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The German Army's "Judenzahlung" of Igi6 Genesis - Consequences - Significance

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The German Army's The German Army's "Judenzahlung" of igi6 Genesis - Consequences - Significance BY WERNER T. ANGRESS Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/leobaeck/article/23/1/117/944535 by guest on 01 October 2021 "... Geht doch und zahlt sie. Zahlt auch die begraben Und die verkriippelt dieser grause Krieg. Geht hin und zahlt. Sollt unsre Hilfe haben Zum Zahlen auch der jiid'schen milden Gaben Und jiid'schen Streiter fur den innern Sieg . Nun zahlt ihr uns. Wir wollen's nicht ertragen. Was taten wir, dass man uns das getan? Wie durftet ihr nach dem Bekenntnis fragen ? Wir fragten nicht in jenen hohen Tagen: Furs Vaterland ward's ungefragt getan ..." From Henriette Fiirth, 'Judenzahlung'. On 11th October 1916l an order (Erlass) signed by the Prussian War Minister Adolf Wild von Hohenborn2 was sent to all German military commands at the front, behind the front, in German-occupied territory, and in the homeland (Heimat) to determine, by means of a census to be taken on 1st November 1916, how many Jews subject to military duty were serving on that date in every unit of the German armies. The relevant passages read as follows: "The War Ministry is continually receiving complaints from the population that large numbers of men of the Israelitic faith who are fit for military service are either exempt from military duties or are evading their obligation to serve under every conceivable pretext. According to these reports, large numbers of Jews in military service are also said to have obtained assignments in administrative or clerical posts far away from the front lines, either with the rear echelon or in the homeland. "In order to examine these complaints and, should they prove unwarranted, to be able to refute them, the War Ministry respectfully requests that the pertinent information be supplied in accordance with the two attached forms [ersucht . ergebenst urn gefdllige Aufstellung einer Nachweisung nach dem anliegenden Muster 1 und 2] ... and returned to the War Ministry by 1st December 1916 . ."3 xThe major findings discussed in this essay were originally published in my introduction to 'Dokumentation. Das deutsche Militar und die Juden im Ersten Weltkrieg', in Militargeschicht- liche Mitteilungen, 19 (1/76), pp. 77-88 (hereafter MGM 19). I wish to thank Dr. Wilhelm Deist, Wissenschaftlicher Direktor, Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Freiburg, for his consent to the publication of this English essay on the subject, which is a revised and expanded version of a lecture delivered by the author at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, on 21st October 1976. I also want to thank Grysta E. Casey who read the proofs of the manuscript and made valuable suggestions and corrections. ^Generalleutnant Adolf Wild von Hohenborn was Deputy Prussian War Minister from August 1914 until January 1915, and from 25th January 1915 until 29th October 1916 Prussian War Minister. 3Bundesarchiv Koblenz. Reichskanzlei. Film 2197, No. 160 (hereafter: BA Koblenz, Rk Film 2197, No. ...) • The document is published as No. 7 in my Dokumentation (see n. 1). Subsequently, documents referred to from this particular publication will be cited as follows: Printed in MGM 19 as Doc. No. ..., p 118 Werner T. Angress The questionnaires {Muster 1 [see Appendix] and 2) asked for figures on how many Jewish officers, administrative army officials or enlisted men were serving as volunteers, had died in battle or had been decorated while serving at the front; how many were serving behind the lines although fit for combat service; and how many of these were volunteers or had been decorated while serving 4 behind the lines. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/leobaeck/article/23/1/117/944535 by guest on 01 October 2021 The Erlass of 11th October raises several questions. Who had initiated the Judenzdhlung ? Why had it been initiated, and why at that particular time, at a juncture in the war when Germany's military and civilian leadership faced far graver problems than that of how many Jews were serving in the army ? Had the War Ministry's decision to issue the census order been exclusively an anti- semitic move, or had other considerations entered in as well ? As most of the documents that might have thrown light on these questions perished during the Second World War, the answers will have to be tentative, although on the basis of the scattered evidence available a few suggestions can at least be offered as to the genesis of this peculiar research project upon which Prussia's War Ministry embarked in the autumn of 1916. As is well known by now, the outbreak of the First World War was greeted by Germany's Jews with the same frantic patriotism that affected the majority of the nation. Alongside their Christian fellow citizens they joined up as volunteers in large numbers, and the Jewish press urged over and over again to spare no sacrifice but to give Blut and Gut for the fatherland.5 After the Emperor's proclamation of the Burgfrieden on 4th August 1914, many of the heretofore practised discriminations against Jews, especially those pertaining to positions in state service, disappeared - at least for the moment. Qualified Jewish non-commissioned officers were promoted to officer's rank throughout the various military contingents of the Empire. Jewish businessmen, scientists and academicians were invited to serve their country in positions of responsi- bility and trust within a number of governmental offices and agencies, notably the hastily created Kriegsgesellschqften.6 Yet this happy state of affairs did not 4BA Koblenz, Rk Film 2197, No. 161 (Muster 1); and ibid., No. 161 a (Muster 2), 'Nachweisung uber noch nicht zur Einstellung gelangte, auf Reklamation zuriickgestellte und als kr.u. [kriegsuntauglich] befundene Juden'. No. 161 was printed in MGM 19 as Doc. No. 8, pp. 97- 98. 5Peter Pulzer, 'Die judische Beteiligung an der Politik', in Juden im Wilhelminischen Deutschland 1890-1914. Ein Sammelband herausgegeben von Werner E. Mosse unter Mitwirkung von Arnold Paucker, Tubingen 1976 (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Instituts 33), pp. 232-233; Arnold Paucker, 'Zur Problematik einer jiidischen Abwehr- strategie in der deutschen Gesellschaft', in ibid., pp. 545-547. This euphoric display of national unity, known as the "Spirit of 1914", cut across all the various religious and ideological groupings of German Jewry, including the Zionists. For a few typical examples of this Jewish display of patriotism see Deutsche Israelitische £eitung, XXXI (6th August 1914), No. 3, p. 3 (hereafter DIZ); Allgemeine Z^itung des Judentums, 78 (7th August 1914), No. 32, pp. 374-375 (hereafter AZdJ); ibid. (21st August 1914), No. 34, p. 406; K. C. Blatter, V, Kriegsausgabe vol. I (Septem- ber-October 1914), No. 1, p. 263; and Im deutschen Reich, XX (September 1914), No. 9, pp. 339 ff. (hereafter IdR). 6On the Kriegsgesellschaften see Otto Goebel, Deutschlands Rohstoffwirtschaft im Weltkrieg, Stuttgart 1930; August Skalweit, Die deutsche Kriegserndhrungswirtschaft, Berlin-Leipzig-Stuttgart 1927; Alfred Miiller, Die Kriegsrohstoffbevuirtschaftung 1914-1918 im Dienste des deutschen Monopolkapitals, The German Army's " Juden zdhlung" 119 last very long. By the late autumn of 1914 Jewish newspapers began to complain about antisemitic slanders published by the press of the Reichshammerbund and other volkisch organisations.7 During the following year, the right-wing Pan- German League and the Farmers' League dropped whatever restraints they had hitherto practised and engaged in unbridled antisemitism.8 The principal charges, raised indiscriminately and extensively, were that Jews shirked their Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/leobaeck/article/23/1/117/944535 by guest on 01 October 2021 military obligations and were engaged in large-scale profiteering.9 As the inflammatory language of these accusations violated the letter and spirit of the Burgfrieden, the military censorship tended to intervene in cases of particularly flagrant virulence by temporarily banning the offending publications.10 Despite these measures, enough poisonous allegations were printed to cause concern among the Jews. Yet for the first two years of the war they refrained from appealing to the government for redress and restricted themselves to rebuttals of the antisemitic charges in their press. Although the reasons for this mounting antisemitic campaign were complex, all that can be done within the limits of this essay is to refer briefly to some of the most significant ones.11 One of the basic preconditions for a revival of intensive antisemitism was undoubtedly the general deterioration of living conditions for the majority of the civilian population. As the war dragged on Berlin (East) 1955; and James T. Shotwell, Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des Weltkriegs, 11 vols., Stuttgart 1927-1932, esp. vol. 1. On the Burgfrieden, see Germany, Verhandlungen des Reichstags, Stenographische Berichte, 13. Legislaturperiode, 2. Session, vol. 306 (4th August 1914), p. 2 (here- after: Reichstag, Sten. Ber., vol., date and p.). A few of the most prominent names of Jews called into government service are given in: Pulzer, loc. cit., p. 233. See also Ernest Hamburger, Juden im qffentlichen Leben Deutschlands. Regierungsmitglieder, Beamte und Parlamentarier in der mo- narchischen Ze^ 1848-1918, Tubingen 1968 (Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen des Leo Baeck Instituts 19), pp. 101-102 and ff., passim. WIZ, XXXI (29th October 1914), No. 43, pp. 1-3; ibid. (12th November 1914), No. 45, pp. 1-4; and ibid. (26th November 1914), No. 47, pp. 1-3. AZdJ, 78 (23rd October 1914), No. 43, p. 509; ibid. (6th November 1914), No. 45, pp. 531-532; ibid. (20th November 1914), No. 47, p. 455; ibid. (27th November 1914), No. 48, p. 467; ibid. (1 lth December 1914), No. 50, p. 491; andibid. (18th December 1914), No. 51, p. 503. (Due to a printer's error, which was not corrected for the balance of the year 1914, the pagination in the newspaper's issues Nos.
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