This seems like such a simple scenario to me, yet I cannot for the life of my find a solution online or in print. I have several objects like so (trimmed down):

@Entity
public class Group extends BaseObject implements Identifiable<Long> {
    private Long id;
    private String name;
    private Set<HiringManager> managers = new HashSet<HiringManager>();
    private List<JobOpening> jobs;

    @ManyToMany(fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
    @JoinTable(
            name="group_hiringManager",
            joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="group_id"),
            inverseJoinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="hiringManager_id")
    )
    public Set<HiringManager> getManagers() {
        return managers;
    }

    @OneToMany(mappedBy="group", fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
    public List<JobOpening> getJobs() {
        return jobs;
    }
}

@Entity
public class JobOpening extends BaseObject implements Identifiable<Long> {
    private Long id;
    private String name;
    private Group group;

    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn(name="group_id", updatable=false, nullable=true)
    public Group getGroup() {
        return group;
    }
}

@Entity
public class HiringManager extends User {

    @ManyToMany(mappedBy="managers", fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
    public Set<Group> getGroups() {
        return groups;
    }
}

Say I want to delete a Group object. Now there are dependencies on it in the JobOpening table and in the group_hiringManager table, which cause the delete function to fail. I don't want to cascade the delete, because the managers have other groups, and the jobopenings can be groupless. I have tried overriding the remove() function of my GroupManager to remove the dependencies, but it seems like no matter what I do they persist, and the delete fails!

What is the right way to remove this object?