Fregattenkapit?n Paul Asher: The Man Who Went Down with the Bismarck

 Erich Raeder, the head of the German Navy during the Third Reich helped many men of Jewish descent (“Jüdische Mischlinge”) serve under his command. Admirals, U-Boat captains, battleship captains, surface raider captains, U-Boat Naval engineers, etc., all served with Raeder’s blessing. However, once Raeder endorsed a “half-Jew” or a “quarter-Jew” to serve in the Kriegsmarine from World War II, he still had to get Adolf Hitler to sign off on the exception to the racial laws in order to allow the man in question to continue serving. One of the exceptions Hitler gave was called the Deutschblütigkeitserkl?rung (German Blood Declaration) or Arisierung (Aryanization), which allowed the person in question to describe him- or herself as an “Aryan” in all official Nazi documentation. 

One man who received Raeder’s support and Hitler’s Deutschblütigkeitserkl?rung was Naval Commander Paul Ascher (interesting to note that the origin of his name comes from one of the twelve tribes of Israel). Interestingly, Hitler only decided on Ascher’s case once he saw his photograph and declared that his “Aryan” blood dominated his phenotypical traits and that he looked like a real German. Moreover, Hitler was impressed that Ascher was a brilliant naval officer who graduated first in his class at officer cadet school. 

During the Third Reich, Ascher rose through the ranks and impressed everyone. When war broke out, he was the Chief Gunnery Officer on the pocket battleship (Panzerschiff) Graf Spee. Between September and December 1939, due to Ascher’s excellent work in training his men, the Graf Spee sank nine enemy ships for a combined total gross tonnage of 50,089. 

During the battle called River Plate (right by northern Argentina and southern Uruguay), which took place off the coast of South America against British ships, Asher and his captain decided to scuttle the ship instead of allowing it to fall into enemy hands on 17 December 1939. Thereafter, Ascher was interned in Argentina. After a few months of captivity, Ascher used his wits and escaped. He made a remarkable journey through South America and across the battle-filled Atlantic, making it back to Germany in 1940 to continue to serve his country. Soon after arriving back in Deutschland, he received one of the most prestigious positions in the German Navy, becoming the fleet operations officer on the massive battleship Bismarck. 

On the maiden mission of the Bismarck, it sank one of the most majestic battleships of the British Royal Navy, the HMS Hood. Thereafter, the Royal Navy pursued Bismarck relentlessly until it was sunk (maybe scuttled) on 27 May. Commander Ascher was with Fleet Admiral Johann Günther Lütjens on the bridge of the battleship as they wired messages back and forth between their command post and Naval Headquarters in Germany during the battle, which lasted several days. On 26 May, Lütjens transmitted to Naval Headquarters: "To the Führer of the German Reich, Adolf Hitler. We will fight to the end thinking of you confident as in a rock in the victory of Germany." Later, on the morning of 27 May, while still fighting against numerous British ships, Lütjens sent a request for a submarine to pick up the Bismarck’s war diary. In his last transmission, Lütjens declared: "Ship no longer maneuverable. We fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer." Many historians have criticized Lütjens for his sycophantic messages to the Nazi leader and for declaring his overt dedication to the Nazi state. However, Lütjens could relate to Ascher personally and may have said these things to Hitler to be read by the Nazi elite in order to protect his wife, Margarete Backenk?hler, who also had a Jewish parent. Her brother, Admiral Otto Backenk?hler, had been Lütjens' Chief-of-Staff at the Fleet Command from 24 October 1939 until 31 July 1940. Backenk?hler had also, like Ascher, received Hitler’s Deutschblütigkeitserkl?rung. However, it has never been documented that Margarete received a similar exception, and if so, she would be vulnerable to Nazi persecution without her Aryan husband’s protection. Therefore, Lütjens may not have been declaring his love for Hitler and the Third Reich, but rather for his wife and their three, soon to be four children (his wife was eight months pregnant when theBismarck sank), to protect them when he died. He knew he would no longer be there to protect them from the onslaught of Nazi racial persecution. The Lütjens’ family all survived the war and the Nazis, most likely due to his brave service.

When one views the pictures taken of the Bismarck wreck from 1989 that were found by the famous ocean explorer Robert Ballard (who also found the wreck of the RMS Titanic), it’s easy to imagine Ascher and Lütjens trapped together in the Bridge. They stood shoulder to shoulder, leading their men and going down with their ship as it sunk to the ocean floor. How tragic these brave men, with their strong German-Jewish connections, found themselves fighting for Hitler, who hated what they represented. History is never black and white, but very gray. 

When I spoke with Ascher’s widow, Ursula, back in 1997, I asked her, “Why did your husband served the Third Reich?” 

She replied, “Well, remember, in May 1941, the full swing of the Holocaust had not started like it did after Hitler invaded Russia. He started serving Germany before Hitler became Chancellor. England and France were, historically, our enemies. We were proud Germans and patriotic warriors. We wanted our country to win. We felt the anti-Semitism would not get that bad. The true tragedy is that Hitler misused so many good and well-meaning people in his Third Reich experience like me and my husband, and, by the time we really realized the evil that had seized us, like von Stauffenberg proved on 20 July 1944, it was really too late to stop the mess Hitler had created. My husband died an honorable death for a dishonorable regime. I have had to live a long life thinking of his brave deeds on the Graf Spee and Bismarck for a country that had betrayed us, his son and many relatives. How would he have behaved had he really known what Hitler was all about? If he had really known what Hitler was all about, why did he come back to us in 1940 to continue his service? I don’t know how to answer these questions fully. In the end, I don’t have much longer to live and will see him again. I look forward to speaking with my love and asking him these questions if such things are possible once we die. I have missed him terribly. He was a good, strong man and my true love.” 

For more about Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, see my books:

https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Jewish-Soldiers-Descent-Military/dp/0700613587

https://www.amazon.com/Lives-Hitlers-Jewish-Soldiers-Descent/dp/070062340X/ref=pd_lpo_14_img_0/142-4802893-8935813?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=070062340X&pd_rd_r=369cc36a-3671-4ee1-bf4c-6a9f5a0d1da6&pd_rd_w=3GKO2&pd_rd_wg=qjCAE&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=678A5QZ3EPQM39AG688X&psc=1&refRID=678A5QZ3EPQM39AG688X