[kearnyirish2]

“I interpreted his meaning the Iron Crosses awarded in “The Great War” were untainted compared to those awarded in WW2 to those soldiers who no doubt ranked an such an honor but were done in association with horrible war crimes.”

Hitler went so far as to exempt Jews who’d received the Iron Cross in WWI from persecution; while he thought they were foreigners, he respected that they felt and thought of themselves as Germans (and proved it in combat).

[RedMonqey]

Hitler went so far as to exempt Jews who’d received the Iron Cross in WWI from persecution;

"Exempt masy be too strong a word.

At best it bought Jewish heroes time

IIRC, the German army, of which the officer corp were largely "Prussians" and saw itself as professionals and above party politics, objected to many of mad ideas of Hitler's Brownshirt boys, and I believe it was more of appeasement to keep the Army at least not activelky against his plans.

In the end, an iron cross was no protection against being sent to the ovens.

Little known fact: There were not a few "Jewish" Nazis.

German Jews, which no doubt include Iron Cross medalists, joined the Nazi party because they thought of themselves as German first and Jews second, they were middleclass and saw the current government as weak and the Nazis were seen as an bulwark against Communisn, just as much of Germany did...