Condemned—Just Because They Were Jewish

‘Jewish Christians’ in Germany During the Holocaust

On 27 January 1945 Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp—before the Nazi troops had time to erase evidence of their atrocities, as they had done at the other death camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau thereafter became the physical symbol of the Nazi-led Holocaust.

In 2005 the United Nations designated 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Commemorative events were thereafter held worldwide, at government and secular levels, as well as in Jewish communities and a number of Christian settings.

For the last five years an event has been held in Perth on the first Sunday after 27 January dedicated to informing the non-Jewish community about the Holocaust, including the plight of the Jewish people who were associated with the Church during the years 1933-1945. For 2026 our focus is upon the plight of the ‘Jewish Christians’ in Germany, as well as the theme being adopted by the Jewish people nationally of ‘Bridging Generations.’

With some exceptions, ‘Jewish Christians’, or however they were designated at the time, suffered virtually the same fate as all Jewish people. Personal faith did not matter within the Nazi worldview—if your bloodline was Jewish then you were Jewish. At the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942 it was decreed that ALL eleven million Jewish people in Europe and surrounding regions were condemned to death, including ‘Jewish Christians’ (officially registered as ‘non-Aryan Christians’).

Research Concerning the ‘Jewish Christians’ in Europe

Since March 2018 I have been involved together with Rev David Pileggi from Christ Church Jerusalem, on a research study dedicated to determining what happened to the Jewish people who were associated with the Church during the period 1933-1945.

This study has thus far resulted in research trips to archives in Europe, Britain, Canada, Australia and the United States, as well as to physical locations in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Serbia and Romania. A scheduled trip to Belarus and Ukraine was postponed due to Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

One key objective of this research has been to ascertain numbers and names of ‘Jewish Christians’ who were

murdered by the Nazis and their sympathisers—not a simple task. From the research conducted thus far it would appear that numerically most ‘Jewish Christians’ lived (and died) in countries such as Poland and Hungary.

While pursuing the research in Poland I was fortunate to access an entire file from a Hebrew Christian couple named Bazyli and Anna Jocz. Bazyli was murdered by the Nazis while Anna survived. This access came about because CMJ, the parent organisation of Christ Church, had been actively introducing Jesus to Jewish people in Poland until 1 September 1939. Locating such material, though, was quite rare.

From this material I was able to provide a narrative outlining the plight of the ‘Jewish Christians’ in Poland by following the lives of the Jocz family. Despite the lack of data (except for the Warsaw Ghetto where it was recorded there were some 5,200 Hebrew Christians—the majority of whom diedi), it became clear that in Eastern Europe there was little chance of a Jewish Christian surviving. In the East the Nazis were ruthless in implementing their policy of total genocide.

Researching and writing about the plight of ‘Jewish Christians’ in the Netherlands involved locating a ‘List’ with the names of some 1,881 Jewish people who stated they were associated with the Church. After locating this ‘List’ in the ‘Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ (NIOD) in Amsterdam, I then spent considerable time determining how many of these Jewish people were murdered and how many survived.ii

In Belgium the task was even more complicated as no German bureaucrat had gone through the Jewish registration forms, as there had been in the Netherlands. At the Belgium Holocaust museum and archive, the ‘Kazzerne Dossin Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre’, at Mechelen, I surveyed some 45,000 Jewish registration forms, noting all those who stated they were associated with the Church. Once again there was a lengthy process of determining how many of those registered were murdered and how many survived.iiiResearch concerning the number of ‘Jewish Christians’ in Germany

Following the Dutch and Belgium experience I presumed there would be a similar data base available in Germany. But after several years, I kept coming to a dead-end.

Then in early 2025 while researching about the census records of the Nazi era, I accessed the research of Dr Nicolai Zimmerman from the Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) in Berlin. This was followed by a phone interview with Dr Zimmerman and then a personal interview with him on 30 June 2025 in Berlin.v

Dr Zimmerman assured me there was no actual central database with the information I was seeking. He informed me that the information from the census forms had been collated and the statistics recorded, and then the census forms were all destroyed. There was, he stated, a secondary or supplementary form, for households, which had stated there was at least one Jewish person in the premise. Most of these supplementary forms, he stated, had been retained—but they did not include information relating to the personal faith of the Jewish people in that household.

It was now clear that searching for such registration forms at a national level would be a fruitless endeavour. Many individual names could be ascertained (which I have done to a small degree)—by accessing local records throughout Germany—a time-consuming undertaking which is beyond my capacity.

Regarding the subject of my research Dr Zimmerman clearly reminded me that personal faith was of no significance within the Nazi system. All that concerned them was their bloodline. If a Jewish person had Jewish parents and Jewish grandparents, then they were classified as fully, half or quarter Jewish regardless of whether they were Orthodox, Reform, Conservative—or communist, agnostic, atheistic—or Protestant or Roman Catholic. According to the Nazi worldview they were all either fully or part Jewish!

Evidence from the 1939 Census

In July 2025 my wife Lexie and I viewed the 1933 and 1939 census reports at the Bundesarchiv at Berlin—Lichterfelde. From the census conducted on 17 May 1939 it was recorded that there were 330,539 Jewish people who were regarded as fully Jewish (three-four Jewish grandparents) in the Deutsche Reich, comprising Germany (Alt Deutsche), Austria and Sudetenland. The total number of Jewish people registered just in Alt Deutsche (old Germany or Germany proper) was 233,646.vi

In the previous census in June 1933 there were approximately 500,000 fully Jewish people—just in Germany proper.vii We can see therefore that during the six-year period of Nazi control some 266,000 Jewish people had left Germany proper. While many of these went to safe countries, such as British Mandate Palestine and elsewhere outside of Europe, many went to neighbouring countries.

Before September 1939 these neighbouring countries were relatively safe havens—but after 1 September 1939 that changed. Ultimately no Jewish person in Europe—and even surrounding regions—was safe. This was especially so after the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942 which declared the Nazi intention to murder ALL eleven million Jewish people in Europe and the surrounding regions.

Within the overall statistics, there were those ‘full Jews’ who were not Glaubensjuden—not upholding the tenets of the Jewish religion. In Germany proper, there were some 13,806 such people, who were officially classified by the Nazi system as ‘non-Aryan Christians’.

The majority of these were from the Evangelical or State Church and the Free Church, followed by Roman Catholics, and a smaller number from other minor denominations and groups. I’ve located evidence of at least six Jewish victims of the Holocaust who were associated with the Baptist Church and there could also be some from other denominations.viii

From these figures we can deduce that about 5.91% of the Jewish population of Germany proper in May 1939 were associated with the Church. This involvement may have been at different levels. My research thus far has revealed at least seven different types of ‘non-Aryan Christians’. Some of these ‘Jewish Christians’ could have had a genuine faith in Jesus as Messiah while others might not have had a genuine faith.

When it comes to raw statistics, approximately 165,200 Jewish people in Germany proper were murdered in the Holocaust, being about 70.7% of the total number.

By utilising this same ratio, it could be deduced that potentially up to 9,760 ‘non-Aryan Christians’ from Germany were murdered in the Holocaust.

Each number in this statistic was a person, someone who was formed in the image of God and who had a right to live a full and meaningful life. One of these was Anna Josephy, who was related by marriage to my wife Lexie’s family. Her son, Berthold Josephy, was a professor of economics at Jena University until April 1933, whereupon he lost his position with the passing of the so-called ‘Aryan Paragraph’ which prohibited Jewish people from holding positions in the civil service. He and his wife Annemarie (nee Hahn) then migrated to Sweden, but his mother Anna and sisters, did not leave Germany.

In 1943 Anna and her two daughters, Hedwig and Elisabeth, received deportation notices from the Nazi regime. The two sisters then committed suicide, while Anna was deported to Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp. There is evidence that while there Anna participated in the Protestant congregation led by Arthur Goldschmidt. Unfortunately, Anna became a victim of Nazi brutality and died on 18 November 1943.

Conclusion

This brief look at the situation of the ‘Jewish Christians’, particularly in Germany, is another stark reminder to us of those words of Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is evil above all things. It is also a reminder to us that there is an intense spiritual conflict which is focused upon those two entities with whom Almighty God has a covenant commitment, namely the nation of Israel and those, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who are in covenant-union with God through Jesus. Above all else it is a challenge to us during these present unsettled times to ensure that we are in a right standing with Almighty God.

© Kelvin Crombie, 2026, Heritage Resources. kelvin@heritageresources.com.au

i The majority of these were Roman Catholic.

ii Documented in Bazily and Anna Jocz – Jewish Christian victims of the Holocaust.

iiiDocumented in Jewish Christians in the Netherlands during the Holocaust, which was published in 2022.

iv To be presented in a future volume, Jewish Christians in Belgium and France – and the Madagascar Plan.

v The most helpful data came from an article The list of Jewish Residents in the German Reich 1933-1945, written when he worked for NIOD in Amsterdam.

vi Census 1933, Section 4, pages 6-9. Bundesarchiv Berlin, Berlin-Lichterfelde. Other sources cite slightly different numbers.

vii Nicolai Zimmerman, The list of Jewish Residents in the German Reich 1933-1945, p. 3.

viii Full title – Sonstige Angehorige einer Kirche, Religions-gesellschaft oder religios-weltanschaulichen Gemeinschaft.