It is amazing how little we know about our recent past, history has turned into victorious propaganda over time, and history textbooks omit all facts that could put “winners” in an awkward situation. One such fact is the nearly 100,000 Jewish soldiers in Hitler’s army, and the tragedy becomes greater when we learn that 20 Jews were awarded the highest Nazi military medal.
World War II claimed 66 million lives, of which about 28 million people died in Russia alone. Hitler wanted to create a "lebensraum" for the German race of rulers at the expense of all races he considered less valuable or completely worthless, such as Jews, Slavs, Roma, blacks and mixed races. Archives claim that about six million Jews were killed in the world's last slaughterhouse, a figure that is extremely high, but still much smaller than the number of victims in Russia. Yet World War II is constantly associated with the Holocaust, despite the fact that large numbers of Jews served in the military in the Nazi ranks, while 20 Jews received the largest Nazi military decoration called the "Knight's Cross."
It is interesting how Hitler Germanized most of his high-ranking officers with "impure Jewish blood", or rather made them a chancellor's decree to the Aryans.
In fact, there were just over 100,000 mixed races in Hitler's army, one of the greatest indicators of Nazi hypocrisy was the example of Werner Goldberg's soldier who, with his "Aryan" appearance, attracted young Germans to enlist in the army. of course to show what all Aryan novices should look like. Werner Goldberg was the image and opportunity of the "ideal German soldier" - tall, stocky and blue was all that Hitler meant when he spoke of a superior, Aryan race. His character was so perfect by Nazi standards that they soon began to use him for propaganda purposes. The only problem? Werner Goldberg was a Jew
Werner Goldberg was born in 1919 in a Jewish community. His father wanted to become part of the Christian population, so in later years he was baptized and married a Christian. He became a member of the Lutheran Church, and taught his son that way. However, with Hitler coming to power, everything changed - under the Nazi racial laws of 1933, Goldberg lost his job in the public service and his son became a “mishchling” - a German of partial Jewish descent.
"The Ideal German Soldier"
Werner left school in 1935 and took a job in a textile workshop where most of the employees were of Jewish descent. Even then, his family began to fall apart - his uncle joined the Nazis and refused to see the Jewish part of the family, even his sister, Werner's mother, who was "only" married to Jews. In early 1938, Werner served a mandatory 6 months in the Reich labor service where he wore a swastika on his arm, and on December 1, 1938, he joined the army. That is how he took part in the invasion of Poland.
Werner Goldberg was not the only Jew in the ranks of the Nazi army. It is estimated that about 150,000 men of Jewish descent served in the regular German army at the beginning of World War II. Yet Werner was “noticed” — tall, stocky, and blue was all that Hitler meant when he spoke of a superior, Aryan race. His character was so perfect by Nazi standards that Werner soon appeared on the cover of the magazine "Berliner Tageblatt" with the title "The Ideal German Soldier". The photo was sold to newspapers by an official military photographer, and soon the same image began to appear on posters for recruiting volunteers.
Rescuing his father from the clutches of the Nazis!
In spite of everything, after the conquest of France and Hitler's decision of April 8, 1940, that all persons of Jewish origin must leave the German army, Werner was expelled from the army. He returned to work in a textile factory and used his acquaintances to start making uniforms for the army and navy, and he also began to study business administration. In 1942, his father fell ill, and the Gestapo transferred him from the public hospital to a Jewish hospital that served as a prison and from where patients were sent to Auschwitz.
On Christmas Day, Werner carried out one of the bravest actions that civilians carried out during World War II - imitating a soldier, while the guards were drunk because of the holidays, he entered the hospital and took his father out. He then hid it and when the old man was called to deportation in 1943 no one could find him. Thanks to his son, Goldberg the Elder remained the only member of the Jewish part of the family to survive the war.
After 1945, Werner spent the rest of his life living peacefully with his wife and three children in Berlin. It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that it became the focus of public interest after the appearance of the documentary "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" and the book of the same name. He died at the age of 84, in Berlin in 2004.
