Bryan Mark Rigg

Born and reared as a Baptist,[1] Rigg studied at Phillips Exeter Academy, graduating in 1991[2] continued on to Yale University, and received his B.A. in 1996.[3] He received a grant from the Henry Fellowship, to continue his studies in Cambridge University, where Rigg earned his doctorate in 2002.[4][5] In the summer of 1994 he went to Germany, and met Peter Millies, an elderly man who helped Rigg understand the German in a movie they were watching, Europa Europa, about Shlomo Perl, a full Jew who "hid in plain sight" in the Nazi army, posing as a Volksdeutsche orphan named Josef Peters. Millies later told Rigg that he himself was a part-Jew, and introduced him to the subject which was to become his main research topic for many years.[6]

Rigg discovered a large number of "Mischlinge" (part-Jews) who were members of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or "Nazi" Party) and/or served in the German Armed Forces during World War II. In the 1990s, he travelled throughout the world, primarily Austria and Germany, and interviewed hundreds of these men. His assembled documents, videotapes, and wartime memoirs on the subject are presented as the Bryan Mark Rigg Collection at the Military Archives branch of the Federal German Archives (Bundesarchiv) in Freiburg, Germany.[7]

He has taught as a lecturer at Southern Methodist University and American Military University.[8] He served as a volunteer in the Israel Army and as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

His claims have been used both by Holocaust researchers,[9][10] as well as Holocaust denial and anti-Zionist groups.

His book Hitler's Jewish Soldiers earned him the Colby Award (for first books in military history) in 2003.[11] Before his work was published, his research was picked up by several newspapers, most notably the London Telegraph, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, causing much sensation and generating a lot of criticism from some historians. He has been endorsed by such historians like Michael Berenbaum,[12] Robert Citino,[13] Stephen Fritz, James Corum, Paula Hyman, Nathan Stoltzfus, Norman Naimark, Jonathan Steinberg, Geoffrey P. Megargee, Dennis Showalter and James Tent.[14] He has published several other books since then: Rescued From the Reich, with a foreword by Paula Hyman (Yale University Press 2004), Lives of Hitler's Jewish Soldiers (Kansas, 2009) and The Rabbi Saved by Hitler's Soldiers, with a foreword by Michael Berenbaum (Kansas, 2016).

David Cesarani, professor for Jewish history at the University of Southampton and Royal Holloway, University of London, and Raul Hilberg of the University of Vermont judge Rigg's work negatively, because they believe Rigg's thesis is presented in a sensationalistic and unbalanced way.

Other scholars, like Richard J. Evans, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, and Omer Bartov, professor of history at Brown University, consider the titles of Rigg's books, such as Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, misleading, because the books are not about Jews as the term is commonly understood, but in almost all cases about Mischlinge ("half-"Jews and "quarter-"Jews) as defined by the Nuremberg laws but not according to Jewish religious law.[15] The few exceptions, including Solomon Perel, whose life was depicted in the film Europa Europa, were crypto-Jews hiding behind 'Aryan' assumed identities.

• Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military, University Press of Kansas, 2002. ISBN 978-0-7006-1358-8[16][17]
• Rescued from the Reich: How one of Hitler's Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-300-11531-4[18]
• Lives of Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Stories of Hitler's Jewish Soldiers University of Kansas Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7006-1638-1
• The Rabbi Saved by Hitler's Soldiers: Rebbe Joseph Isaac Schneersohn and His Astonishing Rescue University of Kansas Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0700622610
• Flamethrower: Iwo Jima Medal of Honor Recipient and U.S. Marine Woody Williams and His Controversial Award, Japan's Holocaust and the Pacific War Fidelis Historia, 2020. ASIN B08666CNSH

• Meno Burg (1789–1853), the highest-ranking Jewish officer in the Prussian army.

• Glenna Whitley (February 26, 2004). "In the Wolf's Mouth". Dallas Observer. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
• Ruth Almog (August 3, 2005). מעמדי כחייל הוא פרדוקס של ממש, ואין לו שום הסבר הגיוני [Standing as a soldier he is a real paradox, and has no reasonable explanation]. Haaretz (in Hebrew). Retrieved September 2, 2014. Article on Bryan Mark Rigg and his books.
• "Bryan Mark Rigg Video | Interviews". OVguide.com. Retrieved September 2, 2014. Neo-Nazi 'Liberal-Fascism.com' website.
• "About Bryan Mark Rigg, PHD". Retrieved July 9, 2017. Bryan Mark Rigg website.
• "LAMETHROWER : The Untold Story of Iwo Jima Medal of Honor Recipient Woody Williams, Japan's Genocide and the Pacific War". Retrieved February 5, 2018. Flamethrower Book Website.
• Appearances on C-SPAN