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Between Inclusion and Exclusion: The Experiences of Jewish Soldiers in Europe and the USA, 1914–1918

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The Jewish Experience of the First World War

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Abstract

Jews fought in the armies of all belligerent states throughout the First World War. While in Germany, it was mainly native-born Jews who served in the army, many Jewish soldiers in Austria, Britain, and the United States had a Yiddish-speaking or immigrant background. This triggered a debate about experiences of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ among Jewish soldiers and chaplains, and in the communities at home. Focusing on the struggles of Jewish soldiers to come to terms with competing dynamics of cultural difference, this chapter demonstrates the variety of Jewish wartime experiences from a comparative and transnational perspective. In so doing, it addresses not only the structural trajectories of Jewish integration within these four societies, but also draws attention to the war’s larger impact on debates about the soldiers’ Jewishness.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an in-depth analysis regarding this dilemma, see Sarah Panter (2014), Jüdische Erfahrungen und Loyalitätskonflikte im Ersten Weltkrieg (Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht). On the more general impact of the war analysed against the background of its global entanglements, see Jörn Leonhard (2014), Die Büchse der Pandora. Geschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs (Munich, C.H. Beck).

  2. 2.

    For recent research surveys on the vast literature published during the centenary, see Stig Förster (2015), ‘Hundert Jahre danach. Neue Literatur zum Ersten Weltkrieg’, Neue Politische Literatur 60, 5–25; Alan Kramer (2014), ‘Recent Historiography of the First World War, Part I’, Journal of Modern European History 12:1, 5–28; and idem (2014), ‘Recent Historiography of the First World War, Part II’, Journal of Modern European History 12:2, 155–174.

  3. 3.

    On attempts to change this, see Hannah Ewence and Tim Grady, eds. (2017), Minorities During the First World War: From War to Peace (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan); Panikos Panayi, ed. (2014), Germans as Minorities During the First World War: A Global Comparative Perspective (Ashgate, Farnham).

  4. 4.

    See David Rechter (2001), The Jews of Vienna and the First World War (Oxford, Littman Library), 2–3.

  5. 5.

    There are thus far no consistent and exact numbers on Jewish participation during the war. Jacob Rosenthal, who gives numbers for all four countries analysed here, for instance, uses multiple sources, one of which is a publication of US Veterans from 1941 that offers the following numbers: Germany (100,000), Austria-Hungary (320,000), Britain (50,000) and the US (250,000). Jacob Rosenthal (2007), ‘Die Ehre des jüdischen Soldaten.’ Die Judenzählung im Ersten Weltkrieg (Frankfurt, Campus Verlag), 204. Depending on the different recruiting schemes, numbers of Jewish soldiers and points of entry into the war, there were approx. 30 Jewish chaplains serving with the German, 76 with the Habsburg, 18 with the British and 23 appointed ones for the American forces (only 10 of which would arrive in France before November 1918). See Arnold Vogt (1984), Religion im Militär. Seelsorge zwischen Kriegsverherrlichung und Humanität (Frankfurt a.M., Peter Lang Verlag), 607; Erwin Schmidl (1989), Juden in der K.(u.)K. Armee, 1788–1918 (Eisenstadt, Jewish Museum Vienna), 80–81; Michael Snape (2008), The Royal Army Chaplains’ Department, 1796–1953: Clergy Under Fire (Woodbridge, Boydell), 202; Lee Levinger (1921), A Jewish Chaplain in France (New York, The Macmillan Company), 86–87; and Albert Isaac Slomovitz (1999), The Fighting Rabbis: Jewish Military Chaplains and American History (New York, New York University Press).

  6. 6.

    Eric Hobsbawm (1987), The Age of Empire, 1875–1914 (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson); idem (1994), The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991 (London, Michael Joseph).

  7. 7.

    Lewis P. Brown (1918), ‘The Jew is Not a Slacker’, The North American Review 207, 857–862. ‘Slacker’ was less frequently used however than ‘shirker’, in particular in the British context. In German-speaking countries, a person accused of shirking from military service was called ‘Drückeberger’.

  8. 8.

    On the divergent logics of recruiting systems during the war, see Alexander Watson (2011), ‘Voluntary Enlistment in the Great War: A European Phenomenon?’, in Christine G. Krüger and Sonja Levsen, eds. War Volunteering in Modern Times: From the French Revolution to the Second World War (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan), 163–188. For an excellent transnational historical survey of the relationship between Jews and the military, see Derek Penslar (2013), Jews and the Military: A History (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

  9. 9.

    On the categorisation of different ethnic groups within the Habsburg military as ‘reliable’ or ‘unreliable’, see Mark Cornwall (2004), ‘Auflösung und Niederlage. Die österreichisch-ungarische Revolution’, in Mark Cornwall, ed. Die letzten Jahre der Donaumonarchie: Der erste Vielvölkerstaat im Europa des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts (Essen, Klartext), 174–201, here 181.

  10. 10.

    ‘Die militär. Reservatbefehle’, Jüdische Volksstimme (10 August 1917), 1–2.

  11. 11.

    For a historical overview of the German-speaking context, see Rosenthal (2007), ‘Ehre’; István Deák (1990), Jewish Soldiers in Austro-Hungarian Society (New York, Leo Baeck Institute); and Erwin A. Schmidl (2014), Habsburger Jüdische Soldaten, 1788–1918 (Vienna, Böhlau).

  12. 12.

    On the larger issue of turning immigrant soldiers into American citizens, see Christopher M. Sterba (2003), Good Americans: Italian and Jewish Immigrants During the First World War (Oxford, Oxford University Press); Nancy G. Ford (2001), Americans All! Foreign-Born Soldiers in World War I (College Station, Texas A&M University Press); and Christopher Capozzola (2008), Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (New York, Oxford University Press).

  13. 13.

    The JWB had been established in April 1917 as an officially recognised umbrella organisation for the welfare work among Jewish soldiers and still exists today. See JWB to Woodrow Wilson, 7 September 1917, 1, American Jewish Archives [AJA], MS-457, Box 174, Folder 2. During the war, it had four field secretaries (David de Sola Pool, Leon Goldrich, L.B. Bernstein, and Horace J. Wolf) who visited over 100 military training camps across the US. See Report of the Field Secretaries to the JWB Executive Committee, 3 June 1918, Center for Jewish History [CJH], American Jewish Historical Society [AJHS], I-337, Box 162, Folder 7. On the role of the JWB that has not received much scholarly attention regarding its origins during the First World War yet, see also Jessica Cooperman (2014), ‘The Jewish Welfare Board and Religious Pluralism in the American Military of World War I’, American Jewish History 98:4, 237–261.

  14. 14.

    Report No. 23 by David de Sola Pool from Kelly Fields (visited on 5 April 1918), 3, CJH, AJHS, I-180, Box 338, Folder 1.

  15. 15.

    See Tim Grady (2011), The German-Jewish Soldiers of the First World War in History and Memory (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press); Greg Caplan (2008), Wicked Sons, German Heroes. Jewish Soldiers, Veterans, and Memories of World War I in Germany (Saarbrücken, VdM); and Derek Penslar (2011), ‘The German-Jewish Soldier: From Participant to Victim’, German History 29, 423–444.

  16. 16.

    See, for such blind spots, in particular, David Fine (2012), Jewish Integration in German Army in the First World War (Berlin, De Gruyter); Peter Appelbaum (2014), Loyalty Betrayed: Jewish Chaplains in the German Army During the First World War (London, Vallentine Mitchell).

  17. 17.

    Kriegsministerium. An das Kaiserliche Generalgouvernement Warschau, 11 October 1916, No. 247/8. 16 C 1 b, PH 30/II/19, 28, Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv [BArchiv-MA] Freiburg. Translation by the author. Here, as in the following, I have translated German quotes into English.

  18. 18.

    Anonym, ohne Datum, 28, B. 3/52-I/3, Aus WK 3/2, Zentralarchiv zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, Heidelberg. The letter does not contain a concrete date, but it is filed under a folder containing correspondences from 1915/16; hence it was written before the ‘Jew count’.

  19. 19.

    On the importance of the image of the ‘Ostjude’, see Steven E. Aschheim (1982), Brothers and Strangers: The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800–1923 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press).

  20. 20.

    See M.R. (1916), ‘Die Ostjudenfrage I’, Ost und West, 73–112, here 79.

  21. 21.

    Panter (2014), Jüdische Erfahrungen, 120–130 and 288–295.

  22. 22.

    On this issue, see also Anne Lloyd (2012), ‘War, Conflict and the Nation: Between Integration and Separation—Jews and Military Service in World War I Britain’, in Hannah Ewence and Tony Kushner, eds. Whatever Happened to British Jewish Studies? (London, Vallentine Mitchell), 43–63. At first, conscription applied only to unmarried men but was shortly afterwards extended to married ones as well.

  23. 23.

    ‘Russian-Born Jews and Enlistment‘, Jewish Chronicle (23 June 1916), 7; Report of the Aliens Enlistment Committee, 26 July 1916, 3, The National Archives Kew, Public Record Office, HO 45/10818/318095.

  24. 24.

    See also Sascha Auerbach (2007), ‘Negotiating Nationalism: Jewish Conscription and Russian Repatriation in London’s East End, 1916–1918’, Journal of British Studies 46, 594–620.

  25. 25.

    See for example ‘In the Communal Armchair: The Trouble at Leeds, and Other Places’, Jewish Chronicle (22 June 1917), 8. In 1914, over two thirds of Jews in Britain lived in three major settlements: London (180,000), Manchester (30,000) and Leeds (20,000). See Todd Endelman (2002), The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000 (Berkeley, University of California Press), 130.

  26. 26.

    Michael Adler (1920), A Jewish Chaplain on the Western Front, 1915–1918 (Lewes, Lewes Press) [Reprinted from the Jewish Guardian], 16.

  27. 27.

    For an early attempt to problematise the ‘exclusionary’ aspects of the Jewish experience of the war in Britain, see David Cesarani (1989), ‘An Embattled Minority: The Jews in Britain During the First World War’, Immigrants & Minorities 8, 61–81.

  28. 28.

    Ford (2001), Americans All!, 3.

  29. 29.

    ‘Conscripting Friendly Aliens’, American Israelite (27 September 1917), 4; ‘Aliens for War Service’, American Hebrew (10 August 1917), 353; ‘Urge Congress to Draft Aliens’, American Hebrew (30 August 1917), 419. On practical difficulties when implementing the Selective Service Act regarding ‘declarant’, ‘non-declarant’ and ‘enemy’ aliens, see Nancy G. Ford (1997), ‘‘Mindful of the Traditions of his Race’: Dual Identity and Foreign-born Soldiers in the First World War American Army’, Journal of American Ethnic History 16:2, 35–57, here 36.

  30. 30.

    On its activities, see American Jewish Committee (1919), The War Record of American Jews: First Report of the Office of War Records (New York, American Jewish Committee); Julian Leavitt (1918), The Collection of Jewish War Statistics (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America).

  31. 31.

    On the numbers, see for instance the compilation by Rosenthal (2007), ‘Ehre’, 204–205.

  32. 32.

    See ibid., 94. On Reizes parliamentary question, see Stenographisches Protokoll. Haus der Abgeordneten, 7. Sitzung (15 June 1917), 316–317. URL http://alex.onb.ac.at/cgicontent/alex?aid=spa&datum=0022&size=54&page=1276 (accessed on 13 September 2015). For the counter-initiative of the Polish deputies Witos, Kubik and Potoczek, see ‘Offener Brief’, Dr. Bloch’s Österreichische Wochenschrift (23 November 1917), 783–784.

  33. 33.

    This is my Life. Jacob Sonderling, 3, 5, AJA, MS-582, Box 1, Folder 7. He wrote his autobiographical memoirs that are based in part on his diary from the First World War in Los Angeles in the 1960s where he died in 1964.

  34. 34.

    ‘Die jüdische Nation’, Beilage zur Ostgalizischen Feldzeitung (14 July 1917), 3, BArchiv-MA, PHD 23/68.

  35. 35.

    ‘Feldpostbrief eines jüdischen Militärseelsorgers’, Dr. Bloch’s Österreichische Wochenschrift (16 April 1915), 289–291, here 289.

  36. 36.

    Samuel Lemberger to Max Grunwald, 19 November 1916, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, Jerusalem, A/W 357, 3. Underlining in the original.

  37. 37.

    Arthur Barnett (1919), ‘The Bacon Tasted Good’, Jewish Chronicle (28 February); also reprinted in David Englander, ed. (1994), A Documentary History of Jewish Immigrants in Britain, 1840–1920 (Leicester, Leicester University Press), 351.

  38. 38.

    See for instance the detailed reports of Leo Baeck (1914), ‘Berichte des Feldgeistlichen Rabbiner Dr. Baeck an den Vorstand der jüdischen Gemeinde’, Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (27 November), 569–571.

  39. 39.

    ‘Ein österreichischer Feldprediger’, Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (12 February 1915), 76–78, here 77.

  40. 40.

    Paul Lazarus to Verband der Deutschen Juden, 30 September 1917, 1–2, Centrum Judaicum Berlin, 1, 75 C Ve 1, Nr. 388 (13011).

  41. 41.

    Report No. 7B from Camp Doniphan by David de Sola Pool, 21–23 March 1918, 2, CJH, AJHS, I-180, Box 338, Folder 1. 750 Jewish recruits, mainly from St. Louis and Kansas City, were stationed there.

  42. 42.

    See R. Faerber (1917–1918), ‘Unsere israelitische Militärseelsorge’, Hickls jüdischer Volkskalender für das Jahr 5678, 46–47, here 46.

  43. 43.

    ‘In the Communal Armchair, ‘The Jewish Soldier’s Religion:’ What a Jewish Soldier Says’, Jewish Chronicle (5 January 1917), 9–10, here 9.

  44. 44.

    ‘‘The Jewish Soldier’s Religion:’ ‘Khaki’ Reforms: A Protest’, Jewish Chronicle (26 January 1917), 17.

  45. 45.

    Morris D. Waldman to Jacob Billikopf, 26 October 1917, 4, AJA, MS-457, Box 172, Folder 6. On similar feedback, see also Report of field secretary Goldrich (submitted on 1 December 1917), 4, CJH, AJHS, I-180, Box 337, Folder 4; Report of Joseph C. Hyman regarding the conditions in Camp Upton, 26 October 1917, 1, CJH, AJHS, I-180, Folder 337, Box 1.

  46. 46.

    Report No. 33. San Francisco (Northern California Branch). D. de Sola Pool, 19–25 April 1918, 4, CJH, AJHS, I-180, Box 338, Folder 1.

  47. 47.

    For more details on this cooperation, see Panter (2014), Jüdische Erfahrungen, 255–259.

  48. 48.

    On this decision, see in more detail Moise Engelmann to August Goldsmith, 17 March 1918, AJA, MS-457, Folder 178, Box 17; Report of the Overseas Commission from Paris, 23 August 1918, 161.

  49. 49.

    S. Ansky (2002), The Enemy at His Pleasure. A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I, ed. and trans. by Joachim Neugroschel (New York, Metropolitan Books), 23. The first English translation was published in 1925.

  50. 50.

    On the role of internationalism and transnationalism in veterans’ organisations, see Derek Penslar (2008), ‘An Unlikely Internationalism: Jews at War in Modern Western Europe’, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 7:3, 309–323.

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  1. Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz, Germany

    Sarah Panter

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Correspondence to Sarah Panter .

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  1. Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK

    Edward Madigan

  2. Department of History, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK

    Gideon Reuveni

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Panter, S. (2019). Between Inclusion and Exclusion: The Experiences of Jewish Soldiers in Europe and the USA, 1914–1918. In: Madigan, E., Reuveni, G. (eds) The Jewish Experience of the First World War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54896-2_8

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