Why didn't the Jewish people claim that they were not Jewish during World War 2?

Answer 1

In Germany, everyone had to prove that they weren't Jewish. So Jews who didn't take their faith seriously couldn't simply lie. For most purposes one had to produce certificates of baptism showing that both parents had been baptized as infants. In effect, the task fell to the churches in Germany, and they did the Nazi regime's bidding. It's something that the churches in Germany still find extremely embarrassing and would prefer not to talk about.

The Nazis regarded the Jews as a race. They were particularly bothered by the fact that in Germany and some other countries there were people of Jewish origin who had no religion or whose families had converted to Christianity. Hence the call for certificates of baptism. They also found things like skull measurements and the like were unrevealing. In countries occupied by Germany there were collaborators who were only too delighted to denounce people as Jews (or of Jewish origin). For example, the city council of Antwerp in Belgium voluntarily drew up a list of Jews in the city and handed it to the Nazis. In many parts of Eastern Europe, most Jews formed identifiable communities, and the Nazis' 'task' was easier.
One God

Answer 2

Some of them probably did but most of them decided not to betray their religion and to be proud of who they were. There were also many cases where non-Jews would adopt the Jewish children from their neighbors (at their neighbor's request) and not disclose to those kids that they were, in fact, Jews.

Answer 3

It's hard to do that when you've got paperwork that shows you're Jewish. German birth certificates usually list your family's religion; once the Nazis came to power, they started making people carry identification paperwork that also told things like your religion. Also, like in the US, Jewish people tend to have certain names; so it was pretty obvious who was Jewish just by that alone. In numerous cases, the Nazis had more information than the citizens. They came to the houses of Christians who had at least one Jewish grandparent and informed them of their Jewish heritage before carrying them away.

However, there were in fact some Jews who tried to hide their heritage in order to survive. There is a post-war German film called Europa Europa which is a true story about a Jewish boy who was born and raised in Germany but later moved to Poland. Over the course of the war, this boy was able to masquerade as a "pure" Aryan German, and actually joined the Hitler Youth (sort of like a German version of the Boy Scouts which brainwashed boys into being good little Nazis).

Answer 4

Even if they weren't jewish, or said they weren't, they would still be considered a jew and sent to the concentration camps if their grandparents or parents were jewish.