Meaning of the term "Weißer Jude" ("white Jew") as used by the Nazis on Werner Heisenberg

Question

Werner Heisenberg was called a "weißer Jude" ("a white Jew") by Nazis.

How can the term "white Jew" and its use in this context be understood?

In English, "white" is often used as a conceptual metaphor for good, for instance in the terms "white magic" and "black magic". Other examples of this conceptual metaphor are the terms "black mood" for a deeply bad mood, or "black day" or "black mark."

Hence, I see two different ways to interpret this phrase, and I am not sure which one is correct:

A) Taking into account the conceptual metaphor of "white" for good, it could be interpreted in a way that the term is meant to express that Heisenberg was a "good" Jew in the eyes of the people who used this phrase on him.

B) Or does "white" mean "hidden" here? In the USA, where among anti-Semites Jews are not considered "white", perhaps an anti-Semite would use "white Jew" to refer to a white person who acts like what the anti-Semite would consider typically jewish.

Which of these interpretations of the term is correct? Or is there even a third interpretation which explains the use of the term by the Nazis better?

Answer 1

Heisenberg was not Jewish but a Lutheran Christian. However Albert Einstein was Jewish. This forced Einstein to emigrate/flee the country when the Nazi regime rose and his work was called "jüdische Physik" (Jewish physics). Heisenberg was merely on the same page as Einstein and believed his theories.
According to Nazi logic: If you followed a Jew's or Jewish teachings (in this case physics) you were called a Jew. If you had your Ariernachweis (Aryan certificate) you were called weißer Jude (white Jew) instead, to distinguish between true ethnic Jews and people who were "Jewish by association". As such this does not qualify as "identifying members of one ethnic group as having the characteristics of the white majority" because they did not belong to the ethnic group (of Jews) in the first place.
This term was supposedly coined by Walter Frank which definitely makes it a Nazi term. However it is also mentioned that he was not the first one to come up with the term. It is reported to have been mentioned the first time in an edition of Das Schwarze Korps (which is still very much a Nazi origin).

Source (in German)

Edit: The use of "white" similiar to white magic or white lie is not really prevalent in German. Although I found lots of articles who translated white lie literally as "weiße Lüge" I would not know what it is without guessing it came from English. Suffice it to say, "white Jew" is definitely not comparable to constructions like "white magic" or "white lie".

Answer 2

This answer is an extended comment to infinitezero's answer, but I think it nicely explains the meaning of "White Jew".

Quote from

• Erich Goldhaben, Weltanschauung und Endlösung - Zum Antisemitismus der nationalsozialistischen Führungsschicht, Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Jahrgang 24 (1976), Heft 4, p. 379 - 405

on p. 385

Nahezu alles, was das Regime aus dem deutschen Leben ausmerzen wollte, alles, was es als seinen Zielen feindlich ansah, wurde entweder als das unmittelbare Werk des Judentums oder als die Frucht verborgenen jüdischen Wirkens bzw. als von jüdischem Geist durchtränkt ausgegeben. Das Adjektiv jüdisch bezog sich nicht mehr allein auf die Juden selbst, sondern erhielt einen so weiten Sinn, daß es den ganzen verbotenen Bereich umfaßte. Alle Formen der Kunst und der Literatur, alle Ideen und philosophischen Systeme, die dem nationalsozialistischen Credo widersprachen, galten als „verjudet". Deutsche, die sich weigerten, ihren Geist der neuen Glaubenslehre zu unterwerfen, sahen sich als "Gesinnungsjuden", "Geistesjuden", "Charakterjuden" und "Weiße Juden" gebrandmarkt. Hitler hat behauptet, das Jüdische als Qualität sei nicht völlig auf eine Rasse beschränkt, es sei ein Geisteszustand.

Translation based on www.DeepL.com/Translator:

Virtually everything that the regime wanted to eradicate from German life, everything that it regarded as hostile to its aims was passed off either as the direct work of Jewry or as the fruit of hidden Jewish activity or as imbued with Jewish spirit. The adjective "Jewish" no longer referred solely to the Jews themselves, but acquired such a broad sense that it encompassed the entire forbidden sphere. All forms of art and literature, all ideas and philosophical systems that contradicted the National Socialist creed were considered "judaized." Germans who refused to submit their minds to the new doctrine of faith saw themselves as "Gesinnungsjuden", "Geistesjuden", "character Jews," and "white Jews." Hitler claimed that Jewishness as a quality was not entirely limited to a race; it was a state of mind.

Comments:

1. The word "verjudet" is translated by "judaized", but the German word is utterly derogatory in the sense of corrupted (or depraved) by Judaism.

2. The words "Gesinnungsjuden" and "Geistesjuden" are difficult to translate. Gesinnungsjuden means something like jews in attitude or jews in guiding priniciples, Geistesjuden means jews in mind or jews in spirit.

Another interesting quote from the article "Weiße Juden" in der Wissenschaft in the official SS-newspaper "Das schwarze Korps" from 1937:

Denn nicht der Rassejude an sich ist uns gefährlich gewesen, sondern der Geist, den er verbreitete. Und ist der Träger dieses Geistes nicht Jude, sondern Deutscher, so muss er uns doppelt so bekämpfenswert sein als der Rassejude, der den Ursprung seinen Geistes nicht verbergen kann.

Gesinnungsjuden

Der Volksmund hat für solche Bazillenträger die Bezeichnung "Weißer Jude" geprägt, die überaus treffend ist, weil sie den Begriff des Juden über das Rassische hinaus erweitert. Man könnte im gleichen Sinne auch von Geistesjuden , Gesinnungsjuden oder Charakterjuden sprechen. Sie haben den jüdischen Geist willfährig aufgenommen, weil es ihm an eigenem mangelt. Sie sind Anbeter eines spitzfindigen Intellekts, weil ihnen natürliche Instinkte fehlen und jene charakterlichen Werte, die den Menschen zwingen, eigene Fähigkeiten zu entwinden und sich nötigenfalls auf sie zu beschränken.

Es gibt vor allem ein Gebiet, wo uns der jüdische Geist der „Weißen Juden“ in Reinkultur entgegentritt und wo die geistige Verbundenheit der "Weißen Juden" mit jüdischen Vorbildern und Lehrmeistern stets einwandfrei nachzuweisen ist: die Wissenschaft. Sie vom jüdischen Geist zu säubern, ist die vordringlichste Aufgabe, denn dem „Weißen Juden“, dem wir im Alltag begegnen, können wir wohl mit den Mitteln der Polizei und schärferer Gesetze bekommen, eine jüdisch verseuchte Wissenschaft aber ist die Schlüsselstellung, von der aus das geistige Judentum immer wieder maßgebenden Einfluß auf alle Lebensgebiete der Nation erringen kann.

Translation:

For it was not the race Jew per se who was dangerous to us, but the spirit which he spread. And if the bearer of this spirit is not a Jew, but a German, he must be twice as worth fighting against as the race Jew, who cannot conceal the origin of his spirit.

Gesinnungsjuden

The vernacular has coined the term "White Jew" for such germ carriers, which is exceedingly apt, because it extends the concept of the Jew beyond the racial. In the same sense one could also speak of Geistesjuden , Gesinnungsjuden or character Jews. They have willingly absorbed the Jewish spirit because it lacks its own. They are worshippers of a sophistical intellect because they lack natural instincts and those values of character which compel man to wrest his own faculties and confine himself to them if necessary.

There is above all one area where the Jewish spirit of the "White Jews" confronts us in pure culture and where the spiritual affinity of the "White Jews" with Jewish models and masters of teaching can always be proved faultlessly: science. To purge it of the Jewish spirit is the most urgent task, for the "White Jew" whom we meet in everyday life we can probably get by means of the police and stricter laws, but a Jewish-infested science is the key position from which spiritual Judaism can again and again gain authoritative influence on all areas of life of the nation.

CONCLUSION:

The phrase "White Jew" as used by the Nazis does not have anything to do with "white" as conceptual metaphor for "good" (in the sense of the light side of something). It is related to the crude race theory of the Nazis.

Update:

The phrase "Weißer Jude" was used long before the Nazi era. It seems that it was introduced by the anti-Semite Hartwig von Hundt-Radowsky in his book "Die Judenschule" from 1821/1822 as part of the opposite pair "white / black Jews". In my opinion this also makes it doubtful that it belonged to the vernacular as claimed by the Nazis.

Quote from the book according to Wikipedia:

Gleich ihren schwarzen Brüdern betrachten die weißen Juden die Welt als ihr ausschließliches Eigentum; die Menschheit als einen Inbegriff thierischer Wesen, die nur erschaffen sind, den Launen und Grillen der legitimen Söhne Keturas zum Spiel und Opfer zu werden.

Like their black brethren, the White Jews regard the world as their exclusive property; humanity as an epitome of animalistic beings created only to become the play and sacrifice of the whims and crickets of the legitimate sons of Ketura.

Comment from Wikipedia:

"Weiße Juden" waren ihm die meisten Engländer, Napoleon, altrömische Kaiser und die "weißadlichen Juden" mit ihren Umtrieben an den Königs- und Fürstenhöfen.

"White Jews" to him were most of the English, Napoleon, ancient Roman emperors, and the "White Noble Jews" with their machinations in the royal and princely courts.

This makes it very clear that von Hundt-Radowsky used the phrase for members of the white race who acted like his imagined prototype of a Jew.

Further research shows that the phrase recently occured in other contexts with a completely different meaning. Perhaps the authors were not aware of the Nazi use?

Example 1. The introduction of the book

• Die Russische Revolution und das Schicksal der russischen Juden - Eine Debatte in Berlin 1922/23, herausgegeben von Karl Schlögel und Karl-Konrad Tschäpe, 2014 Matthes & Seitz Berlin

is entitled

»Weiße Juden« und »jüdische Bolschewisten« - Eine Selbstverständigung in Berlin 1922/1923 ["White Jews" and "Jewish Bolshevists" - A Self-Conception in Berlin 1922/1923]

and contains a section

Die »Weißen Juden«: Positionen einer innerjüdischen Kritik am »jüdischen Bolschewismus« [The "White Jews": Positions of an Inner-Jewish Critique of "Jewish Bolshevism]

The attribute "white" is associated with white symbols of the supporters of the pre-revolutionary order, [...] in contrast to the name of the Red Guard detachments, and then the Red Army.

Example 2. In the article

• Weiß­sein 
und jüdische Identität by Lisa Hänel in INTERNATIONALE POLITIK Das Magazin für globales Denken, 01. November 2021

one finds the subtitle

Der "weiße Jude“ als Teil der rassistischen Mehrheit? Setzt sich diese Idee im antirassistischen Diskurs durch, wird das Konsequenzen haben. [The "white Jew" as part of the racist majority? If this idea prevails in anti-racist discourse, it will have consequences.]

and

... ein Denken, das die US-amerikanische Journalistin Bari Weiss in der Tageszeitung Die Welt so beschreibt: "Das Narrativ besteht darauf, dass Israel nicht nur eine Unterdrückungsmacht ist, sondern die letzte Bastion des Kolonialismus im Nahen Osten, weiße Eindringlinge in einem fremden Land, die auf dem rechtmäßigen Territorium 'brauner' Menschen hocken." [... a way of thinking that U.S. journalist Bari Weiss describes in the daily Die Welt: "The narrative insists that Israel is not only an oppressive power but the last bastion of colonialism in the Middle East, white invaders in a foreign land squatting on the rightful territory of 'brown' people."]

Here we can find an "inverse interpretion": The white Jew is no longer a white man acting like a Jew, but a Jew acting like a white man as a racist and colonialist (i.e. like an old white man). In both Nazi jargon and the new use a white Jew is a perpetrator belonging to the evil forces.

Answer 3

In order to understand the term and how it was used by the Nazis against Heisenberg, one needs to take into account how Nazis were thinking about race.

At the core of their racist worldview were two concepts which they called "German" and "Jewish". The Nazis were obsessed to somehow define these concepts. They were also struggling to give their ideology a basis which looked scientific. This struggle led to a bunch of pseudo-scientific racist theories, which tried to define the "essence" of those terms. Different theories were used in order to define these terms. Those different flavors of antisemitic racism were sometimes contradicting each other. But they all had in common that they put those two terms in a relation of strong antagonism to each other and that the concept which they called "German" was seen as superior. This ideology was the basis for the antisemitic politics of the Nazis, including, ultimately, the Shoah.

A central part of the racism of the Nazis was a genetic version of racism: Nazis thought that they could define the terms "Jewish" and "German" based on biological criteria.

But genetic racism was not the only flavor of racism that the Nazis used. Another flavor was cultural racism. In that ideology, the term "Jewish" and "German" are defined by cultural factors.

This difference of biological cultural racism is the root of the use of the term "white Jew": Those who used the term against Heisenberg argued that modern physics, including relativity and quantum physics, were falling into the cultural definition of the concept "Jewish". Most famously, the theories of Albert Einstein had been condemned by the Nazis as "Jewish physics".

The term "white Jew" is meant to be an oxymoron, and it is meant to express a tension between cultural and biological racism: Referring to Werner Heisenberg, the Nazis used the term "white" in order to express an opposite of "Jewish". The Nazis referred to Heisenberg as "white" because he didn't fall under their biological racist concept of "Jewish". They referred to him as "Jew" because his physics theories fell under their culturally racist concept of "Jewish".

So, the term "white Jew" was a means to attack Heisenberg in a racist manner.

Answer 4

White in this context, according to Nazi ideology, is meant as "someone who is not a Jew by race but by mindset"

https://uni-tuebingen.de/fileadmin/Uni_Tuebingen/Fakultaeten/MathePhysik/Institute/IAP/Forschung/MOettel/Geburt_QM/stark_weisse_juden_1937.html

Der Volksmund hat für solche Bazillenträger die Bezeichnung „Weißer Jude“ geprägt, die überaus treffend ist, weil sie den Begriff des Juden über das Rassische hinaus erweitert.

Blockquote

Google Translate:

The vernacular has coined the term “white Jew” for such carriers of germs, which is extremely apt because it expands the concept of the Jew beyond the racial.

P.S.: The "good Jews" were called "Edeljuden" (no idea, maybe noble Jews if I translate it wordly)

Answer 5

Alternative B ist richtig; mit dem Ausdruck bezeichnete man Personen, die nicht jüdisch waren, denen man aber unterstellte sich wie solche zu verhalten unter der Maßgabe, dass alles derart bezeichnete schlecht sei.

Eine Googlesuche nach "Heisenberg weißer Jude" liefert mir als ersten Treffer als alternativen Terminus "Gesinnungsjuden" aus der Schrift "Das schwarze Korps" von 1937 unter der Überschrift "„Weiße Juden“ in der Wissenschaft".

Der Titel der Zeitschrift unterstreicht noch einmal deutlich, dass ein plumpes Mapping "weiß=gut, schwarz=schlecht" nicht zur Geltung kam.

In der anfänglichen Nebenfrage, ob dies Vorläufer hat oder eine Schöpfung der Nazis war kann User bakunin, dessen Antwort gelöscht wurde, nur beigepflichtet werden: Die Nazis haben eigentlich nichts selbst erfunden oder entwickelt.

Bei Google-Books findet man mehrfach, von 1822, teils wenige Jahre früher oder später datiert, "Die Judenschule, oder gründliche Anleitung, in kurzer Zeit ein vollkommener schwarzer oder weißer Jude zu werden" von Hartwig Hundt-Radowsky.