Ingeborg HechtCritiques

A look at the often-neglected subject of "mischling" people in Nazi Germany -- that is, those who were of partly Jewish ancestry. Ingeborg Hecht's parents divorced in 1933, but they remained very close and even still lived together for a time. Her father was a non-practicing Jew, her mother a Protestant, and their two children were brought up with no religion at all. Nevertheless, under the Nuremberg Laws Ingeborg and her brother were considered "mischling in the first degree" which wasn't that much better than being classified as fully Jewish.

She writes about the problems she faced in Germany and the discrimination, being unable to get a higher education or a decent job, but also notes she was far better off than her Jewish neighbors. (Her father and his entire family perished in the war, except one uncle who had emigrated beforehand.) She also writes about her struggle after the war to get compensation for the wrongs she had suffered under Hitler's regime. According to Ingeborg, she had to provide an unreasonable amount of proof of what she'd gone through (statements, personal testimonials from people who knew her during the war, etc), the decisions made by the compensation people were arbitrary and the amounts paid out were pitiful. Her brother was in a forced-labor unit who worked under terrible conditions, and he was denied compensation, whereas some of the people he worked alongside got their claims honored.

I would recommend this book for its perspective, but I don't think it's all that special besides that. The writing is very dry, without much emotion. For another look at Nazi Germany from the point of view of a "mischling", try Heinz Kuehn's Mixed Blessings: An Almost Ordinary Life in Hitler's Germany.