An ironic commentary on the recent movement for friendship between British and German war veterans, inaugurated by the Prince of Wales, is furnished by Vyvyan Adams, Conservative member of the House of Commons, in a letter to The Times.
Describing the distinguished German-Jewish war record, Mr. Adams points out that “today in Germany the son can no longer wear the uniform in which his Jewish father fell,” and quotes a letter by von Hindenburg extolling the Jewish heroes of the war.
“The survivors of the 96,000 Jews who served in the ranks of the German Army during the War have recently been excluded from German service organizations,” he comments. “During the War, 2,000 Jews received commissions and 35,000 received decorations, including those implying the greatest distinction. Among the German dead were 12,000 Jews: no fewer than thirty of the 100 German Jewish air pilots fell in action.
“A little before his death one of them wrote in a letter: ‘The bullets of the enemy have not learned how to discriminate between Jew and Gentile.’ Today in Germany the son, can no longer wear the uniform in which his Jewish father fell. Yet the late President Hindenburg wrote in acknowledging a book containing the names of all Jewish casualties: ‘I shall include your book in my war library in honored memory of the Jewish comrades who gave their lives for their Fatherland.'”
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.
