Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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whose name was Ilse, and Klemm had formed a relationship and they stuck
together through all this. The Klemms found some house in a suburb called
Werder. So, they just moved in for the period of January 1945 until April
when the Americans arrived. Nobody bothered them; they probably didn’t
advertise the fact that they were living there and got away with it. 177
Whilst records do not indicate that the boys’ father had any Jewish grandparents,
it remains unknown as to why he fled the city and left the boys in the charge of
this non-Jewish family. The family’s care of these two children possibly saved
their lives.
From the examples of the Levy and the Klemm families it is clear that the lack
of religious affiliation did not guarantee safety or lack of persecution. However, it
did create ambiguity in the application of antisemitic measures. The family of
Herbert Levy was not subjected to the same persecution as the Klemms. Even so,
the Klemms were not subjected to the full range of the persecution which other
religiously affiliated Jews in mixed marriages experienced. The classification of
the marriages of both couples as either ‘privileged’ or ‘non-privileged’ could not
be established. Yet, these two examples indicate the level of arbitrariness which
existed in the application of persecutions against those in mixed marriages and the
children from such marriages, be they either loosely affiliated or unaffiliated to
the Jewish community.
The situation of active members of the Jewish community who were living in
mixed marriages was unequivocally precise. Such individuals were subjected to
the same level of persecutions as was inflicted on all Jews, with the exception of
deportation. Of the two documented cases, the marriages were clearly classified as
‘non-privileged’ and the children treated as ‘Geltungsjuden.’
177 Name withheld, op. cit., 13 July 2004.