# Would you have survived in Nazi Germany? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 2, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342 "2013-05-02T19:26:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/1 "2013-05-02T19:26:55Z")
Inspired by a [podcast](http://www.pilkipedia.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Series_5_Episode_4#2._Steve_the_Nazi_Pinup_.281:37:45.29) in which one of the participants feels guilty that they would be just fine in Nazi Germany as they have blonde hair and blue eyes. If you had to live under the Nazi yoke, would you be just fine or are you screwed? Made the poll multiple choice as the [options](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badges) aren’t mutually exclusive. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/2 "2013-05-02T19:35:35Z")
Nope. Every living relative was sent to Dachau as a “political’- those that survived were sent by Stalin to his concentration camps. None ever came out. From a few letters that got out, the family was “protected’ by the heirs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire while in Dachau, but that didn’t help when Stalin took over. ---
**Author:** ![randomface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/3 "2013-05-02T19:42:45Z")
So how would a non-Aryan non-Jewish mechanical engineer who is too narcoleptic to serve in the military fare? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/4 "2013-05-02T19:48:50Z")
Probably. Given my last name, I might even prosper. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/5 "2013-05-02T19:49:17Z")
Probably not-minimum of three badges for me. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/6 "2013-05-02T19:50:05Z")
I’m an **anarchist** , a \*\* pacifist\*\* and non-white (not sure how they were classified). I likely wouldn’t have survived. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/7 "2013-05-02T19:50:12Z")
I’d be screwed - while physically I might be all right, I don’t think I resist could keep my mouth shut about affairs and would sooner or later mention the wrong thing with the wrong person listening. I’d probably also resist being conscripted, giving me a black/red badge for the camps. Obviously if the authorities know of your modern liberal sensibilities you’re in big trouble, so the question there is how much you can keep quiet. I had to shorten the options for the poll; for example the Black Triangle also includes alcoholics, vagrants and prostitutes - see the OP link in for the full list of the persecuted elements of German society. @ **randomface** ; don’t think being narcoleptic would necessarily get you off the hook (see the [Stomach Division](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70th_Infantry_Division_%28Germany%29)) being a mechanical engineer you’d be highly prized for war industry. They even had amputees working in the factories, so if you wouldn’t be up for that you’ve got a black armband like me for being a pacifist. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/8 "2013-05-02T19:50:44Z")
I like to think I’d be sent down with a black triangle, but really? In real life? I’d keep my head down and my mouth shut, probably. (And they don’t come whiter than me.) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/9 "2013-05-02T19:53:55Z")
I am muslim, South Asian. Light skinned, dark haired, dark eyes…nah would not have made it. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyMac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@JohnnyMac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyMac)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/10 "2013-05-02T19:55:49Z")
**Anarchist** , **transgendered** , **vagrant**. On **psych meds**. Three strikes against me, badge-wise. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/11 "2013-05-02T19:59:02Z")
Liberal. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/12 "2013-05-02T19:59:43Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’m an **anarchist** , a \*\* pacifist\*\* and non-white (not sure how they were classified). I likely wouldn’t have survived. A link on [black people in Germany](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people_in_Nazi_Germany) - not officially classified, still considered racially inferior although bizarrely could join the [armed forces](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-177-1465-16%2C_Griechenland%2C_Soldaten_der_%22Legion_Freies_Arabien%22.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/13 "2013-05-02T20:02:37Z")
Pacifist, and they’d probably catch me hiding one or more undesirables. So, no. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/14 "2013-05-02T20:05:27Z")
As long as I can sort myself out with a Lavender marriage, my pale skin and Anglo- Saxon surname will do me well. Otherwise, I’m screwed x ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/15 "2013-05-02T20:14:05Z")
As a “first degree mixed race” (half Jewish half Nordic) I might have survived if I kept my head down, petitioned for reclassification, etc. My blue eyes and small nose would help. I’d like to say I would oppose the regime but that’s an easy boast to make, a difficult one to prove. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/16 "2013-05-02T20:14:13Z")
What color badge was for smart-asses? There is no way I could last 12 years without making hundreds of jokes about the mental midgets in power or the goons and cowards that kept them there. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/17 "2013-05-02T20:20:22Z")
Blond hair and blue eyes. I’m of Polish & Bohemian descent which means I’d physically fit in if I lived in Germany. I’m Catholic but not particularly vocal about it and my understanding is that persecution there was more against the clergy than the lay population. I’d likely get by just fine. I could make some declarations about how I’d fight the power but instead I was the sole vote (so far) for the first option. Edit: I’m assuming life as a peace-time civilian rather than “Would a bombed building in Berlin have fallen on me” or “Would I be conscripted and shot dead on the eastern front”. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/18 "2013-05-02T20:26:06Z")
Smoking a cigar, drinking a stout with my feet propped up on the table. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/19 "2013-05-02T20:31:40Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Edit: I’m assuming life as a peace-time civilian rather than “Would a bombed building in Berlin have fallen on me” or “Would I be conscripted and shot dead on the eastern front”. Yep, just surviving in day-to-day life. If transplanting your life into Hitler’s Germany is a bit too abstract imagine if you woke up and found your nation running under a Nazi regime. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342/20 "2013-05-02T20:36:38Z")
Half-Serb with a fully Serbian name with roots in Ustashe-held Croatia. I’d be toast or at least slave labor somewhere. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-survived-in-nazi-germany/657342.md?page=2)