Life during World War IINazi Germany's persecution of European Jews was described as a cruel act of racism that led to the massacre of Jews. Ilse Koehn experienced all of this first-hand as a little girl in Berlin, Germany. She was classified as Mischling, second degree, meaning she had Jewish heritage in her family line. The Holocaust was about defining the issue of race, but it was also mixed with nationalism and businessmen getting rid of their Jewish competitors. Ilse Koehn was one of many people affected by the Holocaust during World War II. She writes about it in her wonderful memoir called "Mischlings, Second Degree." It talks about how people's lives in Germany at the time were treated, it impacts us. now today with racism and learning about this phenomenon in schools. The Nazis took their first action on April 1, 1933 against German Jews and announced a boycott of all Jewish-run businesses (Benson 1). Lawyers, doctors, and businessmen supported the persecution of Jews because they could take their stand and pressure their clients to raise their salaries. In the book, Ilse's father has to leave his job and his family because he has to keep his Jewish status a secret. “There was a ban on marriages between Jews and citizens of “German or related blood” (“Holocaust”). Daughters from these marriages were not permitted to be employed as servants by any German. IlseEnnis 2Koehn was one of these children, but her parents kept it a secret and included her in the Hitler Youth so as not to arouse suspicion. “Racism played a key role in defining the victims of Nazi persecution, and it became deadly when mixed with German nationalism, the popular concepts of blood and soil that helped define the interior of the paper ...... today with racism and its learning at school. & Young Adult Biography Series Ed. Frank Northen Magill. Salem Press, Inc. 1993 eNotes.com March 6, 2014 Benson, Sonja, Daniel E. Brannen, and Rebecca Valentine, comp. “The Second World War.” UXL Encyclopedia of United States History. Flight. 8. Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning, 2009. “Holocaust” web. Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. Ed. John Hartwell Moore. Flight. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 103-112. World history in context. Internet. March 11, 2014. “ Ilse Koehn, 61, dies; writer and artist. » The New York Times. New York Times, May 16, 1991. Web. Koehn, Ilse. Mischling, Second degree: My childhood in Nazi Germany. New York: Greenwillow, 1977. Print. “Mischling, Second degree: My childhood in Nazi Germany. »Barnes & Noble. Penguin Group Incorporated, June 28, 1990. Web. March 11. 2014