The Issue of Race

Abstract

Morgen’s memo on the Kleesattel case raises the issue of race, when he speaks of the SS officers in Debica who “trampled a Jew literally to death without good reason.” Morgen argues that the officers should have been prosecuted, but only “to preserve the purity of our own ranks, not to protect the rights of an enemy people.” The murderers of a Jew should be punished, in other words, but not for violating the victim’s right to life; they should be punished for polluting the ranks of the SS.