Jews in England and in Germany: I Was Filled with Envy That Jews in England Had Fought for a Country

The “Schild”, the official organ of the Federation of Jewish Fighters at the Front in Germany, publishes as its chief feature in the current issue a letter which the Federation has received from a German Jew, now living in London, describing the second Jewish ex-servicemen’s Armistice service held on the Horse Guards’ Parade on November 8th., when Field-Harshal Lord Allenby addressed the Jewish ex-officers and men.

There was no sneer on the face of any of the non-Jewish spectators, and no one jeered “Jew-parade”, says the writer, who is described editorially as a member of the Federation who was living abroad when the war broke out, came rushing back to Germany to volunteer for service, fought at the front all through the war, was severely wounded, and soon after the Armistice went again to live abroad.

Jewish citizens of England, he continues, had come to pay their tribute to the Jews who had given their lives for the fatherland, and the non-Jews who looked on showed respect for this loyal Jewish manifestation.

What feelings moved me as I watched? he asks. Was it pride at my war service for Germany? I felt glad that I had done my duty to my country, and deep gratitude at my recovery from my wounds, but there was something else that I felt, something which I am not ashamed to put into words. It was a feeling of envy that these English Jewish comrades of mine had had the privilege of fighting for a land that knows how to appreciate and respect their loyalty. There are Jews in England, as there are in Germany, but they are British citizens whose patriotism is accepted and not scorned and abused. They need not hide away their decorations and their medals for fear that they may be desecrated. They need not keep their Iron Crosses rusting in old chests and cupboards. The sons of these English Jewish war veterans are not being beaten at Oxford or Cambridge by immature boys, and the Professors there are surely not inciting the students to such brutalities. If England should again need her Jewish sons, they will go gladly at the call of their fatherland.

English Jews have every right to bring up their children in this spirit, he says, for England gives them protection, respect and position. They have every reason to love England, with all their heart and with all their soul. But would I again rush, he asks, to serve under the German banner as I did in 1914 if Germany called me again? Has post-war Germany deserved it of its Jews that they should again voluntarily give their lives for her? I am convinced, he proceeds, that the great majority of German Jews would again to-day, perhaps even more ably than their fathers did, demonstrate their loyalty if Germany should call them to arms. But I believe that they will do so not out of love, not because of that feeling of patriotism which has its roots in gratitude to the fatherland, but because of the great yearning of the Jew, in spite of all disappointment and disillusionment, to have a fatherland, to assure himself that the land of his birth and origin is his fatherland, and because of the desire to rehabilitate himself and to show how wrong it is to deprive him of his rights and honour, and to subject him to indignity and shame.

May Germany awake, he concludes, to find again her ancient culture and sense of justice.