Jews in the First World

VOLUME 14 NO.8 AUGUST 2014 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees Jews in the First World War his month marks the hundredth In Germany, the Kaiser’s government who was studying at the University of anniversary of the outbreak of portrayed its decision to go to war in Grenoble in France when war broke the First World War, arguably the August 1914 in part as a defensive measure out and only got back to Germany with Tmost important turning point in modern justified by the expected onslaught of the difficulty, proved their patriotism by European history. The Great War destroyed ‘Russian steamroller’ from the east. Russia joining up, inspired by the mood of the old European order that had lasted national euphoria in August 1914. About since the settlement reached at the end 100,000 Jews served in the German of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The war forces during the First World War, and also ushered in a new and dangerously some 12,000 died. The writer Thomas volatile era of insecurity and conflict, Mann, whose attitude to Jews had creating the conditions for regimes that previously been somewhat ambivalent, were bent on violence and conquest and movingly recorded in his diary the were prepared to practise mass killing shock he felt when, after the war’s end, on an unprecedented scale. The First he saw how many men with the name World War was the Urkatastrophe, the Cohen were listed among the fallen. In original catastrophe without which the recognising the patriotism displayed by great dictators and mass murderers of the Germany’s Jews, Mann was, however, an mid-twentieth century – Hitler, Stalin exception among non-Jewish German and their imitators – would not have patriots and nationalists. As early as been possible. 1916, the belief that Jews were failing to Whereas the fate of the Jews of support the German war effort was so Europe became a central issue during widespread in right-wing quarters that the Second World War, given that the Prussian Ministry of War undertook Nazi Germany, the power principally its notorious Judenzählung (census of responsible for launching that war, Jews in the German forces), pandering wished to destroy them in their entirety, to the swelling tide of war-fuelled anti- the role of Jews in the First World Semitism; when the census showed that War is at first sight harder to pinpoint. Jews were serving in proportion to their Nevertheless, the Jews who fought in the numbers in the population, its findings armies of the chief European belligerent The Balfour Declaration, from were suppressed. powers numbered around one million, The Times, 9 November 1917 Many AJR members will have had to which must be added some 200,000 fathers, uncles, grandfathers and other who served in the American forces from was the natural enemy of the Jews and relatives who fought in the First World War 1917. The attitudes of these combatant of the liberal, democratic institutions on and kept their decorations and certificates Jews varied from country to country. In which their gradual integration into the as proud mementoes of their service to Tsarist Russia, which contained the largest more advanced societies of Western Europe the country of their birth, even though no concentration of Jews in the world, Jews was predicated. Many German Jews amount of Iron Crosses could save a Jew were subject to severe discrimination and allowed themselves to be persuaded that the from discrimination and persecution after persecution. Jews had long sought to preservation of the civil and political rights 1933. Before 1914, Jews had not been escape conscription into the Russian army they had been granted over the decades was admitted to the German officer corps; and, though many fought loyally even in bound up with the struggle against Russia. but by 1918, some 2,000 Jews had been the face of the ingrained anti-Semitism It is, however, undeniable that Germany’s commissioned as officers, and a further of the Tsarist officer corps, others were Jews were mostly motivated to flock to the 1,200 served as medical officers. This was disaffected; after the enormous casualties colours by pure patriotism. It has long been a source of great pride to the individuals suffered by the Russian armies in their known that German Jews equalled, or even themselves, to their families and to their unsuccessful campaigns of 1914-15, Jews excelled, their gentile compatriots in their entire community. Herbert Sulzbach, a were among those who turned towards the eagerness to fight for their country in time German-Jewish refugee who served with parties hostile to the war and the Tsarist of war. distinction in the British army in the autocracy. While their parents sank their savings Second World War, reaching the rank Russia’s enemies benefitted from that into German government war bonds, of captain, remained equally proud of country’s record of reactionary excesses. young Jews like the writer Ernst Toller, continued overleaf journal AUGUST 2014 constitution. In Austria-Hungary, the Jews in the First World War ....... DIARY DATE ....... continued army, like the monarchy, transcended ethnic divisions, at least to the extent that AJR Lunch having attained the rank of lieutenant in some Jews were admitted to the officer Sunday 21 September 2014 corps. Jews had little problem in fighting the Kaiser’s army in the First World War. 12.30 pm at the Hilton Hotel, Watford Geoffrey Perry, born Horst Pinschewer in as loyal citizens of the Empire for they Berlin, who also distinguished himself in feared, all too presciently, that the defeat If you would like to attend, the British forces in the Second World War and disintegration of the Habsburg please complete the enclosed form – he captured the traitor William Joyce Empire would endanger their position and return it to us ASAP (Lord Haw-Haw) – had as a child had across Central and Eastern Europe. to listen so often to his father’s patriotic In 1914, Russian armies advanced into SPECIAL EVENT stories of his First World War exploits in Austrian Poland, taking cities like Lviv the Kaiser’s army that he refused to talk (Lemberg) and Przemysl and causing a about his own wartime experiences until mass flight of Jews. While the Germans The Last Train well into the 1970s. concentrated on the western front, to Tomorrow Austria-Hungary bore the brunt of the Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg has Sunday 9 November 2014, 3 pm fighting against Russia in the east, a cause recently written movingly about the deep- at The Roundhouse, London NW1 felt patriotism of his grandfather, Rabbi with which its Jewish population could readily identify. However, partly thanks to The AJR is proud to present the London premiere Dr Georg Salzberger, who served as a of The Last Train to Tomorrow, a song-cycle tribute Jewish chaplain in the German army in the incompetence of Habsburg strategists, to the Kindertransport composed and conducted by the First World War and, after emigrating the Empire also found itself fighting on the internationally acclaimed artist Carl Davis CBE. to Britain in 1939, was for many years two other fronts. Unable to overcome the This is a special one-off event. the minister at Belsize Square. Salzberger, stubborn resistance of the Serbs, Austrian As the date marks the anniversary of Kristallnacht, argues his grandson, saw wartime service forces became bogged down in a campaign the proceedings will include a commemoration of as the ultimate proof that German Jews that ended only in autumn 1915, when the Reichspogrom of 9-10 November 1938. had, through their patriotic contribution Bulgaria invaded Serbia. In May 1915, The event will also feature The Marriage of to the national cause, achieved equality Italy came into the war on the opposite Figaro Overture by Mozart and Mendelssohn’s Violin side, involving Austria-Hungary in a long Concerto performed by the City of London Sinfonia of status with their gentile compatriots. and the Finchley Children’s Music Group, together This Jewish patriotism reflected a belief and costly campaign conducted on the mountainous terrain of the Alps on the with an outstanding young violin soloist from the that, as Germans, Jews and Christians Yehudi Menuhin School. shared a set of moral, social and civic frontier between the two warring states. The huge losses suffered by the Austrians As the event will take place on a Sunday afternoon, values that bound them together in the we particularly encourage members to bring along name of distinctively German ideals. That on this largely forgotten front, principally their children and grandchildren. in the 11 battles fought on the river Isonzo, form of patriotism could also descend into Further information is in the flyer enclosed virulent nationalism: it was a German Jew, were in large measure responsible for the with this month’s Journal. Tickets can be Ernst Lissauer, who penned the notorious war-weariness that eventually swept the purchased strictly through The Roundhouse Box Hassgesang gegen England (Hymn of Hate Empire away. Office – visit www.roundhouse.org.uk or telephone 0300 6789 222. against England) in 1914. Probably the most significant development affecting Jews during the The situation in Austria-Hungary, with First World War occurred in the Middle its many competing national groups – East, where British forces faced the almost all of them hostile to Jews – was Ottoman Empire, Germany’s ally. As different. Here Jews felt loyalty to the General Allenby advanced from Egypt Empire and the Emperor, Kaiser Franz into Turkish-held territory to capture Joseph, who had come to symbolise the Visit to Jerusalem, the British government issued in supranational character of the Habsburg November 1917 the Balfour Declaration, Chelsea Physic Garden Monarchy, standing above the ethnic in which it made its celebrated promise TUESDAY 26 AUGUST 2014 strife that threatened to engulf the Jews of a national home for the Jewish people and acting as guarantor of the civic rights Founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society in Palestine, previously under Ottoman that they had been granted under the of Apothecaries, Chelsea Physic Garden has rule.

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