Vizefeldwebel Fritz Beckhardt (27 March 1889 – 13 January 1962) was a German Jewish fighter ace in World War I.

[1][page needed][2][3] The Nazis later expunged him from Luftwaffe history because his valorous war record of 17 aerial victories belied their assertions that Jews were inherently cowardly.

[1][page needed][5] Prior to World War I, he had worked in a grocery store, then in a menswear warehouse in Hamburg.

[1][page needed][6] On 3 August 1914, Beckhardt volunteered to serve in Company 12 of Infanterie-Regiment Graf Bose (1.

[6] On 23 March 1918, Beckhardt submitted his first combat claim, for a victory over a Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a, but it went unconfirmed.

[1][page needed][5] Beckhardt was one of only three German Jews awarded the House Order of Hohenzollern; the others were Edmund Nathanael and Wilhelm Frankl.

[1][page needed][6] In 1936 he drove two Jewish brothers named Frohwein to the Belgian border so they could flee the Gestapo.

Upon his release in March 1940, it was written in his records by the SS that he had scored 17 victories as a fighter pilot during World War I.

[1][page needed][5] Apparently, Hermann Göring had interceded on the grounds of sentiment towards his old comrade in arms to facilitate his release.

[citation needed] In 1950, Beckhardt returned to Wiesbaden and recovered his house and shop and a part of his other property through legal action.

[12] His son Kurt lived in a camp in Barham, near Ipswich, in different hostels in Sheffield and in Golders Green, London until he returned with his father to Germany.

Lorenz Beckhardt found out when he was 18 and researched the story of his grandfather, resulting in the publication of the book Der Jude mit dem Hakenkreuz.