NASHVILLE, Tenn–Historian Bryan Mark Rigg will discuss his book "Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers" at the Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life at Vanderbilt on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m.
Rigg’s research of newly opened German archives and reexamination of old evidence reveals that, contrary to the common view, a startlingly large number of German military men were classified by the Nazis as Jews or Mischlinge ("partial-Jews"), in the wake of racial laws first enacted in the mid-1930s. Rigg found that the actual number was much higher than previously thought–perhaps as many as 150,000 men, including decorated veterans and high-ranking officers including generals and admirals.
His research has been deemed historically important enough for the documents and oral testimonies he collected and recorded for this study to have been purchased by the National Military Archive of Germany. The Bryan Mark Rigg Collection is housed in the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in Freiburg, Germany.
With degrees from Yale and Cambridge, Rigg is currently professor of history at American Military University. He has served as a volunteer in the Israeli Army and as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.
This program is free and open to the public. The Ben Schulman Center is located at 2421 Vanderbilt Place (corner of 25th and Vanderbilt Place). For further information on this program or Vanderbilt Hillel, please call 343-1953.
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Media contact: David Glasgow, 615-322-NEWS, david.glasgow@vanderbilt.edu