"Contrary to conventional views, Rigg reveals that a startlingly large number of German military men were classified by the Nazis as Jews or "partial-Jews" (Mischlinge), in the wake of racial laws first enacted in the mid 1930s. He demonstrates that the number was much higher than previously thought - perhaps as many as 150,000 men - including decorated veterans and high-ranking officers, even generals and admirals.".

"As Rigg fully documents for the first time, a great many of these men did not consider themselves Jewish and had embraced military life as devoted patriots eager to serve a revived German nation. In turn, they had been fully absorbed into the German armed forces, which prior to Hitler had given little thought to the "race" of these men but which now was forced to examine the ancestry of its soldiers.".

"Based on deep and wide-ranging research in archival and secondary sources, as well as extensive interviews with more than four hundred Mischlinge and their relatives, Rigg's study breaks new ground in a crowded field and presents yet another angle on the extremely flawed, dishonest, demeaning, and tragic essence of Hitler's rule."--BOOK JACKET.