Sex Crimes under the Wehrmacht

9. Racial Defilement and Bestiality

CHAPTER NINE Racial Defilement and Bestiality Two categories of sex offenses deserve scrutiny, despite their apparently infrequent occurrence. The first, racial defilement (Rassenschande ), or sexual contact between “Aryans” and Jews, is obviously important for this investigation. Anti-Semitism and racial purity were the cornerstones of Nazi ideology and the “blood laws” were the most important legislative pillars of the National Socialist state. The second category, bestiality, is difficult to analyze within the context of the Nazi Weltanschauung, but the case files nevertheless provide insight into Wehrmachtjustiz. The Eastern Collection contains very few case files for these two offense categories, and thus any conclusions must be regarded as tentative at best. The small number of case files also renders general interpretative discussions problematic, and hence the most important cases are discussed in detail in this chapter in order to highlight the salient points. Racial Defilement The Nuremburg Laws of September 1935 represent a significant milestone along the twisted road to Auschwitz. Outlawing sexual contact between “Aryans” and Jews, the blood laws threatened racial defilement with very stiff penalties.1 With anti-Semitism and racial purity at the very heart of Nazi ideology, cases of racial defilement should, in theory, provide compelling evidence of the true nature of Wehrmachtjustiz. The Eastern Collection contained only four case files for processes against violations of the blood laws, while only three case files from the Court of the Wehrmacht Commander–Berlin survived the war. The Central Documentation Agency’s computer database contains six additional case files from various units. Whether this small number of surviving case files indicates extreme restraint in prosecution in defiance of Nazi law and ideology is not clear from the documents. The evidence from this small sample suggests, as do the cases in the other categories of sex offenses, a military judiciary driven by prac- R A C I A L D E F I L E M E N T A N D B E S T I A L I T Y 191 tical military considerations. The case files indicate that when confronting racial defilement, the military judicial authorities generally considered the war’s prosecution and martial virtues as more important than a soldier’s dedication to racial purity. This is not to suggest that there are no examples of overt anti-Semitism in the documents. However, the military judicial authorities, even when punishing “racial defilers,” made the prosecution of the war their priority. Indeed, blatant anti-Semitic expressions and slurs appear fairly frequently in the documents, yet what mattered most to the Gerichtsherren was how an individual’s punishment could best serve the war effort. The most important discovery in the case files is the apparent divergence in jurisprudence between the civilian and military courts in racial defilement cases, a difference that benefited those in the Wehrmacht (and civilians falling under its jurisdiction). Michael Ley, in his investigation of civilian Rassenschande cases tried before the Vienna County Court, demonstrates the potential fanaticism with which the civilian authorities pursued racial defilement. He concludes that many defendants were convicted on flimsy evidence and very few were acquitted .2 In the thirteen case files examined for this chapter, the opposite held sway on both counts. Military courts required hard evidence, and acquittals were numerous. In addition, the Vienna court consistently rejected as exculpatory defendants’ claims that they had been unaware of their partners’ descent. In Ley’s survey of 150 cases, the Vienna court cited ignorance of descent as the justification for an acquittal on only one occasion.3 By great contrast, in the thirteen cases examined for this chapter, five defendants avoided convictions by pleading that they had not known their lover was Jewish, as the following two cases demonstrate. Erich D. In April 1942 the Court of the First Flak Division refrained from conducting a judicial inquiry against Private Erich D. for racial de- filement. The defendant met the girl, Eva, a “full Jew” (Volljüdin), while on leave. They spent the night in a hotel and had sex. The court accepted the defendant’s explanation that he had been misled by his Jewish lover regarding her descent. During her interrogation 192 PA R T I I she confirmed that she had not been wearing the Jewish star. She also admitted that she had presented fake identification at the hotel. She...