full Jews" and to deport them. As of May 1942, "half-Jews" were also obliged to wear the Jewish star there.[4]
Earlier history of the term[edit]
There are few places where the term "Halbjude" is used historically. The unpopular ruler Herod was insulted as a "half-Jew" because his family came from Idumäa, an area that had been forcibly converted to Judaism. Since he was crowned king of Judea by Rome, the term "half-Jewish" can be interpreted as a vague, derogatory term for "Jew, but not serving Jewish interests".
In 1881, the anti-Semite Eugen Dühring clearly used the term as a derogatory hereditary biological term in his pamphlet The Jewish Question As a Racial, Moral and Cultural Question.[7]