jewish contributons WWI

[Der Schwarze Ritter]

I was wondering how did the Jews contribute to Germany's or Austria's war efforts durng World War I, I have looked everywhere on the net and I can't find a thing. any info pleez.



-Daniel-

[Roberto]

I was wondering how did the Jews contribute to Germany's or Austria's war efforts durng World War I, I have looked everywhere on the net and I can't find a thing. any info pleez.



-Daniel-

The subject also interests me. Some time ago I visited the synagogue in Essen, Germany, where they have permanent exhibitions about Essen during the Third Reich and Jewish life in Essen during the pre-war period.

The latter exhibition contains documents from World War I which suggest a strong German nationalism on the part of German Jews. One that I remember is a proclamation by a Jewish organization expressing the confidence that Jewish physical and spiritual education would produce warriors to honor the German Fatherland on the battlefield.

According to information available in the mentioned exhibition, about 100,000 Jews saw service in the imperial armed forces during World War I - quite a considerable part of the German Jewish population, which should not have exceeded half a million people at the time. 12,000 of them lost their lives. A leaflet issued after the war by the Reich Association of Jewish Frontline Soldiers, which is available at the German historical museum in Berlin, proclaims that Chrisitian and Jewish heroes fought together and are resting together under foreign ground. It urges non-Jewish German mothers not to allow Jewish mothers to be mocked in their pain about lost sons by anti-Semitic fanatics. This leaflet can also be viewed online:

[Ovidius]

According to information available in the mentioned exhibition, about 100,000 Jews saw service in the imperial armed forces during World War I - quite a considerable part of the German Jewish population, which should not have exceeded half a million people at the time. 12,000 of them lost their lives.

Which means exactly nothing, since the Jews, as well as other ethnic minorities(Poles etc) were subject to conscription. About 150,000 men of Jewish and half/quarter Jewish origin(more than in WWI) fought in the Wehrmacht Heer and Waffen SS during WWII, but this did not stop our "dear friend" Mr. Spielberg and other bastards like him.

~Ovidius

[Der Schwarze Ritter]

Thanx for the info Roberto, I went on the net again and I found a website that is dedicated to German and Austrian Jewish soldiers in WWI
try http://judischequandry.tripod.com/ or just type german jewish soldiers on your search engine, also the Simon Wiesenthal Center says the Jews in Germany were very patriotic and they helped capture the city of Lodz, it shows pictures of Jewish soldiers praying at a Synogogue. Also I know that the Germans used jews as translators on the Eastern Front.


-Daniel-

[harry palmer]

Hitler himself knew that there were Jews fighting in the German army in WWI- he had been nominated for the Iron Cross First Class, by a Jewish officer, Leutnant Hugo Gutmann.
Also Anne Frank's father and uncle had served as officers in the WWI German army.

[sylvieK4]

Otto Frank, Anne's father, right, with his brother during the First World War.

[sylvieK4]

This is interesting. It is a document issued during the Nazi period to a Jewish man, certifying that he was a medal recipient during the First World War.

[Gott]

Hitler himself knew that there were Jews fighting in the German army in WWI- he had been nominated for the Iron Cross First Class, by a Jewish officer, Leutnant Hugo Gutmann.
Also Anne Frank's father and uncle had served as officers in the WWI German army.

did he really got his iron cross through the nomination of a jewish officer? wow, wouldn't hitler thank him for this, or if he really hated jews so much, wouldn't he chose not to wear his iron cross around?

[Gott]

Hitler himself knew that there were Jews fighting in the German army in WWI- he had been nominated for the Iron Cross First Class, by a Jewish officer, Leutnant Hugo Gutmann.
Also Anne Frank's father and uncle had served as officers in the WWI German army.

BTW, it would be cool to know what happened to Hugo Gutmann after the war. I wonder if Hitler spared him or something like that...

[Luca]

Hitler himself knew that there were Jews fighting in the German army in WWI- he had been nominated for the Iron Cross First Class, by a Jewish officer, Leutnant Hugo Gutmann.
Also Anne Frank's father and uncle had served as officers in the WWI German army.

did he really got his iron cross through the nomination of a jewish officer? wow, wouldn't hitler thank him for this, or if he really hated jews so much, wouldn't he chose not to wear his iron cross around?

All the veterans of the first WW was a sort of intouchables for long time.
After the gret part was trasferred in the Theresienstadt, that was a sort of (obvious relativity) little paradise, and here stay for long time.
Only the accelleration of the events during the last period forced these "fighters for the defence of the homeland" to go to theirs fate with the last trasports to east europe.If i remember well the decorateds never start to east camps.
How much of these men dead for the ephidemie of typus petecchiale (that start in Terezin cause the last trasport of polish from east no was disinfected as usual) after the germans escape and arrive the russians that close in circle all the area and no help for long time the old prisoners,is unknow number for me,but was sure the more great mass murder in Teresienstadt time.

[James]

Gott:

Your musing about Hugo Gutmann's ultimate fate led me to do a little quick research. According to one source on the internet:

"Hugo Gutmann was Hitler's immediate superior officer from January 29 to August 31, 1918. His military papers have been preserved, and they tell that he was born on November 19, 1880 in Nuremberg as the son of the shop-keeper Salomon Gutmann and his wife Emma. He himself stated his religion as Jewish. In 1902 he volunteered for the army and was appointed non-commissioned officer, before he in 1904 was transferred to the reserve. At the outbreak of war in 1914 Hugo Gutmann was called up and soon after he was transferred to Regiment List. On April 15, 1915, he was promoted to lieutenant, and after that he acted as adjudant for the regiment's artillery battalion. On the same day as Hitler received his Iron Cross, the regimental commander, Freiherr von Tubeuf, wrote a recommendation on Gutmann which shows his energy as a front officer. Gutmann was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class on December 2, 1914 - incidentally the same day as Hitler - and the Iron Cross 1st class on December 4, 1915.

*******************************************************

"Hugo Gutmann was still unmarried when, at the age of 38, he was demobilized on February 8, 1919. He married the year after and his wife later bore two children. Late in 1933 he asked the Bavarian War Archives for a copy of his military papers - probably in order to take advantage of President Hindenburg's stubborn defence of the civil rights of the Jewish war veterans. Hugo Gutmann at that time owned an office-furniture shop in Vordere Steingasse 3 in Nuremberg. Together with his family he escaped in 1939 to Belgium, and in 1940 he came to the United States, where he changed his name to Henry G. Grant. According to the historian Werner Maser, he received - by Hitler's intervention - a pension from the Third Reich down to the end of the war."

However, the author of the above makes it clear that, despite the possible assistance regarding the pension, Hitler's feelings about Gutmann may have been rather complex and far from warm. If you are interested, I suggest you take a look at the entirety of the fairly long article from which I took the above, located at:

http://holocaust-info.dk/shm/2_uk.htm

[R.M. Schultz]

More Jews died fighting for Germany in the Great War than died fighting for Israel from 1947 to 1982.

[sylvieK4]

Additional information about Hugo Guttmann can be found at this address:

http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/nuremberg2/nurem12.html

Hugo Guttmann:

[L-V Jr.]

If i'm not wrong Fritz Haber is also a Jew, well thats until he converted to Christianity. And i think he made one of the biggest contribution to the Second Reich cuz without him germany would face shortage of explosives due to lack of nitrates i think.

[Ti.P]

Roberto im not a neo nazi in the slightest, but if that poster/image is a contempery image of WWI than I can see why Hitler could easily target "jews " as a whole. If the image is contempary and the jews efforts are shown in this way doesnt this mean that they were alreayd than separated from teh society to an extend whether they enforced this themselve by excluding others or whether they were excluded by others. That would make them something that many people dont ahve much contact with and the unkonow is often seen as a threat especially when apropaganda machine is working against it.

anyhow sticking to the topic i know of a chemist called Haber who was a jew and and most ppl who do highschool chemistry would know created the haber-someone process for gettin nitrate needed for bombmaking, he also madechlorine gas. anyhow he was extremely patriotic!! after makin the poison gas his wife killed herself(because of what her husband had done!?!?! if than this shows huge patritism in Haber) and later under hitler he had to flee germany wiht many other jewish intellectuals!!!