There are 9,260 Jewish men and women on full-time active service in the South African Army, it is stated in a review entitled “They Answered the Call,” issued here by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. This figure represents 10 percent of the Union’s Jewish population and about 25 percent of its available man-power of military age. The figure is considered particularly high in view of the fact that the South African war effort is entirely voluntary, no conscription having been introduced here.
“They Answered the Call” briefly surveys the war effort of South African Jewry and reveals that Jews participated from the very beginning in the glorious drive of the South Africans through Kenya into Abyssinia and finally into North Africa. “They were at El Wak and at Mega. They were at Sidi Rezegh, at Tobruk, at El Alazein; in the desert, in the air, and at sea. They followed Montgomery in the last decisive push into Tunisia. They are well represented in the Sixth Division which has gone forward for service anywhere in the world.”
The 9,250 Jews serving in the South African Forces have suffered 920 casualties; 180 have been killed, 312 wounded, 390 are prisoners of war and 136 are missing, the report discloses, adding that 27 South African Jews have been decorated.
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.
