LOYAL SONS: JEWISH SOLDIERS IN THE GERMAN ARMY IN THE GREAT WAR

Peter C. Appelbaum

www.peterappelbaum.com

To my children

We Jews all leave for war of our own wish,Joyful to throng around our country’s flagTo gain for ourselves – even if fate willsThat we pay with our blood – our Fatherland.For Jewish kin have sadly called the landIn which we live Stepfatherland: From: ‘To my children,’ Emmanuel Saul, 1915; translation by Peter C. Appelbaum.With permission of the Saul family. 

Emmanuel Saul

WARS BEFORE 1914Prussian Wars of Liberation (against Napoleon) 1813-1815Jewish Participants: 731

WARS BEFORE 1914Schleswig-Holstein 1864Jewish Participants: 194

WARS BEFORE 1914Austria: 1866Jewish participants: 1,025

WARS BEFORE 1914Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871sJewish participation: 4,492-15,000

PHOTOS OF FLIERS

Paul Spiegel19th Century balloonist (pre-1914)

PHOTOS OF FLIERS

Willy Rosenstein

Hermann Goering (left); Willy Rosenstein (middle); Karl Reihm (right)

PHOTOS OF FLIERS

Fritz Beckhardt Willy Frankl

SOLDIER SNAPSHOTS - OFFICERS

• RUDOLPH BING, INFANTRY, WF• ALBRECHT MUGDEN, INFANTRY, WF (last will and testament)*• LUDWIG FRANK, INFANTRY, WF (politician) *• ALFRED LICHTENSTEIN, INFANTRY, WF (poet) *• LUDWIG HAAS, INFANTRY, EF-EK, (politician)• HERMAN STRUCK, INFANTRY, EF-EK (artist)• ARNOLD BERNSTEIN, ARTILLERY, WF-EK, etc. (Louvain)• PAUL JOSEPHTHAL, CAVALRY, WF-EK, etc. (furunculosis)

*Killed in action

LUDWIG FRANKALFRED LICHTENSTEIN LUDWIG HAAS HERMAN STRUCK

SOLDIER SNAPSHOTSNON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS:

• ROBERT ZIEGEL,INFANTRY, WF-EK, etc. (poet)*• ALFRED WOLF, INFANTRY, EF/BF/WF-EK, etc ** (put up five times for officers school)• WALTHER HEYMANN, CAVALRY, WF (poet) *• SIEGFRIED NEUMANN, ARTILLERY, BF/EF/WF-EK, etc.**

* Killed in action** 15-19 years old

Walther Heymann

SOLDIER SNAPSHOTS - ENLISTED MEN

• SAMMY GRONEMANN, INFANTRY, EF ( Zionist & humorist)• ALFRED ZWEIG, INFANTRY, WF (rabbi, served as infantryman) * • MARTIN MAY, INFANTRY, WF (POW and escapee)• GOLDFELD, INFANTRY, EF (poet) *• JULIUS FRANK, INFANTRY, WF (lice/mice) • SAMUEL JACOB, INFANTRY, WF (orthodox, poems about Tisha Be’av) • KARL SCHWABE, INFANTRY, WF (foul food)• KURT JOSEPH, INFANTRY, WF **

* Killed in action** 15 years old upon entry

GERMAN MEDICAL CORPS PHYSICIANS

• FRIEDERICH FRANK-WF- OVERVIEW OF STRUCTURE: GERMAN MEDICAL CORPS• HELMUT FREUND-EF/WF- GANGRENE/FURUNCULOSIS/INFLUENZA PANDEMIC• PAUL TACHAU-WF/EF-VENEREAL DISEASES/ DELOUSING RUSSIAN POW’S• ARTHUR STERN-WF/EF-NEUROLOGY SPECIALIST/ WAR TRAUMA TREATMENT• ALFRED HARF-EF/WF- FRONTLINE SURGERIES/PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS• NATHAN WOLF-WF/BF/OF-EK-BATTLEFIELD SURGEON-LICE/FILTH/TYPHUS; FIGHTS/SHOOTS AND TREATS BRITISH SOLDIERS AT BATTLE OF EL KAFR. PRESENT AT THE RETREAT AFTER FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE• HUGO NATT-WF/EF-EK-STAFF/REGIMENTAL PHYSICIAN-BATTLE OF THE MARNE/TRENCH WARFARE/EXPOSED SURGERIES/MULTIPLE GASSINGS. NICHT ÄRGERN , NUR WUNDERN!

GERMAN MEDICAL CORPS PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANTS/MEDICAL ORDERLIES

JULIUS WALTER LEVI-WF/BF/EF - MUTILATIONS/MACEDONIAN GIRLS HERBERT CZAPSKI-EF/WF - COLD WATER/ELECTROSHOCK TREATMENTS ADOLPH WISOCKI-WF/EF - COSSACK BARBARISM/JEWISH VICTIMS FRANZ LANGENDORFF-EF/WF - EYE SURGERY; BRAIN/SURGERY POSTMORTEMS; SEDAN SYNAGOGUE VISIT

Hermann Struck etchings

Some First World War One Infections

meningitis

?

tetanusgas gangrene

erysipelas

Gastrointestinal Infections GASTRO-INTESTINAL INFECTIONS

(Unsafe water supply/sewage disposal system)

Typhoid fever Salmonella typhi Cholera Vibrio cholerae Dysentery (bacterial and amoebic) Miscellaneous viral

Census Forms

Max Waldmann

1813-1871

Louise Grafemus

Meno Burg

Siegismund SamuelGeorg Steinberg

Julius Marx and Herbert Sulzbach

ORPHAN BOY SOLDIERS

DR. SIGMUND FEIST’S BERLIN REICHENHEIM ‘ORPHAN BOY’ SOLDIERS (754 LETTERS, LESS THAN 50 SOLDIERS) MUSKETEERS-LEO JARETZKI –EF; ERICH SENFT-KILLED IN ACTION-1915-WFGRENADIERS-FRITZ BECKER -WFDRAGOONS-RICHARD POSNER-WOUNDED/DISFIGURED-E/WFFUSILIERS-HANS SENFT (BROTHER OF ERICH) –WF; JULIUS MARCUS-WFMEDICAL ORDERLIES-ADOLPH WISOCKI, HERBERT CZAPSKI-EFDOG HANDLER-MEDICAL CORPS-ADOLPH LEHMANN-WFINFANTRY-ALFRED ROSEN-WFCOMMUNICATIONS SPECIALISTS: EUGEN COHN-WF; KARL LEVIT-E/WF; WALDEMAR COHN-BF; FRANZ EISNER-WFHank, S., Simon, H., Feldpostbriefe jüdische Soldaten 1914-1918, volumes 1 and 2 (Teetz: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2002)

GOEBBELS ON BERNARD WEISS

‘Woso? (sic))! Isidor? Yes, Isidor! In his cowardly protection of immunity I call the”child” by its name, Isidor! The “O” should be prolonged and the “R” rolled, in order to give the name inexpressible sweetness and power. The bounty of the East! The gift of the sun-goddess! The German translation must sound similar.’

In a speech in 1928 Goebbels went even further: ‘Such a Jew comes from Galicia with a name Wacholder Trompetenschleim [Juniper Trumpet-slime] and, after only a year, has changed his first name to “Isidor.” After a further year he has changed his surname to “Weiβ.” And after another few years this man now sits in the Police Praesidium and asserts that his first name is “Bernhard."’

Lunatic Goy, you stupid creature, you shot the Jew in the back.But the bullet struck you as well! Now say: Do you regret your stupidity?No one will bring your land to blossom again,And no-one will endow it again with soul, spirit, and heart.

J. Katznelson, W. Bierman, Dos lied vunem oisgehargetn jüdischen Volk. Groβer Gesang vom ausgerotteten jüdischen Volk, 6th edn. (Cologne: Hoffmann und Campe, 2004), p. 165; see G. Römer-Hillebrecht, ‘Epilog: Jüdischer Kosmopolitismus als Chance – die Bedeutung des jüdischen Erbes für die Zukunft Europas,’ in Jüdischer Soldaten, jüdischer Widerestand in Deutschland und Frankreich

(Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2012), p. 506.