Is the word "Mischling" a derrogitory word?

Question

During the Holocaust, Half-Jews were called mischlings, right? But, also knowing that just being called a Jew was taken as an insult, because people were so predjudiced and hateful toward Jews, its hard for me to tell whether being called a mischling was used in a derrogitory or just as a label (like caucasian, *****, etc.). So was mischling used as a derrogitory term? Please, no hateful comments. Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, it's derogatory, it's not a normal word to use for human beings. It is derived from the word "mischen" which means "mix", so the word literally means something like "a mixed one", translations to English are crossbreed, hybrid, mongrel or half breed. The word could be used for everyone who has parents of different race or ethnicity, it is not a special word for someone with one Jewish parent, however it sounds racist in every case, at least today it would be a really bad word to use. "Jude" (Jew) is still a normal word in German, but some people are afraid to use it because it was used so excessively as slur and make word constructions like "people of Jewish faith", "fellow citizens of Jewish faith" and such.