In the light of the retrospect afforded by the twentieth anniversary of the outbreak of the World War, Jewish papers here have devoted much space to the consideration of the position of the Jews of Germany.
The Juedische Liberale Zeitung, published a special supplement dedicated to the memory of the German Jews who fell fighting for the Fatherland.
“With sad hearts the survivors of the 12,000 Jewish war dead in Germany kindle the anniversary lights, whether it is a candle, or an oil lamp, or they kindle the light only symbolically in their own hearts,” says the editorial. “Hundreds of thousands of Jews, a fifth of the entire Jewish population of Germany, joined up for war service. Not all were at the front, but they all did their duty at whatever place military exigency and the orders of their superiors disposed them, exactly in the same way as did their Christian comrades at the same posts.
“Our status has changed. We are no longer members of the nation (Volksgenossen), under the law, not even those who have been left in their positions because they fought at the front, for under the law only an ‘Aryan’ German can be a Volksgenosse.
ROOTED IN SOIL
“In spite of it all, the German Jew is rooted in German soil; most families are for more than a century; and there are not a few who are for many centuries. Ancestors of Jewish families fought on German soil and fertilized it with their blood. Thousands of Jewish families are keeping this anniversary in memory of their kin who fell in the great war.
“We do not want the memory to be embittered in us; rather it should be a memory that the fallen heroes of our religious community fought and died in the conviction that their blood was given for their German Fatherland.”
The Juedische Rundschau, organ of the German Zionist Federation, writes:
“We Jews did our duty to the Fatherland at that time in all the countries where we were as citizens called to the flag. An incalculable number of decorations and distinctions are available to prove our part. But as a people with a long memory, the horrors of that war are still very much alive in us. All the nations who took part in the war suffered terribly, and it would be unfitting to place special stress on our Jewish sufferings. And yet it is a fact that in most countries we had as Jews to bear a special burden, for we shared the fate and the losses of the belligerent nation, and in addition, our exclusive losses.
SEE DANGERS OF WAR
“If we have often been dubbed pacifists, with the word intended as a reproach, we can only answer that we do in fact perceive the maintenance of peace as a tremendous civilizing influence, and that we regard the devastation of war, the immeasurable suffering of human beings as a calamity. But 1914 is evidence that in time of need we do our duty just the same as our fellow-citizens.
“We Jews have no influence on the decisions of the nations. The idea that has been repeatedly put forward in recent years, that Jewry incites to war, is utterly absurd. We believe that humanity longs for peace, and certainly we Jews more than all, for we who have before us a great task of construction, look forward to a time of external and internal pacification in which there will also be the spiritual conditions for a peaceful and objective consideration of our most vital question — the Jewish question.”
Dealing with the part played in the war by Jewish soldiers who were Zionists, the article says: “The attitude to the Fatherland was for that reason more firm, more genuine. We consciously fought as Jewish soldiers for Germany, and we felt bound to do our best for the honor of the Jewish name, for we knew that each one of us, being in so small a minority, was under the constant eye of our Christian comrades.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
