The Calculus of Patriotism: Arnold Zweig’s “Judenzählung” – “The Census of the Jews Before Verdun” – in Die Schaubühne, February, 1917

“Great fatherland, I intended to die and rest for you!” 
But a whirlwind stirred the dead;
they stood at the table one after the other,
captains and medical officers
first and lieutenants and doctors,
sergeants and watch-masters,
non-commissioned officers, privates,
common soldiers. 
And the scribe put a dry quill in each hand;
it flowed like a scratched finger;
each one wrote his Hebrew name in small red letters that shone like square seals. 

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But a bright cross shone over the forehead of some who were baptized;
the writer asked everyone:
Jew? 
And he nodded, he said, “You know”; he said,
“Mosaic denomination”;
“Israelite” he said,
“German of Jewish faith” –
“Jew, yes” some said and stretched,
and the crosses faded from everyone. 

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“Oh Akiba,” I cried, “when will the Messiah come?”
His gaze examined my soul.
“At the gates of Rome a hunchbacked beggar,
the Messiah, sits and waits,” said he;
it frightens me like a threat.
“What is he waiting for, Master?” I cried out in fear.
“For you” said the old man and turned.
And I awoke to a sudden, glaring, heart-breaking shock.

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The lives of men, as much as peoples and nations, are affected by the winds of history in different ways.  Some men, entirely unaffected by the even most threatening physical and spiritual challenges, “after the fact” remain much the same as before.  Other men, to a greater or lesser degree, may “pause” for a time … weeks, months, years … and eventually, though the trajectory of their lives may be temporarily altered, return to the path previously charted for them by decision and happenstance.  Other men are different.  An event that for most may have been seen as trivial, or at worst an unintended and soon forgotten diversion, may be perceived in the fullness of its meaning, message, and implications, and symbolically become part of one’s identity, outlook upon life, and vision of the future.

Such seems to have been true of the German writer Arnold Zweig as a soldier in the Deutsches Heer – the Imperial German Army – in the First World War, the course of whose life was strongly influenced by the German Army’s Judenzählung – Census of the Jews – of late 1916. 

There are many, many sources of information about the Judenzählung, encompassing books and academic papers, focusing on the event in terms of the specific history of Jews in the German military, to the larger scope of German Jewish history, and in an even wider perspective (like that of David Vital), the post-Emancipation history of European Jews as a whole.  However, for the sake of brevity, I’ll simply quote the Wikipedia entry for the the Judenzählung.  (Yeah, I know it’s Wikipedia, but the information is definitely useful, while the 12 references and 8 extra readings do provide paths for further understanding of the event.)

So…

[The] Judenzählung … was a measure instituted by the German Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL) in October 1916, during the upheaval of World War I.  Designed to confirm accusations of the lack of patriotism among German Jews, the census disproved the charges, but its results were not made public.  However, its figures were published in an antisemitic brochure.  Jewish authorities, who themselves had compiled statistics that considerably exceeded the figures in the brochure, were denied access to government archives, and informed by the Republican Minister of Defense that the brochure’s contents were correct.  In the atmosphere of growing antisemitism, many German Jews saw “the Great War” as an opportunity to prove their commitment to the German homeland.

Background

The census was seen as a way to prove that Jews were betraying the Fatherland by shirking military service.  According to Amos Elon, “In October 1916, when almost three thousand Jews had already died on the battlefield and more than seven thousand had been decorated, War Minister Wild von Hohenborn saw fit to sanction the growing prejudices.  He ordered a “Jew census” in the army to determine the actual number of Jews on the front lines as opposed to those serving in the rear. Ignoring protests in the Reichstag and the press, he proceeded with his head count.  The results were not made public, ostensibly to “spare Jewish feelings.”  The truth was that the census disproved the accusations: 80 percent served on the front lines.”

Results and Reactions

The results of the census were never officially released by the army and any records of the census were most likely lost when the German military archives were destroyed during the allied bombing campaigns of Berlin and Potsdam.  The episode marked a shocking moment for the Jewish community, which had passionately backed the War effort and displayed great patriotism; many Jews saw it as an opportunity to prove their commitment to the German homeland.

That their fellow countrymen could turn on them was a source of major dismay for most German Jews, and the moment marked a point of rapid decline in what some historians (Fritz Stern) called “Jewish-German symbiosis.”

(Digressing…  Was there a German-Jewish symbiosis?  As described by Yehuda Bauer in the Yad Vashem publication ”German-Jewish Symbiosis” – Against The Background Of The 30’s”, interviewed by Amos Goldberg in 1998:

Question: From a historical perspective, was the so-called “German-Jewish symbiosis” real or an illusion?

Answer:  People talk today about a Jewish-German symbiosis that existed before Hitler.  There was a love affair between Jews and Germans, but it was one-sided: Jews loved Germany and Germans; Germans didn’t love Jews, even if they didn’t hate them.  One-sided love affairs usually don’t work very well.  In this case, the so-called symbiosis between Jews and Germans is a postfactum invention.  It never existed.  Jews participated in German life, in German cultural life, but to say that they were accepted, even if the product they produced was accepted….  They were not accepted, even if they converted.”)

You can read much more about the above topic in Alexander Gelley’s essay “On the “Myth of the German-Jewish Dialogue”: Scholem and Benjamin”, particularly noting his reference to Gershon Scholem’s essay, “Against the Myth of the German-Jewish Dialogue,” from On Jews and Judaism in Crisis.

Back to the Judenzählung…  Reproduced as the Appendix (pp. 167-168) of Werner Angress’ 1978 Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook article “‘Judenzählung’ of 1916 Genesis – Consequences – Significance”, here’s an image of the questionnaire used for the survey: ‘Nachweisung uber noch nicht zur Einstellung gelangte, auf Reklamation zuriickgestellte und als kr.u. [kriegsuntauglich] befundene Juden’. [‘Proof of items that have not yet been discontinued, are deferred following a complaint and are considered Jews found [unfit for war]’.  The document is from the Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Reichskanzlei, Film 2197, No. 161 (Sections A and B); and ibid., No. 161 a (Section C).

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Angress discusses the origin, implications, and impact of the Judenzählung are discussed in great detail, concluding that the contemporary and retrospective significance of the Judenzählung – was it portentous or not? – must understood in the context and contingencies of history:

“We may ask, in conclusion, whether the Judenzdhlung was a watershed, a milestone on the road to Auschwitz as has been occasionally maintained.  For those who reject the inevitability of human events – and most historians do – the answer must be in the negative.  Antisemitism had been a part of the German scene before the First World War and remained a potent force during the brief life of the Weimar Republic, though here, too, its intensity fluctuated.  Granted that during the First World War antisemitism had gained new strength, and that the War Ministry’s Erlass [order] of 11th October 1916 was a direct outgrowth of this trend.  But taken by itself, the Judenzdhlung — a tactless blunder committed by a handful of high-ranking and most probably antisemitic army officers – was a symptom, a warning sign that antisemitism in Germany was alive and well, especially in times of stress and national reverses.  More than this it did not signify.  If the course of German history during the post-war period had taken a different direction from that which it ultimately did take – and this possibility existed at least until 30th January 1933, if not beyond that date – the Judenzdhlung would have remained a mere episode, a humiliation like others before, remembered with distaste, but ultimately shrugged off as just another manifestation of Risches [modernism; radicalism] on the part of Wilhelminian Germany’s military elite.”

Though a subject of straightforward academic interest several decades later (but no longer in the early 21st Century, it seems!) the Judenzählung most definitely impacted German Jewish soldiers on an individual level.  Though I don’t know if – and I doubt that – any large-scale research as ever been done into any still-extant letters and diaries of German Jewish veterans of the Great War pertaining to their reactions to the census, the event did have an impact – an extremely significant, life changing impact – upon a writer whose future oeuvre focused upon themes of the First World War, the European Jewish experience in the early twentieth century, and to a lesser extent (*ugh*) socialism (oh well, two out o’ three ain’t bad!):  Arnold Zweig. 

As variously recounted by Noah William Eisenberg, Martin Grabolle, and Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf, Zweig, then a private in the German Army, a, “loyal Vaterlandsverteidiger (defender of the Fatherland),” so patriotic as to have been married in uniform in 1916, was very deeply affected by the implications of the Judenzählung.  As he described in a letter of February 15, 1917 to Martin Buber written from the Maas Front (quoted by Martin Grabolle), “Judenzählung war eine Reflexbewegung unerhörter Trauer über Deutschlands Schande und unsere Qual; kein Essay sondern ein Bild…  Wenn es keinen Antisemitismus im Heere gabe: die unerträgliche „Dienstpflicht“ wäre fast leicht.  Aber: verächtlichen und elenden Kreaturen untergeben zu sein!  Ich bezeichne mich vor mir selbst als Zivilgefangen und staatenlosen Ausländer.“  [“’The Census of the Jews’ was a reflex movement of unheard-of grief over Germany’s shame and our torment; not an essay but a picture…  If there were no anti-Semitism in the army: the unbearable “duty” would be almost easy.  But: to be subordinate to contemptible and miserable creatures!  I refer to myself a civil prisoner and a stateless alien.”]

The then twenty-nine year old private’s response was to pen an extraordinarily vivid short fictional piece that was macabre, haunting, grotesque, and yet (with intended irony?) – by the tale’s end – deeply inspirational, entitled “Judenzählung vor Verdun” [The Jewish Census at Verdun]. 

Inwardly, Zweig was transformed by the census.  According to Martin Grabollle, “Where not too long ago Zweig had celebrated the new-found unity of the German people, he now felt himself to be a foreigner without a state (“staatenlose[r] Ausländer).  All that remained two years after his embrace of Germany at war was a feeling of “unerhörte Trauer über Deutschlands Schande und unsere Qual” (“enormous grief for Germany’s disgrace and our [the Jews’] pain”).” 

Outwardly, Zweig was also transformed.  Quoting Eisenberg, “…in June, 1917, he was transferred to the Eastern region of Ober-Ost (in Lithuanian Kovno) to serve in the special wartime press division.  There, as he traveled to the various shtetls in Lithuania, Zweig witnessed for the first time the problems that the Eastern Jews faced during the war – animosity and ill-treatment from both sides of the battle – and, more importantly, the unique community they maintained in the face of such contradictions.”  One result of his spiritual and intellectual metamorphosis appeared six years later, in the volume Das ostjüdische Antlitz [The Eastern Jewish Face], produced in collaboration with artist Hermann Struck.

The first commentary about the Judenzählung (that I know of!) was a leading page editorial by “M.M.” in the October 27, 1916 issue of Judische Rundschau.  M.M. correctly surmises that, “The tendency of those who introduced the resolution is clear.  An anti-Semitic suspicion should be given special weight by a parliamentary resolution.”  The author then discusses the influence on the position of Jewish citizens in the Allied countries resulting from the Allies’ alliance with Imperial Russia, but notes that such a factor was irrelevant in Germany, since anti-Jewish feeling in that country was in some ways already parallel to – but obviously independent of – Russian influence.  The editorial explains that even as early as 1916, despite the valor, sacrifice, and patriotism of German Jewish soldiers, there was, and would be, no commensurate “improvement in the political position of German Jews after the war”.  He then correctly explains that antisemitism is entirely unrelated to the actions and beliefs of Jews, instead being primarily “rooted in the consciousness of the surrounding people”.  M.M. concludes with the imperative of collectively establishing Jewish life on a common territory, albeit naively concluding (the naivete can be forgiven given the what we know in 2023, let alone what was known in 1948, let alone the 1930s) that a Jewish nation-state would actually reduce antisemitism.   

Here’s an English-language translation of “M.M.’s” editorial about the Judenzählung, from the October 27, 1916, issue of Judische Rundschau, via Goethe University.  

The Jewish Census [Alternatively, “Count of the Jews”]

On October 19, 1916, the Budget Commission of the German Reichstag resolved to compile statistics on the denomination of the people employed in the wartime societies.  The decision is justified by the fact that the survey is intended to refute “a widespread opinion” that there were a particularly large number of “Jewish slackers” in the war societies.  The Reichstag plenum has not yet approved the implementation of the resolution, but the symptomatic fact is sufficient that the representatives of all factions belonging to the commission, with the exception of the Liberals and Social Democrats, i.e. also the National Liberals and clericals, voted in favor of the resolution.  The tendency of those who introduced the resolution is clear.  An anti-Semitic suspicion should be given special weight by a parliamentary resolution.  The result of the inquiry will not be according to the applicants’ secret wishes.  Because even if, which is by no means certain, a larger number of Jews were to be employed in the German wartime societies, that would still not be proof of “Jewish shirking”.  The proportion of Jews in German economic life is proportionately greater than that of the rest of the population, and it has rightly been pointed out that the number of indispensable Jews in other occupations closed to Jews is all the smaller.

There has been much talk lately of the pernicious influence which the alliance of the western powers with Russia had on the position of the Jews of those countries.  Conservative and clerical German newspapers also stated that the French and British governments gave in to pressure from St. Petersburg and gave the anti-Semites of both countries a freer hand, not without condemning references to the bad effects of the Russian reaction.  The anti-Semites of Germany do not seem to have needed this Russian pressure in order to shame the German Jews by a measure that would do even Russian Jew-baiting credit.  The statistics passed by the budget commission of the German Reichstag are in line with some Russian army orders, about which the entire German press, including the conservative and clerical ones, broke the baton.  About the Russian secret order that the Russian soldiers should observe the attitude of their Jewish comrades-in-arms very closely and provide information about it for statistical purposes, there was only one voice in the German press of indignation.  As much as German Jews should consider it beneath their table dignity to justify themselves against the anti-Semitic insinuation that there is a specifically “Jewish shirking,” they have a duty to protest against this “census.”  It is a monstrous violation of the honor and civil equality of German Jewry.

The decision of the German Reich Budget Committee has another meaning.  It confirms the fear that German anti-Semitism did not decrease during the war and that hopes for an improvement in the political position of German Jews after the war are premature.  Since the outbreak of the war, certain Jewish circles in Germany had been full of high hopes for the post-war period, reveling in envisioning the brilliant civic position which the Jews would enjoy after the war in recognition of their patriotic and military prowess, and could not do enough in apologetic references to the patriotic attitude of German Jewry.  They will have to see that anti-Semitism is not, as they think, a reaction to “bad Jewish habits” but a power deeply rooted in the consciousness of the surrounding people, which is even sometimes – and not only in Russia – used to distract attention the masses of burning but uncomfortable domestic issues.  This deep-rooted anti-Semitic mood is neither erased by apologies and references to merits, nor even diminished by the striving for conformity.  There is only one way to effectively combat hatred of Jews.  It is the way of redeeming the Jews from their isolation by concentrating on a common territory.  And even if this goal can only be reached through the work of generations, striving for it improves our situation among the peoples.  Objectively, in that the virtues of pride and self-dignity, developed through the uncompromising emphasis on Jewish characteristics, wrested more respect for the Jews from the surrounding peoples than the unstable method of assimilation, subjectively, insofar as the defense against anti-Semitism, albeit with all the honorable means of the carried out with passion and acumen, will only make up a modest part of our Jewish life.  Only when the work for the restoration of the Jewish people in our own land has become our main Jewish focus will we be able to fight anti-Semitism effectively and at the same time reduce it to the natural degree that its importance in Jewish life is: an annoying defense against intolerance and slander coming from the outside. – M.M.

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Here’s the editorial, in the original German…

Judenzählung

Die Budget-Kommission des Deutschen Reichstags hat am 19. Oktober 1916 den Beschluss gefasst, eine Statistik über die Konfession der in den Kriegsgesellschaften beschäftigten Personen vorzunehmen.  Der Beschluss wird damit begründet, dass durch die Erhebung “eine weit im Volke verbreitete Meinung” widerlegt werden soll, wonach in den Kreigsgesellschaften besonders viel “jüdische Drückeberger“ sässen.  Noch hat das Reichstagsplenum die Durchführung des Beschlusses nicht genehmigt, aber es genügt die symptomatische Tatsache, dass die Vertreter aller Fraktionen, die der Kommission angehören, mit Ausnahme der Freisinnigen und Sozialdemokraten, also auch die Nationalliberalen und Klerikalen, für die Resolution stimmten.  Die Tendenz derer, die den Beschluss einbrachten, liegt klar zutage.  Einer antisemitischen Verdächtigung soll durch Parlamentsbeschluss besonders Gewicht gegeben werden.  Das Ergebnis der Enquete wird nicht nach den geheimen Wünschen der Antragsteller ausfallen.  Denn wenn auch, was durchaus nicht feststeht, in den deutschen Kriegsgesellschaften eine grössere Anzahl Juden angestellt sein sollte, so wäre das noch kein Beweis für die “jüdische Drückebergerei”.  Der Anteil der Juden am deutschen Wirtschaftsleben ist verhältnismässig grösser als der der übrigen Bevölkerung und mit Recht hat man darauf hingewiesen, dass die Zahl der jüdischen Unabkömmlichen in anderen, Juden verschlossenen Berufszweigen um so geringer ist.

Man hat in letzter Zeit viel von dem schädlichen Einfluss gesprochen, den das Bündnis der Westmächte mit Russland auf die Lage der Juden dieser Länder hatte.  Die französische und englische Regierung hat, so konstatierten auch konservative und klerikale deutsche Blätter nicht ohne verurteilenden Hinweis auf die schlimmen Wirkungen der russischen Reaktion, dem Drucke Petersburgs nachgegeben und den Antisemiten beider Länder freiere Hand gegeben.  Dieses russischen Druckes scheinen die Antisemiten Deutschlands nicht bedurft zu haben, um die deutschen Juden durch eine Massnahme an den Schandpfahl zu stellen, die selbst russischen Judenhetzern alle Ehre machen würde.  Die von der Budget-Kommission des deutschen Reichstags beschlossene Statistik steht mit manchen russischen Ameebefehlen in einer Reihe, über die die gesamte deutsche Presse auch die konservative und klerikale, seinerzeit den Stab brach.  Ueber den russischen Geheimbefehl, die russischen Soldaten sollten die Haltung ihrer jüdischen Mitkämpfer genauestens beobachten und darüber zu statistischen Zwecken Auskunft geben, herrschte im deutschen Blätterwald nur eine Stimme der Entrüstung.  So sehr es die deutschen Juden unter ihrer tische Wurde halten sollten, sich gegen die antisemitische Insinuation, es gäbe eine spezifisch “jüdische Drückebergerei,” zu rechtfertigen, so sehr haben sir die Pflicht, gegen diese “Zählung” zu protestieren.  Sie ist eine ungeheuerliche Verletzung der Ehre und der bürgerlichen Gleichstellung des deutschen Judentums.

Der Beschluss des deutschen Reichshaushaltausschusses hat noch eine andere Bedeutung.  Er bestätigt die Befürchtung, dass der deutsche Antisemitismus während des Krieges nicht abgenommen habe und dass die Hoffnungen auf eine Besserung der politischen Stellung der deutschen Juden nach dem Kriege verfrüht seien.  Gewisse jüdische Kreise Deutschlands waren seit Ausbruch des Krieges voll hochgespannter Hoffnungen für die Zeit nach dem Weltkrieg, schwelgten im Ausmalen der glänzenden staatsbürgerlichen Stellung, deren sich die Juden in Anerkennung ihrer patriotischen und militärischen Bewährung nach dem Kriege zu erfreuen haben werden, und konnten sich nicht genug tun in apologetischen Hinweisen auf die vaterländische Haltung des deutschen Judentums.  Sie werden einsehen müssen, dass der Antisemitismus nicht, wie sie meinen, eine Reaktion auf “schlechte jüdische Gewohnheiten” ist, sondern eine im Bewusstsein des umgebenden Volkes tiefwurzelnde Macht, deren man sich sogar manchmal – und nicht bloss in Russland – zur Ablenkung des Interesses der Massen von brennenden, aber unbequemen innerpolitischen Fragen bedient.  Diese tiefwurzelnde antisemitische Grundstimmung wird weder durch Apologie und Hinweis auf Verdienste aus der Welt geschafft, noch durch das Streben nach Anpassung auch nur vermindert.  Es gibt nur einen Weg zur wirksamen Bekämpfung des Judenhasses.  Es ist der Weg der Erlösung der Juden aus ihrer Vereinzelung durch Konzentrierung auf einem gemeinsamen Territorium.  Und wenn dieses Ziel auch erst durch die Arbeit von Generationen erreich bar sein wird: schon das Streben nach ihm bessert unsere Lage unter den Völkern.  Objektiv, indem die durch die kompromisslose Betonung der jüdischen Eigenart entwickelten Tugenden des Stolzes und der Selbstwürde den umgebenden Völkern mehr Achtung gegen den Juden abringen als die haltlose Anpassungs-methode, subjektiv, insofern die Abwehr gegen die Judenfeindschaft, wenn auch mit allen ehrenhaften Mitteln der Leidenschaft und des Scharfsinns durchgeführt, nur noch einen bescheidenen Teil unseres jüdischen Lebensinhaltes ausmachen wird.  Erst wenn die Arbeit für die Wiederherstellung des jüdischen Volkes im eigenen Lande zu unserem jüdischen Hauptinhalt geworden ist, werden wir den Antisemitismus wirksam bekämpfen und seine Bekämpfung zugleich auf das natürliche Mass zurückführen können, das seiner Bedeutung für das jüdische Leben zukommt: einer lästigen Abwehr gegen Intoleranz und Verleumdung, die von aussen kommt. – M.M.

…and, as it actually appeared in the newspaper…

…where it can be found on the newspaper’s front page, comprising two columns.

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The first appearance of “Judenzählung vor Verdun” was in the February, 1917 (Volume 13, Issue 1) issue of Die Siegfried Jacobsohn’s Die Schaubühne (The Theater).  Here (…drum roll!!…) is an English-language translation of the tale. 

The Jewish Census at Verdun

At midnight a soft hand touched me: “Get up”.  I stepped in front of the door of the silent bunkhouse and saw: “Azrael, cherub who commands the dead, fell from the night sky – vengeful anger – blew the shofar and cried: “To the count, you dead Jews in the German army!”

Before long the field swarmed with silent figures up to the rolling hills, behind which the Fortress of Verdun roared, fanned anew, and their little bastards roared loudly; flames erupted terribly, twitching and shattering the wailing night on the gun’s horizon.  The wind flew from Orion, which hung feebly over the heights in dim veils.  Murmurs trembled over the area; a gloomy glow surrounded thousands.  A table stood, a large book open, and a clerk in uniform sat behind it, pointy-nosed with yellow hair.  He called:

“Line up according to rank!  The roll of names of the people is to be recognized!”  Then a gentle voice said: “Oh, why don’t you let us sleep, since we were already lying in the restful arms of the earth!”  And the writer: “Statistics ask how many of you Jews pressed themselves to their graves from the distant war.”  Groans rose from the ground, as if the earth was wailing, and the voice cried out painfully:

“Great fatherland, I intended to die and rest for you!”  But a whirlwind stirred the dead; they stood at the table one after the other, captains and medical officers first and lieutenants and doctors, sergeants and watch-masters, non-commissioned officers, privates, common soldiers.  And the scribe put a dry quill in each hand; it flowed like a scratched finger; each one wrote his Hebrew name in small red letters that shone like square seals.  There the corpses stood patiently and waited, and whoever wrote silently placed on the table the badges he wore and stood back, as one in the crowd.  There lay the thick epaulettes of the medical officers and the silver ones of the officers, sword knots like silver eggs, the braids of the non-commissioned officers, the small batons of the Rod of Asclepius, the big buttons of privates; the Iron Crosses of the First Class and like many of the Second Class, other crosses and medals, black and white ribbons in all sorts of colors.  But the heap swelled on the table.

The quiet men approached, wrote and became a crowd.  The outline of the old body surrounded it like a light aura, phosphorescent like rotten wood; but the darker core was given by the body which was laid in the grave in due time.  The bellies were eaten away by typhus and hollowed out by dysentery.  Their heads showed holes from bullets, half of their skulls had been carried off by grenades, arms were missing, broken legs and ribs protruded from tattered uniforms; they were bandaged, clothed in rags, without boots; dead eyes looked gloomy, white light fell from lowered foreheads, the dead were silent in shame and mourning.  Youngsters stood next to boys and young men next to mature ones.  And they stated how old they were and where they were born: everywhere in Germany, and what their professions were: teachers and lawyers, rabbis and doctors, travelers, many students of all faculties, pupils, painters, young poets, merchants, craftsmen and merchants in turn and merchants again and again.  And where fallen; where did they lie in the grave?  Near Lille, they said, and Pozieres, all along the Somme, Thiaumont it was called and Azannes, Fleury and Vaux, Champagne, Argonne, Vosges, all of Flanders (they lay in the damp ground the longest); Bzuraklangs, East Prussia, the Carpathians, the Slota Lipa (which was called Sanward), Kovno and Dunaburg, Volhynian swamp, Hungarian forest, Serbian mountain, Galician valley: and Azrael, the angel, nodded at everyone, he had sown them like seeds, thrown far away here; there.  Everything was written down in the book, the pen moved, small red letters appeared on the pale sheet.  But a bright cross shone over the forehead of some who were baptized; the writer asked everyone: Jew?  And he nodded, he said, “You know”; he said, “Mosaic denomination”; “Israelite” he said, “German of Jewish faith” – “Jew, yes” some said and stretched, and the crosses faded from everyone.  And as the freshest stood at the table, almost still bleeding, blown from Romania, the Dobruja, the Somme…

The moon lost its shine, the wind blew more violently into the darkness, Azrael raised his hand, the field lay empty, overgrown with scattered light.  Night fell, all black, blazing at the edge of the forge of Verdun roaring behind the heights.

But the dead Jews could no longer stand at the bottom of their graves.  They sank; slowly and soullessly the bodies slid deeper down, deeper down.  A river, black and soundless, flowed in the veins of the earth, taking it up and rolling it eastward; each one became a round cylinder, shrunk, became as big as a brick and very soft.  And it threw them out in the early morning, flowing under palm trees into the light of a jubilant sun that rose from the sea.  But a tall man with a broad black beard, a reproachful look and a workman’s apron, the trowel lying to his right and his naked sword to his left, seized each one and pressed it; it became hard as a stone in the sun and laid it into low masonry, and the stream threw roller after roller at his feet.   The waller put stone next to stone; he didn’t look up.  An old man came up to him and greeted him, a young smile lay like dawn on old rock over the weather-beaten forehead and the aged beard. “Greetings to he who builds the tower,” he said, and: “Thanks to him who has seen the daughter of Zion,” answered the builder and set a stone.  “The daughter of Zion is on her way,” said Akiba, and the maker blushed with happiness.  But I could no longer contain myself: “Oh Akiba,” I cried, “when will the Messiah come?”  His gaze examined my soul.  “At the gates of Rome a hunchbacked beggar, the Messiah, sits and waits,” said he; it frightens me like a threat.  “What is he waiting for, Master?” I cried out in fear.  “For you,” said the old man and turned.  And I awoke to a sudden, glaring, heart-breaking shock.

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Some comments…

Note how Zweig introduces the tale with mention of “Azrael”, the angel of death. 

Wikipedia reveals that – oddly – while the figure of “Azriel” is mentioned in the Zohar, neither “Azrael” or “Azriel” appear in the Tanach or Talmud, also stating that, “… the name Azrael is suggestive of a Hebrew theophoric עזראל, meaning “the one whom God helps,” and that, “Archeological evidence uncovered in Jewish settlements in Mesopotamia confirm that it was indeed at one time used on an Aramaic incantation bowl from the 7th century.  However, as the text thereon only lists names, an association of this angelic name with death cannot be identified in Judaism.” 

Azrael is a much more significant figure in Islam, being one of the four archangels, the others being Jibrāʾīl, Mīkāʾīl, and Isrāfīl.  The only mention of the name in the context of Christianity is in the Ethiopic version of Apocalypse of Peter (dating to the 16th century), where Azrael – spelled as Ezrā’ël – appears is an angel of hell who avenges those who had been wronged during life.”  In a much different sense, Azrael appears in the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and G. K. Chesterton’s, and in the world of the Smurfs, as the evil wizard Gargamel’s cat.

And so, the tale…

And then…  A “whirlwind” stirs the dead.  At Azrael’s command, after a momentary protest, the spirits of fallen Jewish soldiers rise from the sleep of death within in their graves, and stand before the angel. 

And then… One after another in line, without regard to rank, the spirits stand before a table upon which lies an open book, upon which they inscribe their names in small, block-like Hebrew letters, with a quill given to them by Azrael.

And then… Nearby, they deposit their insignia of rank and medals in a swelling pile.

And then…  Zweig’s tale becomes explicit; macabre, grotesque.  The fatal wounds of the fallen are described in graphic detail; then, their professions or vocations are given; then, they state where they fell.  This is are also recorded by each man’s spirit.  Every fallen soldier appears as a phosphorescent aura with a dark, inner core, the latter vaguely implied to still lie within his grave. 

And then…  Those Jews who had been baptized are also standing before Azrael, bright crosses shining above their foreheads.  As they identify themselves as members of the “Mosaic denomination”, “Israelites”, or “Germans of Jewish faith”, the crosses fade away. 

And then…  The souls and bodies of the dead are transformed.  They sink into the earth, roll eastward, and with this they shrink to the size of bricks, take on the shape of cylinders, become pliable and soft, and move eastward under the sea, until they emerge under a bright sun, in a land of sunlight and palms. 

And then…  As each brick is taken up by a black-bearded mason with a sword and trowel it hardens, and is pressed into a wall of masonry.  And the process continues, brick by brick.

And then…  Akiba (Rabbi Akiba) and the anonymous mason greet one another, the former anticipating the arrival of the Daughter of Zion.

And then…  The anonymous narrator implores of Akiba to know the date of the Messiah’s arrival.  And as Akiba turns away, he reveals that the Messiah’s arrival depends, “on you”: on the narrator himself. 

And finally…  From nightmare, from dream, from mystical vision, the narrator awakens… 

And then…?

Here’s the tale in the original German:

Judenzählung vor Verdun

Um Mitternacht rührte mich eine leise Hand an: “Steh auf”.  Ich trat vor die Tür der schweigenden Schlafbaracke und sah: “Azrael, Cherub, der über Tote gebietet, stürzte vom Nachtfirmament herab, rachegeflügelter Zorn, stiess ins Horn Schofar und schrie: “Auf zur Zählung, ihr toten Juden im deutschen Heer!”

Es verging keine Zeit, da wimmelte das Feld von leisen Gestalten bis an die gebogenen Hügel, hinter denen brüllte die Feste Verdun, neu angefacht, und ihre kleinern Essen brüllten laut; Flammen schlugen furchtbar auf, zuckend zerbrach am Horizont des Geschützes die wehklagende Nacht.  Der Wind flog vom Orion her, der schwach über den Höhen hing in trüben Schleiern.  Raunen bebte übers Gelände, düsterer Schein umwitterte Tausende.  Ein Tisch stand, aufgeschlagen ein grosses Buch, ein Schreiber sass in Montur dahinter, spitznäsig mit gelbem Schopf.  Er rief:

“Antreten dem Range nach!  Die Totenstammrolle ist anzuerkennen!”  Da sagte eine milde Stimme: “Oh warum lasst ihr uns nicht schlafen, da wir schon lagen in der Erde Arm ruhevoll!”  Und der Schreiber: “Die Statistik fragt, wieviel von euch Juden sich vom fernern Krieg gedrückt ins Grab.”  Stöhnen steig auf vom Gelände, als klagte der Boden, und die Stimme rief schmerzlich:

“Grosses Vaterland, ich gedachte für dich zu sterben und zu ruhn!”  Aber ein Wirbel bewegte die Toten, sie standen am Tische einer nach dem andern, Hauptleute und Stabsärzte zuvor und Leutnants und Aerzte, Feldwebel und Wachtmeister, Unteroffiziere, Gefreite, Gemeine.  Und eine dürre Feder gab der Schreiber in jede Hand, sie floss wie ein geritzter Finger, seinen hebräischen Namen schrieb ein jeder in kleinen roten Lettern, die leuchteten wie quadratische Siegel.  Da standen die Leichname geduldig und warteten, und wer geschrieben, der legte schweigend die Abzeichen auf den Tisch, die er trug, und trat zurück, einer in der Menge.  Da lagen die dicken Achselstücke der Stabsärzte und die silbernen der Offiziere, Portepees wie silberne Eier, die Tressen der Unteroffiziere, die kleinen Aeskulapstäbe, die grossen Knöpfe der Gefreiten; die Eisernen Kreuze der Ersten Klasse und wie viele der Zweiten, andre Kreuze und Medaillen, schwarzweisse Bänder in allerlei Farben.  Der Haufen schwoll aber auf dem Tische.

Die stillen Männer traten heran, schrieben und wurden Menge.  Wie eine leichte Aura umgab sie der Umriss des alten Leibes, phosphoreszierend wie faules Holz; aber den dunklern Kern gab der Körper, den man ins Grab gelegt zu seiner Zeit.  Die Bäuche waren zerfressen vom Flecktyphus und ausgehöhlt von Ruhr.  Ihre Köpfe wiesen Löcher auf vom Geschoss, halbe Schädel hatten Granaten entführt, Arme mangelten, Beine, Rippen zerbrochen drangen aus zerfetzten Uniformen; sie waren mit Verbänden umwickelt, mit Lumpen bekleidet, ohne Stiefel; erloschene Augen blickten düster, von gesenkten Stirnen fiel weisser Schein, die Toten schwiegen in Scham und Trauer.  Da standen Jünglinge bei Knaben und junge Männer neben reifen.  Und sie gaben an, wie alt sie seien und wo geboren: überall im deutschen Land, und was für Berufe: Lehrer und Rechtsanwälte, Rabbiner und Aerzte, Reisende, viele Studenten aller Fakultäten, Schüler, Maler, junge Dichter, Kaufleute, Handwerker und Kaufleute wiederum und immer wieder Kaufleute.  Und wo gefallen, wo lagen sie im Grabe?  Bei Lille, sagten sie, und Pozieres, die ganze Somme entlang, Thiaumont hiess es und Azannes, Fleury und Vaux, Champagne, Argonnen, Vogesen, ganz Flandern, die lagen am längsten im feuchten Grund; Bzura klangs, Ostpreussen, Karpathen, die Slota Lipa, der San ward genannt, Kowno und Dünaburg, wolhynischer Sumpf, ungarischer Wald, serbischer Berg, galizisches Tal: und Azrael nickte, der Engel, bei jedem, er hatte sie ausgesät wie Samenkörner, weit geworfen, hierhin, dorthin.  Alles stand verzeichnet im Buche, die Feder bewegte sich, kleine rote Buchstaben erschienen auf dem bleichen Blatte.  Manchen aber leuchtete ein helles Kreuz über der Stirn, die waren getauft; der Schreiber fragte jeden: Jude?  Und er nickte, er sagte: “Sie wissen doch”; er sagte: “Mosaischer Konfession”; “Israelit” sagte er, “Deutscher jüdischen Glaubens” – “Jude, ja” sprach mancher und streckte sich, und die Kreuze verblichen jedem.  Und wie die frischesten am Tische standen, fast noch blutend, aus Rumänien hergeweht, der Dobrudscha, der Somme…

Der Mond verlor der Schein, Wind wehte heftiger ins Dunkel, Azrael hob die Hand, das Feld lag leer, überbuscht von zerstiebendem Scheine.  Nacht brach herein, ganz schwarz, am Rande zerloht von der Esse Verdun brüllend hinter den Höhen.

Aber es war den toten Juden kein Halt mehr auf dem Grund ihrer Gräber.  Sie sanken, langsam glitten und seelenlos tiefer die Körper abwärts, tiefer hinab.  Ein Strom, schwarz und lautlos, floss in den Adern der Erde, er nahm sie auf und wälzte sie ostwärts; runde Walze wurde jeder, schrumpfte, ward gross wie ein Ziegel und ganz weich.  Und er warf sie aus im frühen Morgen, mündend unter Palmen ans Licht einer jubelnden Sonne, die stieg aus dem Meer.  Ein grosser Mann aber mit schwarzem, breitem Bart, dem rügenden Blick und der Schürze des Werkmannes, die Kelle rechts neben sich liegend und links das nackte Schwert, ergriff einen jeden und presste ihn, er ward in der Sonne hart zum Stein und gefüat in ein niederes Mauerwerk, und Walze neben Walze warf der Strom ihm zu Füssen.  Stein neben Stein setzte der Mauernde, er sah nicht auf.  Ein Greis trat zu ihm und grüsste ihn, ein junges Lächeln lag wie Morgenrot auf altem Fels über verwitterter Stirn und dem greisen Barte.  “Gegrüsst sei, der am Turme mauert”, sagte er, und: “Gedankt dem, der die Tochter Zions erblickt hat”, antwortete der Baumeister und setzte einen Stein.  “Die Tochter Zions ist auf dem Wege”, sprach Akiba, und der Schaffer errötete vor Glück.  Ich aber konnte nicht mehr an mich halten: “Oh Akiba”, rief ich, “wann kommt der Messias!”  Sein Blick prüfte meine Seele.  “Vor den Toren Roms sitzt ein buckliger Bettler, der Messias, und wartet”, sprach er; mich erschreckt’ es wie Drohung.  “Worauf wartet er, Meister? rief ich voll Angst.  “Auf dich” sprach der Greis und wandte sich.  Und ich erwachte vor jähem, grellem, herzerneuerndem Schreck.

This is Zweig’s text as published in Siegfried Jacobsohn’s Die Schaubühne (Band 13, Ausgabe 1 [Volume 13, Issue 1]).  You can see that it appears on three successive pages.

And…here are the cover and title pages of the same issue of Die Schaubühne, which can be found at OogleBooks.

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Zweig’s tale is as vivid, as it is haunting, as it is compelling.  Below, I’ve transformed it into a prose poem, the appearance of which, though entirely identical in content to the original text, perhaps lends it a degree of visual impact not apparent in the text in the original paragraph format. 

The Jewish Census at Verdun

At midnight a soft hand touched me:
“Get up”.
I stepped in front of the door of the silent bunkhouse and saw:
“Azrael, cherub who commands the dead, fell from the night sky –
vengeful anger –
blew the shofar and cried:
“To the count, you dead Jews in the German army!”

Before long the field swarmed with silent figures up to the rolling hills,
behind which the Fortress of Verdun roared,
fanned anew,
and their little bastards roared loudly;
flames erupted terribly, twitching and shattering the wailing night on the gun’s horizon.
The wind flew from Orion, which hung feebly over the heights in dim veils. 
Murmurs trembled over the area; a gloomy glow surrounded thousands.

A table stood, a large book open,
and a clerk in uniform sat behind it, pointy-nosed with yellow hair.
He called:

“Line up according to rank!
The roll of names of the people is to be recognized!”
Then a gentle voice said:
“Oh, why don’t you let us sleep,
since we were already lying in the restful arms of the earth!”
And the writer:
“Statistics ask how many of you Jews pressed themselves to their graves from the distant war.”  Groans rose from the ground,
as if the earth was wailing, and the voice cried out painfully:

“Great fatherland, I intended to die and rest for you!”
But a whirlwind stirred the dead;
they stood at the table one after the other,
captains and medical officers
first and lieutenants and doctors,
sergeants and watch-masters,
non-commissioned officers, privates,
common soldiers.
And the scribe put a dry quill in each hand;
it flowed like a scratched finger;
each one wrote his Hebrew name in small red letters that shone like square seals. 
There the corpses stood patiently and waited,

and whoever wrote silently placed on the table the badges he wore and stood back,
as one in the crowd.
There lay the thick epaulettes of the medical officers and the silver ones of the officers,
sword knots like silver eggs,
the braids of the non-commissioned officers,
the small batons of the Rod of Asclepius,
the big buttons of privates;
the Iron Crosses of the First Class and like many of the Second Class,
other crosses and medals, black and white ribbons in all sorts of colors.
But the heap swelled on the table.

The quiet men approached, wrote and became a crowd.
The outline of the old body surrounded it like a light aura,
phosphorescent like rotten wood;
but the darker core was given by the body which was laid in the grave in due time.
The bellies were eaten away by typhus and hollowed out by dysentery.
Their heads showed holes from bullets,
half of their skulls had been carried off by grenades,
arms were missing,
broken legs and ribs protruded from tattered uniforms;
they were bandaged, clothed in rags,
without boots;
dead eyes looked gloomy,
white light fell from lowered foreheads,
the dead were silent in shame and mourning.
Youngsters stood next to boys and young men next to mature ones.
And they stated how old they were and where they were born:
everywhere in Germany,
and what their professions were:
teachers and lawyers,
rabbis and doctors,
travelers,
many students of all faculties,
pupils,
painters,
young poets,
merchants,
craftsmen and merchants in turn and merchants again and again.
And where fallen; where did they lie in the grave?
Near Lille, they said, and Pozieres, all along the Somme,
Thiaumont it was called and Azannes,
Fleury and Vaux,
Champagne,
Argonne,
Vosges,
all of Flanders (they lay in the damp ground the longest);
Bzuraklangs,
East Prussia,
the Carpathians,
the Slota Lipa (which was called Sanward),
Kovno and Dunaburg,
Volhynian swamp,
Hungarian forest,
Serbian mountain,
Galician valley:
and Azrael, the angel, nodded at everyone,
he had sown them like seeds, thrown far away here; there.
Everything was written down in the book,
the pen moved, small red letters appeared on the pale sheet.
But a bright cross shone over the forehead of some who were baptized;
the writer asked everyone:
Jew?
And he nodded, he said, “You know”; he said,
“Mosaic denomination”;
“Israelite” he said,
“German of Jewish faith” –
“Jew, yes” some said and stretched, and the crosses faded from everyone.
And as the freshest stood at the table, almost still bleeding,
blown from Romania, the Dobruja, the Somme…

The moon lost its shine,
the wind blew more violently into the darkness,
Azrael raised his hand,
the field lay empty, overgrown with scattered light.
Night fell, all black,
blazing at the edge of the forge of Verdun roaring behind the heights.

But the dead Jews could no longer stand at the bottom of their graves.
They sank; slowly and soullessly the bodies slid deeper down, deeper down.
A river, black and soundless, flowed in the veins of the earth,
taking it up and rolling it eastward;
each one became a round cylinder, shrunk, became as big as a brick and very soft.
And it threw them out in the early morning,
flowing under palm trees into the light of a jubilant sun that rose from the sea.
But a tall man with a broad black beard,
a reproachful look and a workman’s apron,
the trowel lying to his right and his naked sword to his left,
seized each one and pressed it;
it became hard as a stone in the sun and laid it into low masonry,
and the stream threw roller after roller at his feet.
The waller put stone next to stone; he didn’t look up.
An old man came up to him and greeted him,
a young smile lay like dawn on old rock over the weather-beaten forehead and the aged beard. “Greetings to he who builds the tower,” he said, and:
“Thanks to him who has seen the daughter of Zion,” answered the builder and set a stone.
“The daughter of Zion is on her way,” said Akiba, and the maker blushed with happiness.
But I could no longer contain myself:
“Oh Akiba,” I cried, “when will the Messiah come?”
His gaze examined my soul.
“At the gates of Rome a hunchbacked beggar, the Messiah, sits and waits,” said he;
it frightens me like a threat.
“What is he waiting for, Master?” I cried out in fear.
“For you” said the old man and turned.
And I awoke to a sudden, glaring, heart-breaking shock.

An observation…

Zweig’s concluding paragraph struck a distant chord of memory within me.  I vaguely remembered that I’d encountered a legend concerning the resurrection of the dead in Messianic days, to the effect that they will literally roll across land and under sea to reach Eretz Israel.  My memory was correct, and was verified at Jack Zaientz’s blog, “Jewish Monster Hunting: A Practical Guide to Jewish Magic, Monsters, and Mayhem”, in his post “First we die.  Then we roll.  A “Rolling To Jerusalem” Subway Map.”  This references Talmud, Kettubot 111a (3) at Sefaria, in which the following debate is recorded:

וּלְרַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר, צַדִּיקִים שֶׁבְּחוּץ לָאָרֶץ אֵינָם חַיִּים?! אָמַר רַבִּי אִילְעָא: עַל יְדֵי גִּלְגּוּל. מַתְקֵיף לַהּ רַבִּי אַבָּא סַלָּא רַבָּא: גִּלְגּוּל לְצַדִּיקִים צַעַר הוּא! אָמַר אַבָּיֵי: מְחִילּוֹת נַעֲשׂוֹת לָהֶם בַּקַּרְקַע.

“The Gemara asks: And according to the opinion of Rabbi Elazar, will the righteous outside of Eretz Yisrael not come alive at the time of the resurrection of the dead?  Rabbi Ile’a said: They will be resurrected by means of rolling, i.e., they will roll until they reach Eretz Yisrael, where they will be brought back to life.  Rabbi Abba Salla Rava strongly objects to this: Rolling is an ordeal that entails suffering for the righteous.  Abaye said: Tunnels are prepared for them in the ground, through which they pass to Eretz Yisrael.”

Another observation…

There’s “something” about the concluding three sentences of Zweig’s text:

“What is he waiting for, Master?” I cried out in fear.
“For you” said the old man and turned.
And I awoke to a sudden, glaring, heart-breaking shock.

Specifically, there’s a remarkable similarity to the closing lines of Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law”:

“What do you still want to know, then?” asks the gatekeeper.
“You are insatiable.”
“Everyone strives after the law,” says the man,
“so how is that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?”
The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and,
in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him,
“Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you.
I’m going now to close it.”

In both cases, the anonymous narrator implores of an authority figure – Rabbi Akiva, or, “the gatekeeper” – that his future course of action, or, secret knowledge, be revealed.  The two answers lead to dramatically different outcomes:  In Zweig’s tale, the narrator lives, and, transformed, faces a perhaps revised future, which is entirely dependent on his choice of action.  In Kafka’s story, the narrator is at the point of death, the outcome of events – perhaps preordained by circumstance or providence? – having already been preordained for him.

I have no idea of the degree of Kafka and Zweig’s familiarity with one another’s works, but they were contemporaries, the former having been 29 years old in 1916, and the latter 32.  Being that “Before the Law” (“Vor dem Gesetz”) was published in the 1915 New Year’s edition of the independent Jewish weekly Selbstwehr, the possibility exists that the final lines of “Judenzählung vor Verdun” were inspired by Zweig’s reading of Kafka’s tale.

Having come this far, one can readily appreciate Zweig’s literary talents.  The piece is short – a little less than a thousand words in length – yet even with this economy of words, the imagery of the tale is stunning in its clarity, in terms of physical setting, atmosphere, mood, and the description of the fallen as both spirit and body; spirit in body. 

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Arnold Zweig, 1916 (From deutsche-kinemathek)

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Arnold Zweig, New York City, 1939 (Photo by Eric Schaal)

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Arnold Zweig, Haifa, Yishuv, 1939 (Photographer Unknown)

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I’ve not read any other works by Zweig, but given his skill and imagination; his ability to so powerfully craft scene and mood; the era in which he was active – the first half of the twentieth century – I can readily envision him – if the trajectory of his life had been different, having been a masterful and successful writer of pulp fiction, perhaps in the genres of adventure, fantasy, or horror.  Perhaps his work would have appeared in such pulps as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; Weird Tales; Unknown; Fantastic Novels.  It’s nice to speculate…

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December, 1950 (Absolutely wonderful cover art! – by Chesley Bonestell) (From my own collection.)

Fantastic Novels, July, 1950 (Cover art by “Lawrence” (Lawrence Sterne Stevens)), illustrating Moore and Kuttner’s “Earth’s Last Citadel”) (Also from my own collection.  (Shameless self-promotion!)  See more of such, here.)

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Zweig’s macabre story concludes by transitioning to a scene of transformative and mystical renewal – an explicitly collective renewal – with startling abruptness, revealing to the narrator; to the reader – to us, even and especially in this year of 2023 – that to the Jews is granted the ability to return. 

And so, in symbolic answer to the anonymous narrator’s awakening, let’s wordlessly conclude with an allegorical image entitled “Der Jüdische Mai” [“The Jewish May”], from Ephraim Moses Lilien’s, Sein Werk, published in 1903 in Berlin.  (Specifically, page 280 in volume 2.)

For your consideration: Some references…

Arnold Zweig, at…

Wikipedia

Britannica

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

GoodReads

Kuenste im Exil [Art in Exile]

Deutsche Kiemathek [German Cinema Library]

University of Massachusetts DEFA Film Library

Mahler Foundation

Internet Movie Database

Geni.com

FindAGrave

Die Schaubühne [“The Stage”], at …

Internet Archive

… Wikipedia (Die Weltbühne)

Weimar Berlin

University of Michigan Digital Library

Die Schaubühne (Band 13, Ausgabe 1 [Volume 13, Issue 1]), pages 115-117

…at OogleBooks

Siegfried Jacobsohn, at…

Wikipedia

FindAGrave

Franz Kafka, at…

Wikipedia

“Before the Law”, at…

Wikipedia

Azrael, at…

Wikipedia

Some books…

Eisenberg, Noah William, Between Redemption and Doom – The Strains of German-Jewish Modernism, University of Nebraska Press, 1999

Grabolle, Harro, Verdun And the Somme, Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, Hungary, 2004

Hüppauf, Bernd-Rüdiger, War, Violence, and the Modern Condition, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany, 1997

Franz Kafka – The Complete Stories

Lilien, Ephraim Mose, and Zweig, Stefan, E. M. Lilien, Sein Werk, mit einer Emleitung von Stefan Zweig, band zwei, Schuster & Loeffler, Berlin, Germany, 1903, OCLC 7720842

Vital, David, A People Apart – A Political History of the Jews in Europe, 1789-1939, Oxford University Press, 2001

Vital, David, A People Apart – A Political History of the Jews in Europe, 1789-1939, at GoodReads.com

Wenzel, Georg, Arnold Zweig, 1887-1968 : Werk und Leben in Dokumenten und Bildern : mit unveröffentlichten Manuskripten und Briefen aus dem Nachlass [Arnold Zweig, 1887-1968: Work and life in documents and images: with unpublished manuscripts and letters from the estate], Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, 1978

Zweig, Arnold, and Struck, Hermann, Das ostjüdische Antlitz [The Eastern Jewish Face], Berlin Weltverlag, Berlin, Germany, 1922

(Das ostjüdische Antlitz includes many, many thematic sketches by Hermann Struck, none of which, unfortunately, have captions.  (Oh, well!)  This drawing of a young woman appears on page 112.)

Some articles…

Angress, Werner T., The German Army’s “Judenzahlung” of 1916 Genesis – Consequences – Significance, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, V 23, N 1, 1978

Gelley, Alexander, On the “Myth of the German-Jewish Dialogue”: Scholem and Benjamin, University of California, Irvine, 1999

Goldberg, Amos, “German-Jewish Symbiosis” – Against the Background of the 30s – Excerpt from interview with Professor Yehuda Bauer, Director of the International Center for Holocaust Studies of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel

And, otherwise…

The World at War, The Jews in War: Jewish Military Service in World War One, in David Vital’s “A People Apart”

Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: February 6, 1945 (On the ground…)

This “second” post covering Jewish military casualties on February 6, 1945 (you can read the first post, covering aviators, here) pertains to soldiers who served in the ground forces of the Allied armies.  Also mentioned is the one (that I know of…) Jewish soldier who was captured by the Wehrmacht on this February Tuesday: PFC David Schneck of the United States Army. 

Following the format of my prior posts in this series, soldiers’ biographies present information in the following format:

Name, Hebrew name if known, rank, serial number, and awards or decorations (if any)
Military unit
Next of kin and wartime residential address.
Place and date of birth
Place and date of burial
Periodical or publication where a soldier’s name was mentioned or recorded.

For American Jewish soldiers, page number in the 1947 two-volume set American Jews in World War II (specifically, the “second” of the two-volumes) on which a soldier’s name is recorded.

And so, a list of names…

And so, some photos…

________________________________________

For those who lost their lives on this date…

Tuesday, February 6, 1945 / Shevat 23, 5705
– .ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. –
…Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

________________________________________

Killed in Action

United States Army

Aronson, Max, T/4, 33117372, Purple Heart
37th Infantry Division, 148th Infantry Regiment
Mr. Jacob Aronson (father) (1883-?); Mrs. Fannie Myers (mother) (1891-?)
435 Boyles Ave., New Castle, Pa.
Born New Castle, Pa., 11/18/14
Tifereth Israel Cemetery, New Castle, Pa.; Buried 6/48
Casualty List 3/24/45
American Jews in World War II – 509

______________________________

Cohen, Kurt N., T/Sgt., 32797213, France, Colmar
75th Infantry Division, 289th Infantry Regiment
Mr. Robert Groger (friend), 150 West 91st St., New York, N.Y.
Born Vienna, Austria, 3/5/21
Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, Ca. – Section O, Grave 1240
American Jews in World War II – Not Listed (Both NJWB cards are marked “No Publicity”)

Here (via Ancestry.com) are the two National Jewish Welfare Board information cards for T/Sgt. Kurt Cohen, prominently stamped “NO PUBLICITY”.  Perhaps there was concern about the implications of his Austrian birth becoming known to the Wehrmacht or Gestapo in the eventuality of his capture, with repercussions for this upon Kurt Himself, or any family members still surviving in Europe.  Alas: By May 9, 1945, these concerns were sadly moot.  (A similar instance of requesting no publicity for a Jewish soldier occurred in the case of First Lieutenant Albert Frost, who was killed in action on December 14, 1944.)

______________________________

Epstein, Irwin (Yisrael Reuven bar Zelig ha Levi), PFC, 42135153, Medical Corps, Purple Heart, France, Alsace-Lorraine
70th Infantry Division, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Medical Detachment
Mr. and Joseph and Fannie Epstein (parents), Bernard and Morris (brothers),
1936 75th St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Born Bronx, N.Y., 3/7/26
Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Glendale, N.Y. – Block WC, Section 5, Line 26, Grave 15, Society Workmen’s Circle
American Jews in World War II – 303

The shoulder insignia of the 3rd Infantry Division

This image of the matzeva of Irwin Epstein, at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, New York, is via FindAGrave contributor S. Daino.

______________________________

Gottschalk, Arthur Heinz, PFC, 35063350, Purple Heart
3rd Infantry Division, 7th Infantry Regiment
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard and Selma (Strauss) Gottschalk (brother and sister in law)
10802 Orville Ave., Cleveland, Oh.
Mr. and Mrs. Julius and Hilda (Gottschalk) Rothschild (sister and brother in law)
Mr. and Mrs. Oscar P. and Gussi (Feiner) Gottschalk (brother and sister in law)
Born Coblenz, Germany, 1/21/25
Epinal American Cemetery, Epinal, France – Plot A, Row 10, Grave 51
Cleveland Press & Plain Dealer, February 27, 1945
Aufbau 3/9/45, 3/16/45
American Jews in World War II – 488

From the March 9, 1945 issue of Aufbau, PFC Gottschalk’s obituary….


Here’s a transcript and translation of the obituary and memorial tribute to PFC Gottschalk, from Aufbau:

Für die Freiheit gefallen

Pfc. Arthur Heinz Gottschalk

ist am 6. Februar rim Alter von 20 Jahren bei Strassburg gefallen.  Er wurde in Koblenz geboren und lebte sieit seinem 11. Lebensjahr in Cleveland, Ohio.  Mit 16 Jahren, noch zu jüng fur die Armee oder die Flotte, ging er in die Rüstungsindustrie.  Als er sich 1942 freiwillig bei der Navy meldete, wurde er abgewiesen, weil er noch kien Bürgen war.  Endlich, im Mai 1943, wurde er in die Armee eingezogen und seun heissersehnter Wunsch, gegen die Nazis kämpfen zu konnen, ging in Erfüllung.

__________

Fallen for freedom

Pfc. Arthur Heinz Gottschalk

died near Strasbourg on February 6th at the age of 20.  He was born in Koblenz and has lived in Cleveland, Ohio since he was 11 years old.  At the age of 16, still too young for the army or the navy, he went into the armaments industry.  When he volunteered for the Navy in 1942, he was turned away because he [had] not yet a sponsor.  Finally, in May 1943, he was drafted into the army and his long-cherished wish to fight against the Nazis came true.

__________

…and, in the newspaper’s Memorial section, under the heading “Pro Libertate” – “For Freedom” – appear tributes to Arthur by his parents and brothers.  The aforementioned two-word heading typically appeared atop all such tributes in Aufbau.  Notice that the phrase is Latin, not Hebrew or Yiddish?  (Just sayin’!…)  This is a very small example of how the WW II content of Aufbau seems to indecisively straddle a secular enlightenment universalism on one hand, and, Jewish solidarity, nationhood, and Zionism on the other.  

Hey, what else is new?

____________________


FÜR SEINE NEUE HEIMAT GEFALLEN!

Wir erhielten vom War Department die traurige Nachricht, dass unser inningstgeliebter, unvergesslicher Sohn, Bruder, Schwager, Onkel, Neffe and Vetter.

Arthur H. Gottschalk

ausgezeichnet mit Infantry Men Combat Badge

am 6. Februa rim Alter von 20 Jahren den Heldentod für sein neues geliebtes Vetraland in Frankreich erlitten hat.  Nach fünfmonatiger Ausbildung kam er am Tage nach Jom Kippur 1943 overseas.  Er kämpfte mit der 7. Army 3. Division in Afrika und Italien.  Nach der Invasion in Südfrankreich war er stets in vorderster Linke kämpfend, bis er bei Strassburg gefallen ist.  Alle, die ihn gekannt haben, Wissen, was wir verloren haben.

In tiefster Trauer:

BERNHARD GOTTSCHALK und Frau Selma, geb. Strauss (früher Koblenz)
OSKAR GOTTSCHALK und Frau Gussi. Feiner
JULIUS ROTHSCHILD und Frau Hilde, geb. Gottschalk (früher Koblenz und Mainz)

10802 Orville Avenue
Cleveland 6, Ohio

__________

FALLEN FOR HIS NEW HOMELAND!

We received the sad news from the War Department that our dearest, unforgettable son, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, nephew and cousin.

Arthur H. Gottschalk

awarded the Infantry Combat Badge

suffered a heroic death for his new beloved fatherland in France on February 6th at the age of 20.  After five months of training, he came overseas the day after Yom Kippur 1943.  He fought with the 7th Army 3rd Division in Africa and Italy.  After the invasion of southern France, he was always on the front left until he fell near Strassburg.  All who knew him know what we lost.

In deepest sorrow:

BERNHARD GOTTSCHALK and his wife Selma, née Strauss (formerly Koblenz)
OSKAR GOTTSCHALK and his wife Gussi Feiner
JULIUS ROTHSCHILD
and his wife Hilde, née Gottschalk (formerly Koblenz and Mainz)

10802 Orville Avenue
Cleveland 6, Ohio

______________________________

Hoffer, Murray G., Pvt., 42017338, Medical Corps, Purple Heart
4th Infantry Division, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Medical Battalion, C Company
Mr. and Mrs. Harry (1901-1986) and Gertie (Guss) (1904-1986) Hoffer (parents)
42 Wade St. / 295 Stegman Park Way, Jersey City, N.J.
Born Jersey City, N.J., 7/13/26
Baron De Hirsch Cemetery, Staten Island, N.Y.
Casualty List 3/27/45
American Jews in World War II – 239

______________________________

Loeb, Albert K., 2 Lt., 0-1329603, PH, France, Neuf-Brisach area (southeast of Colmar)
75th Infantry Division, 289th Infantry Regiment
Mr. and Mrs. Raphael J. (2/23/94-1/14/65) and Myrtle Catherine (Kaufman) (12/25/96-1/21/91) Loeb (parents)
405 Felder Ave., Montgomery, Al.
Born in Alabama, 1925
Epinal American Cemetery, Epinal, France – Plot A, Row 7, Grave 72
Casualty List 3/14/45
American Jews in World War II – 35

______________________________

Pearl, Sigmund Selig, PFC, 14172990, Purple Heart
78th Infantry Division, 309th Infantry Regiment, C Company
Mr. and Mrs. Charles (1/4/90-4/25/79) and Kate (Stadiem) (10/16/95-4/20/78) Pearl (parents)
1721 Madison Ave., Greensboro, N.C.
Martin Goldman (cousin)
Born Greensboro, N.C., 10/30/22
Greensboro Hebrew Cemetery, Greensboro, N.C.
American Jews in World War II – 479

This portrait of PFC Sigmund Selig Pearl is via FindAGrave contributor Mark Childrey, who records that the image is credited to Dorothy Hamburger, and is from the Duke University Center for Jewish Studies webpage titled, “We Are Soldiers”.

The shoulder patch of the 78th Infantry Division

______________________________

Rothwax, Harold (Tsvi bar Yosef ha Levi), PFC, 42068353, Purple Heart
102nd Infantry Division, 407th Infantry Regiment, I Company
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph and Anna Rothwax (parents)
Jack, Louis, Manny, and Marty (brothers)
1339 Noble Ave., New York, N.Y. / 1311 Commonwealth Ave., Bronx, N.Y.
Born in New York in 1926
Mount Hebron Cemetery, Flushing, N.Y. – Coretz Brith Bacherum Society, Block 9, Reference 15, Section F, Line 17, Grave 3; Buried 10/27/48
Casualty List 3/27/45
New York Times Obituary Section (“In Memoriam” column) 10/27/48
American Jews in World War II – 422 (Indicates that he served in the Army Air Force (incorrect!))

This picture of the matzeva of Pvt. Rothwax is by FindAGrave contributor DMC.

______________________________

The biographical profile of Captain Bernard Yolles and his family, at FindAGrave.com, is very extensive – and very moving – in terms of both photographs and information, and has internal links to information about his parents, brother, and especially his wife, Babette Armore “Bobbi” Rubel Aronson, who passed away in 2003. 

To very briefly summarize…  Captain Yolles volunteered for the Army in December of 1940, and received basic training at Camp Forrest, in Tennessee.  Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant after completing Officer’s Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and was eventually assigned command of F Company, 365th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division, nicknamed the “Buffalo Soldiers Division”. 

Captain Yolles was killed in action – reportedly by a mortar shell – on the morning of February 6, while leading F Company in an attack to capture the Lama di Sotto Ridge and Hill 940.    

In January of 1948, according to the wishes of his widow Babette, Captain Yolles’ permanent place of burial was designated as the Florence American Cemetery. 

__________

Yolles, Bernard, Capt., 0-1285688, Purple Heart, Company Commander
92nd Infantry Division, 365th Infantry Regiment, F Company
Mrs. Babette Armore (Rubel) Yolles (wife) (6/12/17-8/3/03), 2952 Midvale, Los Angeles, Ca; Barbara (daughter; born 6/26/43)
Mr. and Mrs. David Leon (5/23/59-12/23/54) and Ray (Shapiro) (12/23/83-8/6/59) Yolles (parents)
Samuel S. Yolles (brother) (5/23/13-4/25/63)
Born in Mississippi, August 14, 1916
Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy – Plot F, Row 6, Grave 16
Winona Times 3/2/45, 6/22/45
American Jews in World War II – 206

__________

Captain Yolles in January, 1945.  (Photo via FindAGrave contributor 47604643.)

Another January, 1945 image of Captain Yolles.  (Via FindAGrave contributor 47604643.)

__________

On March 2, 1945, notice of Captain Yolles’ Missing in Action status appeared in the Winona Times

Captain Bernard Yolles, son of Mr. and Mrs. Leon Yolles of Winona, has been reported missing in action since February 6th in Italy.  He was one of the first three to volunteer from Montgomery County, the three leaving here together on December 5th, 1940.

__________

…while on June 22 of the sane year, the Times confirmed his death in combat.

Capt. Bernard Yolles was killed in action in Italy February 6, 1945, the War Department has wired his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leon Yolles, after previously reporting him missing in action.  He was with the 92nd Infantry Division.

Entering service as one of this county’s first volunteers December 5, 1940, he was given basic training at Camp Forrest, Tenn., received his commission at Officers Candidate School, Fort Benning, Ga., and sailed overseas in October 1944.

His wife, Mrs. Babette Yolles, and daughter, Barbara, reside in Memphis.  Pfc Samuel S. Yolles, a brother, is in California.

__________

Babette and daughter Barbara in August of 1944.  (Photo via FindAGrave contributor Andy.)

______________________________

England

Schul, Pinkus, Pvt., 13117960, Royal Army
Royal Sussex Regiment
Burma
Born 1925, in Germany
Taukkyan War Cemetery, Taukkyan, Rangoon, Myanmar – 27,G,1
We Will Remember Them – Volume I – 156

Private Pinkus Schul of the Royal Sussex Regiment is buried at the Taukkyan War Cemetery, Taukkyan, in Rangoon, Myanmar.  This image of his matzeva is by FindAGrave contributor Mary Jo C. Martin.  Though Ancestry.com reveals that he was born in Germany in 1925, other information about him is unavailable.   

______________________________

France

Armée de Terre

Levy, Jacques, Armée de Terre, France (Maroc (Morocco)), AC-21P-76695
1ere Groupe, 2eme Compagnie du Génie
Tué par eclat d’obus (“Killed by shrapnel”)

______________________________

Soviet Union / U.S.S.R. [C.C.C.Р.]

Red Army [РККА / Рабоче-крестьянская Красная армия]

Biris (Birzh), Zelman Iosifovich (Бирис (Бирж), Зельман Иосифович), Captain (Капиитан)
Battery Commander – 76mm gun (Командир Батареи – 76-миллиметровая пушка)

271st Guards Rifle Regiment, 88th Guards Rifle Division
Born 1909, city of Tiraspol
Wounded in action 2/4/45; Died of wounds 2/6/45
Buried in Germany

Elkin, Samail Iosifovich (Элькин, Самаил Иосифович), Guards Lieutenant (Гвардии Лейтенант)
Rifle Platoon Commander (Командир Стрелкового Взвода)
47th Army, 77th Guards Rifle Division, 218th Guards Rifle Regiment
Born 1906, city of Novgorod-Severskiy, Chernigov Oblast
Killed in action
Buried in Germany

Farber (Forber), Benitsian Davidovich (Фарбер (Форбер), Бенициан Давидович), Captain (Капитан)
Deputy Commander (Заместитель Комагдира)
212 Rifle Regiment, 49th Rifle Division, 33rd Army
Born 1904, city of Mozir
Killed in action
Buried in Germany

Feldman, Leonid Filippovich (Фельдман, Леонид Филиппович), Lieutenant (Лейтенант) or Private (Рядовой)
Machine Gun Platoon Commander (Командир Взвода Автоматчик), or, Machine Gunner (Автоматчик)
297th Rifle Division
Born 1913, city of Kiev
Killed in action
Buried in Hungary

Frid
, Natan Moiseevich (Фрид, Натан Моисеевич), Junior Lieutenant (Младший Лейтенант)

Self-Propelled Gun Commander (Командир – Самоходной Установки)
1889th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment
Born 1924, Minsk Oblast, Byelorussia
Killed in action
Buried in Poland

Genov, Khatskel Tankelevich (Генов, Хацкель Танкелевич), Lieutenant (Лейтенант)
Mortar Platoon Commander (Командир Минометного Взвода)
137th Guards Rifle Regiment, 47th Guards Rifle Division
Born 1923
Killed in action

Glikin, Vladimir Moiseevich (Гликин, Владимир Моисеевич), Major (Майор)
Editor, Magazine “For Defense of the Fatherland” (Редактор Газета “На защиту Отечества”)
Transcaucasian Front, 47th Аrmy, 339th Rifle Division
Born 1910, city of Baku
Died of wounds

Kagno, Isaak Moiseevich (Кагно, Исаак Моисеевич), Lieutenant (Лейтенант)
Rifle Platoon Commander (Командир Стрелкового Взвода)
212th Rifle Regiment, 49th Rifle Division
Born 1907
Killed in action

Latishev, David Moiseevich (Латышев, Давид Моисеевич), Guards Senior Lieutenant (Гвардии Старший Сержант)
Rifle Platoon Commander (Командир Стрелкового Взвода)
95th Guards Rifle Division, 287th Guards Rifle Regiment
Born 1911, Kurganskiy Raion
Killed in action

Livshits, Moisey Efremovich (Лившиц, Моисей Ефремович), Guards Captain (Veterinary Services) (Гвардии Капитан (Ветеринарной Службы))
Senior Regimental Veterinary Doctor (Старший полковой ветеринарный врач)

33rd Guards Artillery Regiment, 14th Guards Rifle Regiment
Born 1914, city of Proskurov
Killed in action
Buried in Poland

Lyakhovetskiy, Izer Iosifovich (Lyakhovitskiy, Ozer Iosifovich) (Ляховецкий, Изер Иосифович (Ляховицкий, Озер Иосифович)), Guards Lieutenant (Гвардий Лейтенант)
Battery Control Platoon Commander – 76 mm gun (Командир Взвода Управления Батареи – 76-миллиметровая пушка)
21st Guards Cavalry Regiment, 7th Guards Cavalry Division
Born 1923, Belorussia
Killed in action
Buried in Poland

Maerkovich, Vadlen Isaakovich (Маеркович, Вадлен Исаакович), Lieutenant (Лейтенант)
Mortar Platoon Commander
1064th Rifle Regiment, 281st Rifle Division
Born 1924, in city of Cherkasy
Killed in action
Buried in East Prussia

Mayzel, Pinya Geydalovich (Майзель, Пиня Гейдалович), Major (Майор)
Chief of Artillery Supply (Начальник Артиллерииского Снабжения)
Western Front, 57th Tank Division (147th Rifle Division), 115th Tank Regiment, Artillery-Technical Services
Born 1910, Kamenets-Podolsk Oblast, Ukraine
Missing in action
Buried in Poland

Nekhamkin, Matvey Abramovich (Нехамкин, Матвей Абрамович), Major (Майор)
Deputy Commander – Technical Section (Заместитель по Технической Части Командира)
271st Autonomous Special Purpose Motorized Rifle Brigade (271 Отдельная мотострелковая бригада особого назначения)
Born 1921, Kriovorozhskiy Raion
Killed in action
Buried in Russia

Reznikov, Boris Vulfovich (Резников, Борис Вульфович), Guards Senior Lieutenant (Гвардии Старший Лейтенант)
Rifle Platoon Commander (Командир Стрелкового Взвода)
323rd Rifle Division, 1090th Rifle Regiment
Born 1909, city of Borzna, Chernigov Oblast, Ukraine
Killed in action
Buried in Poland

Spevak, Leyb Mordukhovich (Спевак, Лейб Мордухович), Senior Lieutenant (Старший Лейтенант)
Machine Gun Platoon Commander (Командир Пулеметного Взвода)
1348th Rifle Regiment, 399th Rifle Division
Born 1908, Parichskiy Raion
Killed in action
Buried in East Prussia

Vulfeon (Vulfson?), Ilya Yakovlevich (Вульфеон (Вульфсон?), Илья Яковлевич), Senior Lieutenant (Старший Лейтенант)
Battery Commander (Командир Батареи)
596th Light Artillery Regiment
Born 1910, Shumyachskiy Raion
Killed in action

Yankelovich, Semen Ilyich (Янкелович, Семен Ильич), Guards Junior Lieutenant (Гвардии Младший Лейтенант)
Battalion Party Organizer (Парторг Батальона)
12th Guards Rifle Division, 37th Guards Rifle Regiment
Born in Leningrad
Killed in action
Buried in Germany

Zamanskiy, Isaak Samoylovich (Заманский, Исаак Самойлович), Captain (Капитан)
Regiment Engineer – Rifle Platoon (Полковой Инженер Стрелкового Взвода)
185th Rifle Division
Born 1918
Died of wounds

Zilberbord, Lazar Aronovich (Зильберборд, Лазарь Аронович) Senior Lieutenant (Старший Лейтенант)
Deputy Commander for Political affairs (Заместитель Командира по Политчасти)
271st Autonomous Special Purpose Motorized Rifle Brigade (271 Отдельная мотострелковая бригада особого назначения)
Born 1912, city of Kharkov
Killed in action
Buried in East Prussia

Zilberman, Izidor Leonovich (Зильберман, Изидор Леонович), Lieutenant (Лейтенант)
Rifle Platoon Commander (Командир Стрелкового Взвода)
1st Polish Army, 6th Polish Infantry Pomeranian Division, 16th Infantry Regiment (1-я армия Войска польского, 6-я Польская пехотная Померанская дивизия, 16-й пехотный полк)
Born 1913, city of Rapka
Killed in action
Buried in Poland

______________________________

Poland

Polish People’s Army

Apperman, Chaskiel, First Sergeant
10th Infantry Regiment
Poland, Wielkopolskie, Skorka
Mr. Salomon Apperman (father)
Born Zagorze, Poland, 1923
JMCPAWW2 I – 4

Bar, Herszel, Pvt.
16th Infantry Regiment
Poland, Wielkopolskie, Nadarzyce
Mr. Icchak Bar (father)
Born Wisnowiec (d. Krzemieniec), Poland, 2/2/19
JMCPAWW2 I – 5

Gruber, Grzegorz, Pvt.
Poland, Dobrzyce
Mr. Abram Gruber (father)
Born Mazowieckie, Warsaw, Poland, 1923
JMCPAWW2 I – 26

Kaplan, Ignacy, Pvt.
16th Infantry Regiment
Poland, Wielkopolskie, Nadarzyce
Mr. Aniel Kaplan (father)
Born Mazowieckie, Warsaw Poland, 8/20/03
JMCPAWW2 I – 34

Kozak, Aleksander, Pvt.
1st Infantry Division, Intelligence Company
Poland, Podgaje
Mr. Samuela Kozak (father)
Born Ukraine, Male Koskowce (d. Tarnopol), 1906
JMCPAWW2 I – 40

Kozlowski, Julian, W/O
11th Infantry Regiment
Poland, Dobrycza
Mr. Jakub Kozlowski (father)
Born Lodzkie, Lodz, Poland, 1921
JMCPAWW2 I – 40

* * * * *

Lipszyc, Marian, W/O
18th Infantry Regiment
Poland, Wielkopolskie, Nadarzyce
Mr. Maksymilian Lipszyc (father)
Born Czestochowa, Slaskie, Poland, 1896
JMCPAWW2 I – 46

Marian Lipszyc, a rifle platoon commander, is alternatively listed as “Lipshits, Maryan Maksimovich (in Russian “Липшиц, Марьян Максимович”), with the rank of “Junior Lieutenant (Младший Лейтенант)”.  While Volume 1 of Benjamin Meirtchak’s Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Army lists his unit as the “18th Infantry Regiment”, he’s alternatively listed as having served in the 118th Rifle Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division, in the 1st Polish Army.  The correct designation is indeed the former: the 18th Infantry Regiment, or, “18 Kołobrzeski Pułk Piechoty”.  

* * * * *

Majer, Jozef, Pvt.
Poland, Mazowieckie, Otwock, Field Hospital 2138
Andriolli Street Cemetery, Otwock, Mazowieckie, Poland
JMCPAWW2 I – 467

Szulklaper, Leon, W/O
14th Infantry Regiment
Poland, Ilowiec
Mr. Hersz Szulklaper (father)
Born Mazowieckie, Warsaw, Poland, 11/11/21
JMCPAWW2 I – 68

Wilk
, Edward, Pvt.

18th Infantry Regiment
Poland, Wielkopolskie, Nadarzyce
Mr. Lejb Wilk (father)
Born Switochlawice, Slaskie, Poland, 1926
JMCPAWW2 I – 74

Winner, Nisim, Cpl.
10th Infantry Regiment
Mr. Icchak Winner (father)
JMCPAWW2 I – 75

Zilberman
, Izidor Leonovich (Зильберман, Изидор Леонович) Lieutenant (Лейтенант)

Rifle Platoon Commander (Командир Стрелкового Взвода)
1st Polish Army, 6 Polish Infantry Division, 16th Polish Infantry Regiment
Born 1913
Buried in Poland

______________________________

Wounded in Action

France

Armée de Terre

Assous, Ange, 2ème Canonnier, Citation à l’ordre du Régiment
22ème Groupe de Forces Terrestres Anti Aeriennes, 2ème Batterie
Obersaasem
During the attack on Obersausem on February 6, 1945, his officer and two of his comrades were wounded and he immediately rescued them in spite of a violent artillery bombardment.
(Au cours de l’attaque d’Obersausem, le 6 février 1945, son officier et deux de ses camarades ayant été blesse, s’est porté immédiatement à leur secours malgré un violent bombardement d’artillerie.)
Livre d’Or et de Sang – 97

Though perhaps little known (I didn’t know about the book until some six years ago!), F. Chiche’s Livre d’Or et de Sang – Les Juifs au Combat: Citations 1939-1945 de Bir-Hakeim au Rhin et Danube (The Book of Gold and Blood – The Jews in Combat – Citations 1939-1945 from Bir-Hakeim to the Rhine and Danubeis an utterly invaluable reference concerning military service of Jews in the French armed forces in the Second World War.  The book contains many half-tone photos of Jewish soldiers, primarily men who were casualties, or, who received military awards…

…such as this image of 2ème Canonnier Ange Assous, upon whom was bestowed a Citation à l’ordre du Régiment.

______________________________

Prisoner of War

United States Army

Among the Jewish veterans who I’ve had the good fortune of interviewing has been Mr. David Schneck, originally of Long Island, and later of Bel Air, Maryland, who I met on April 13, 1991, forty-six years and two months after his capture by the Wehrmacht on February 6, 1945.  The result of the interview was a lengthy and detailed account of David’s experiences in the military, being a POW (specifically, at Stalag 12A – Lumburg an der Lahn), the genealogy of his family, his thoughts about such topics as German reunification (well, this was shortly after the end of the (first?!) Cold War), reflections on how being Jewish affected (or, did not directly affect) his experiences as a POW, as well as his musings about history, politics, and social issues.  Interestingly, after his retirement David undertook a project of identifying – through written correspondence; this was just before the advent of the Internet, after all! – other Ex-POWs who’d been interned in Stalag 12A. 

I don’t know the degree to which he completed his project which, three quickly-gone-by decades later, can ironically be done with a few keystrokes and an internet connection.  But, perhaps it doesn’t matter.  Oftimes the worth of an endeavor lies in the work itself, rather than the result.

Born at Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn on March 30, 1925, David was the son of Harry and Clara (Schoenfeld) Schneck, his family residing at 99-01 97th Street, in Ozone Park.  A Private First Class (32974137) in C Company, 290th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division, David’s status as a liberated POW was reported in the Long Island Daily Press on May 4 and 16, 1945.    

A recipient of the Purple Heart, David’s name appears on page 431 of American Jews in World War II.

__________

A man who came back: PFC David Schneck, in a photo taken on July 23, 1943.

On May 4, 1945, the Long Island Daily Press published this brief news item about David’s liberation from Stalag 12A.  (This and the next article were found via FultonHistory.com)

New York State Digital library

Twelve days later, on May 16, the Daily Press published this additional news item about his liberation, specifically alluding to the conditions of his imprisonment. 

New York State Digital library

As part of David’s efforts to compile information about Ex-POWs of Stalag 12A, he acquired several photos of the POW camp taken, shortly after its liberation by American forces.  Given the visual style of these pictures, and, their captions, I believe that they’re actually official United States Army photographs.  However, these pictures – at least, the copies then in David’s possession – had no identifying serial numbers.  Regardless, they give a good impression of living conditions at the camp.

Three of these pictures, with transcriptions of original captions, follow below:

__________

U.S. TROOPS INSPECT GERMAN PRISON CAMP

Troops of the First U.S. Army are shown at the entrance to the German prisoner-of-war camp at Limburg, where American, Russian, and French prisoners were liberated.  Twenty miles east of the Rhine, Limburg was first entered by elements of the Ninth Armored Division.  The next day, First Army infantry units, following the armored spearheads, cleared the town.

__________

U.S. PRISONERS LIBERATED

The letters “P.O.W.” mark the roof of barracks at Nazi Stalag XIIA, a prisoner-of-war camp where American captives were liberated by their advancing countrymen.  Although the camp was made immune from Allied air attacks by the painted letters, prisoners received inadequate rations of a bowl of thin soup and a piece of bread each day, and hospital cases lay on wooden beds with little covering.

__________

U.S. PRISONERS LIBERATED

This is the straw-strewn floor of a barn at Nazi Stalag XIIA, where hundreds of American prisoners-of-war were forced to sleep.  Each man had only one blanket.  All the roofs leaked, half of the windows were out, and there was no heat.  The Americans were fed a bowl of thin soup and a piece of bread a day.

__________

The war is over.  (Long, long over!)  David Schneck and his wife Zita, at Bel Air, Maryland, on April 13, 1991.  (Photo by me.  (On Kodachrome.  Remember Kodachrome?))

References

Just Three Books

Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947

Meirtchak, Benjamin, Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armies in World War II: I – Jewish Soldiers and Officers of the Polish People’s Army Killed and Missing in Action 1943-1945, World Federation of Jewish Fighters Partisans and Camp Inmates: Association of Jewish War Veterans of the Polish Armies in Israel, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1994 (“JMCPAWW2 I”)

Morris, Henry, Edited by Gerald Smith, We Will Remember Them – A Record of the Jews Who Died in the Armed Forces of the Crown 1939 – 1945, Brassey’s, United Kingdom, London, 1989

A War Is Over: November 11, 1918

In March of 2001, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency published two articles about a project to comprehensively identify casualties among American Jewish Soldiers of World War One.  Coinciding with what was – at the time – my own newly-begun effort to identity casualties among Jewish soldiers of the British Commonwealth for the Great War, these JTA news items inspired me to embark on a similarly-themed project concerning Jewish soldiers of the United States. 

By now, I’ve completed much of this project.  But, identifying the names of American Jewish WW I military casualties proved to be vastly more daunting (and even more) than my parallel research concerning British (and Australian, Canadian, Irish, New Zealand, Scottish, South African, Welsh, and more…) Jewish WW I soldiers.

The central challenge was also the most obvious: Compilations and lists of Commonwealth Jewish soldiers of World War One already exist, having been collected and / or published during, and after (and some, decades after) the war.  The central sources of these names are wartime issues of The Jewish Chronicle, the British Jewry Book of Honour of 1922, and, the Australian Jewry Book of Honour of 1923. 

In a similar way, compilations of names of Jewish military casualties in the WW I militaries of France, Germany, and Italy were likewise created and published in the 20s and 30s.  (As for the creation of comprehensive lists of the names of Jewish soldiers, fallen or otherwise, in the militaries of Austria-Hungary and Imperial Russia, well, I suppose that history and other factors have rendered such efforts moot, and, irrelevant.)

Comprehensive compilations of the names of fallen and / or decorated American Jewish soldiers were never published, despite the names, biographical records, and veterans’ recollections of these men having been compiled and preserved.  The reasons for this retrospective “gap” in Jewish history are alluded to in my prior post about the topic, and I believe had vastly less to do with the availability of scholars or laymen to embark on such a project, challenges in the analysis and interpretation of a mass of historical information, or finally, the simple physical ability to actually publish such works … than with the collective degree of self-confidence and comfort in the self-identity prevalent in the “American Jewish Community” – whether of leaders or laymen – during the 20s and 30s.  (Is anything really that different a century later?  I wanted to think so, for a time, but I do no longer.) 

To be honest, a measure of this information was eventually published.  But, this was limited to comparative statistical studies, and, limited to lists of the names of men who received military awards such as the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, and Silver Star.  The result?  This information appeared in both volumes (1934, 1941, and, 1934, 1946) of Sydney G. Gumpertz’s The Jewish Legion of Honor.  However, the vastly greater number of men who never received military awards – despite having served; despite having been casualties – never appeared in print. 

Well, in time, there was one exception to this:  In the early 2000s (I think it was the early 2000s…!) the Center For Jewish History made available online the names of men recorded in this research.  (Unfortunately, I didn’t record the URL!)  This list was limited to a soldier’s first and last names and middle initial; no other information appeared.  I think (? – !) these names were actually those acquired by the American Jewish Committee – Office of Jewish War Records, 1918-1921. 

So, even if tantalizingly incomplete, that CJA list served as a solid foundation for further research into this topic.  And, I looked into it…

My first effort centered around correlating these names to 1) Names listed in records in “Casualties of the AEF By State – World War One” – “WW I Organization Records Office File” at the United States National Archives, in Records Group RG 407, and, 2) names listed in Haulsee, Howe, and Doyle’s Soldiers of the Great War – Memorial Edition.  I then matched these names to published compilations of biographical records for a few specific states (well, those compilations that I could find or that at least exist: for Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, New York, and Ohio) to find further information about these men.

This research eventually led to Ancestry.com (this isn’t a plug for Ancestry, it’s simply the way things worked out!) which in its “Military” category enables access to scans of “Abstract of Military Service” / “Form No, 724-7, A.G.O.” [A.G.O. = Adjutant General’s Office] cards, which were published or standardized on November 22, 1919.  These cards provided a standardized format by which information about a soldier’s military service was recorded.  (You can read about them here.)

Data fields in these cards comprise:

Name (Surname and Given Name)
Serial / Service Number
Race
Place and date of enlistment or induction
Place of Birth
Age (usually) or Date of Birth (much less often)
Service Organization(s) with Assignment Dates and Transfers
Rank (Grade) with Date of Appointment
Engagements
Whether Wounded in Action (how badly), Killed in Action, or Died of Wounds / Illness (date listed in each case, including for multiple wounds)
Name and address of Next of Kin, or Emergency Contact
Overseas Service Dates
Discharge / Separation Date and Information
Degree of Disability at Discharge

Given the format and content of the information presented in the five above-listed state compilations, I believe the cards were source of information used in the creation of published works covering Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, New York, and Ohio.

At Ancestry, scans of Abstract cards can be directly accessed for Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Utah, while for other states (such Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and New Jersey) they can be accessed via websites maintained by those states’ historical or archival agencies.

The Abstract Cards for New York and Pennsylvania are particularly interesting, in that they reveal that a soldier’s casualty status was indicated by the color of the card itself.  A pale yellow-orange or tan card indicates a soldier who died in service or was killed in action, while information about wounded or injured soldiers is recorded on gray-ish cards.

Paralleling the Abstract Cards are two other primary sources of information, accessible through Ancestry.com and Fold3.com.  These are U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards for 1917 to 1918, and, U.S. Army Transport Service Arriving and Departing Passenger Lists for 1910 to 1939. 

Though Draft Registration Cards by nature don’t include information about a soldier’s military service, they’re utterly invaluable in having genealogical information such as place and date of birth, addresses of residence and employment (at least, on the date when the soon-to-be soldier filled out the card), and trade or profession.  The ubiquity and number of these cards (How many are there? – I don’t know!), a “strength” as it were, can renders them an ambiguous sources of information:  Some information on them, such as place and date of birth, and residential address, doesn’t necessarily correlate to such information recorded on the Abstract Cards.  They don’t typically include the names (names) of a soldier’s next of kin.  Also, it’s very easy to find multiple cards with the same listed surname and given name, despite being for entirely different men!  

More important for this purpose of this project than the Draft Registration Cards – by far – have been the Transport Service Arriving and Departing Passenger Lists, because the information recorded in these records – a soldier’s military unit, his serial number, residential address, and name of next of kin or emergency contact – has direct and immediate relevance to his military service, and, is central in terms of a soldier’s genealogy and ancestry.  (That’s “ancestry” with a small “a”.)  It’s been this particular set of documents, when used in conjunction with the CJA soldiers’ name list, that has been really instrumental in identifying Jewish soldiers. 

Paralleling this effort (lots of parallels here) was a review of four newspapers – The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Jewish Exponent, and The Jewish Chronicle, the latter of which on rare occasion in 1917 and 1918 include information about Jewish casualties in the United States armed forces. 

So, here are the URLs for either historical or archival offices of various states, or, direct links to Ancestry.com, that allow search for Abstract Cards:

Alabama
World War I Gold Star Database” (Abstract Cards, Photos, and Documents)

California (Ancestry.com: California State Council of Defense. California War History Committee. Records of Californians Who Served in World War I. (Set 2: World War I soldiers deaths.) 18 boxes. California State Library, Sacramento, California.  No Abstract Cards, but instead images of newspaper articles.)

Florida
World War One Service Cards

Maine (Ancestry.com)

Mississippi
Mississippi World War I Statement of Service Cards and Indices

Missouri (Transcribed Data from Abstract Cards)
Soldiers’ Records: War of 1812 – World War I

New Jersey
World War I Deaths: Descriptive Cards, Photographs, and Correspondence

New Mexico (Ancestry.com: No Abstract cards, but other documents)

North Dakota (Ancestry.com)

Vermont (Ancestry.com: Transcribed Data from Abstract Cards)

And so, what did I find?

In terms of numbers…

…well, while I’ve made a practice at this blog of not listing total numbers of people in “so-and-so” and “such-and-such” category – that becomes tedious, anyway – a comparison of my data from this research, with information released by the American Jewish Committee’s Office of Jewish War Records, in its Third Report, dated 14 November 1920, is revealing.  I’ve found that the OJWR’s estimate of 2,800 Jewish war dead is incorrect, and is an overcount of American Jewish servicemen (Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) who lost their lives during the war.  However, the total number of casualties I’ve arrived at – comprising soldiers killed in action or died of wounds or illness, plus wounded and survived, plus prisoners of war, – definitely exceeds that above-mentioned OJWR total.

Of interest are the relative proportions of Jewish soldiers serving in the Army and Marine Corps, in terms of men who were casualties (as defined above) … based on place or birth, in terms of country or geographic area.  (Ironic that a historical question from 1918 can be so politically and culturally fraught in 2022!) 

Running my numbers through Excel reveals that these proportions are, largest to smallest:

Born in the United States: 43%
Born in Belorussia, Russia, and Ukraine (I haven’t disambiguated these records, yet…): 36%
Born in Poland: 7%
Born in Romania: 5%
Born in Lithuania: 4%
Born in Austria-Hungary: 3%
And, born in England: 2%

Plus … soldiers born in:

Bulgaria (Pvt. Israel Silverman)
Canada (several)
Cyprus (PFC Moses M. Steinberg)
France, Germany (Privates Nathan Greenbaum, Adolph Katz, and Julius Meyer Lyons)
Latvia (several)
Lithuania (several)
Scotland (Pvt. Robert E. Ognall)
Sweden (Pvt. Einar Skud)
Turkey (Pvt. Raoul Gerson)
and the Yishuv (Pvt. Ruben Cohen).

Well, being that people are neither “data” nor “percentages”, one way to view this mass of information is to focus on casualties incurred on a single day of battle; a day which by its symbolism and historical significance reflects the sad irony of the Great War, and in effect, all wars: 

The day the war ended.

Armistice Day.

The 11th of November, 1918. 

The fact that hostilities were to cease on 11 A.M. on November 11 did not at all preclude casualties in the armies of either the Allies or Germany from occurring prior to that moment, as exemplified by the death of Sergeant Henry N. Gunther, of Baltimore, who was killed at 10:59 A.M., one minute before the Armistice was to have gone into effect.  

The names of Jewish casualties in the United States Army for the same day, killed and wounded, are listed below.  Particularly poignant is the story of thirty year old Jesse Steinthal of Manhattan, concerning whom an illustrated article appeared in the New York Tribune exactly two years and one day before he fell in battle.  Well, actually, they’re all poignant each in their own way, Jesse Steinthal’s story moreso – for the purposes of this post – simply because of the fortuitous availability of more-than-usual information about him. 

Of course, there inevitably were casualties in the German Army that day as well.  In that regard, identifying Jewish casualties in the Deutsches Heer for day was quite straightforward: the names of these men are easily identified in Die Jüdischen Gefallenen Des Deutschen Heeres, Deutschen Marine Und Der Deutschen Schutztruppen 1914-1918 – Ein Gedenkbuch

Among them is Soldat Herman Tichauer, age forty-five. 

Among them is Leutenant Alfred Emil Stettiner, age thirty-seven. 

Among them is Sergeant Ernest Schild of Duisberg, an aviator in Schlachtstaffel 5, about whom I’ve been unable to find any further information … though there is a discussion at TheAerodrome which would imply that he was a crew member of a Hannover CL.III aircraft.  His name doesn’t appear in Casualties of the German Air Service 1914-1920, and, there is no account of the shooting down of a Hannover in The Sky Their Battlefield.

____________________

In any event…

…given the centrality of Abstract cards to this project, some examples of these documents follow below, all for dates other than November 11, 1918, accompanied by information derived from the card, and, other sources.  (This follows the format I’ve been using for records about WW II servicemen.)  I’ve made a point of illustrating Abstract cards showing different places of birth: Austria, England, Poland, Russia, the United States, Ukraine, and the Yishuv.  Also shown are other documents, and, a few photographs. 

And so:

Berman, Benjamin, Pvt., 305,589
Born in Russia: “Rottadum” (?), February 27, 1895
4th Marine Brigade, 6th Marine Regiment, attached to 2nd Infantry Division, US Army
Killed in action September 15, 1918, at Chateau Thierry
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob and Anna Berman (parents), 548 West Pike St. / 2413 North Hollywood St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Tablets of the Missing at Saint Mihiel American Cemetery, Thiaucourt, France
Matzeva (symbolic?) at Mount Sharon Cemetery, Springfield, Pa.
Philadelphia Inquirer Casualty List – October 12, 1918
Name not in Center for Jewish History list.

_____

Private Berman’s symbolic matzeva.

_____

Sixteen years later: The Veteran’s Compensation Application for Private Berman, completed by Jacob and Anna in March of 1934.

__________

Louis Gottes Bernheimer, 1st Lieutenant, Reconnaissance Pilot
Born in the United States: New York, N.Y. – December 5, 1895
United States Army Air Service, 88th Observation Squadron
Survived: Awards included Distinguished Service Cross (for actions on August 11, 1918), Silver Star, and Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster
Mr. and Mrs. Sydney (3/24/75-2/13/70) and Fannie (“Gattis”) (7/16/69-10/6/38) Bernheimer (parents), Leona C. (sister) (5/2/91-_____), 138 East 72nd Street, New York, N.Y.
Yale University Graduate – Class of 1917
Died January 10, 1930, Los Angeles, Ca.
Buried at Salem Fields Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Jewish Legion of Valor – 255
New York Sun January 14, 1930

BERNHEIMER, LOUIS G. (First Award)

First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army
Pilot, 88th Aero Squadron, Air Service, A.E.F.
Date of Action: August 11, 1918

Citation: The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Louis G. Bernheimer, First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Fismes, France, August 11, 1918.  Together with John W. Jordan, Second Lieutenant, 7th Field Artillery; Observer (severely wounded);

Roger Wolcott Hitchcock, Second Lieutenant, Pilot (uninjured)
and James S.D. Burns, Second Lieutenant, Observer, 101st Field Artillery (KIA)
(control surfaces shot up, but returned);

Philip R. Babcock, First Lieutenant, Pilot (uninjured)
and Joseph A. Palmer, Second Lieutenant, Observer, 15th Field Artillery (uninjured)

Joel H. McClendon, First Lieutenant, Pilot (KIA)
and Charles W. Plummer, Second Lieutenant, Observer, 101st Field Artillery (KIA)
(shot down by Oberleutnant Rittmeister Karl Bolle of Jasta 2; crashed at Ville Savoye)

all attached to the same squadron.  Under the protection of three pursuit planes, all carrying a pilot and observer, Lieutenants Bernheimer and Jordan, in charge of a photo plane, carried out successfully a hazardous photographic mission over the enemy’s lines to the River Aisne.  The four American ships were attacked by 12 enemy battle planes.  [Fokker DVIIs] Lieutenant Bernheimer, by coolly and skillfully maneuvering his ship, and Lieutenant Jordan, by accurate operation of his machine gun, in spite of wounds in the shoulder and leg, aided materially in the victory which came to the American ships, and returned safely with 36 valuable photographs.  The pursuit plane operated by Lieutenants Hitchcock and Burns was disabled while these two officers were fighting effectively.  Lieutenant Burns was mortally wounded and his body jammed the controls.  After a headlong fall of 2,500 meters, Lieutenant Hitchcock succeeded in regaining control of this plane and piloted it back to the airdrome.  Lieutenants McClendon and Plummer were shot down and killed after a vigorous combat with five of the enemy planes.  Lieutenants Babcock and Palmer, by gallant and skillful fighting, aided in driving off the German planes and were materially responsible for the successful execution of the photographic mission.

General Orders No. 44, W.D., 1919
Birth: New York, NY
Home Town: New York, NY
Other Award: Distinguished Service Cross w/OLC (WWI)

_____

Members of the 88th Observation Squadron stand before one of their squadron’s French designed and built Salmson 2 A.2 reconnaissance planes, in this photo from the flickr photostream of the SDASM (San Diego Air And Space Museum) Archives.  In the photo Lt. Bernheimer is four from left in the front row.  His observer / gunner on the August 11, 1918 mission, Lt. Jordan, is standing in the plane’s observer’s seat next to twin Lewis guns.  Lt. Babcock, one of the pilots in that mission, is second from left in the front row.  The names of all the men in the photo are listed here.      

_____

Lieutenant Bernheimer died in California on January 10, 1930, at the age of thirty-five.  His obituary, which by virtue of its calculated vagueness hints at a very sad conclusion, appeared in The New York Sun four days later.  Assuming that he actually was a playwright, none of his writings – if such still exist – can be found at Worldcat, with the exception of an altogether different sort of work, “The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti: A summary of the outstanding testimony”.  

LOUIS G. BERNHEIMER
The New York Sun
January 14, 1930

Private funeral services will be held here for Louis G. Bernheimer, 35 years old, well known author, who died in Los Angeles, Cal., on Friday.  During the world war Mr. Bernheimer, a member of the air force, was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross with oak leaf cluster for bravery in action.  He was also made Chevalier, Belgian Order of the Crown, by King Albert.

Mr. Bernheimer was born in this city and when here lived with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Bernheimer, at 138 East Seventy-Second Street.  He was graduated from Yale in 1917 and entered the first officer’s training camp at Plattsburg.  He later joined the air service and went abroad in November, 1917, with the first American air unit.  He was commissioned a first lieutenant in January, 1918, and the following month was made flight commander of the Eighty-Eighth Aero Squadron.

Since the war Mr. Bernheimer had devoted most of his time to writing plays.  He is survived by his parents and a sister, Miss Leona Bernheimer. 

__________

Ruben Cohen, Pvt., 250,447
Born in the Yishuv: Jerusalem – January 8, 1896
United States Army, B Company, 6th Battalion, 20th Engineer Regiment
Killed: Died in sinking of USS Tuscania on February 5, 1918
Mr. Allen Cohen (father), 199 Christopher Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.
(Also 186 Henry Street, New York, N.Y.)
Tablets of the Missing at Brookwood American Cemetery, Woking, England
Soldiers of the Great War – Not Listed
Name in Center for Jewish History list

__________

Morris Kriderman, Pvt., 3,110,427
Born in Ukraine: City of Slavuta, Khmelnitskiy district, Western Ukraine – March 29, 1895 (See Slavuta, and, Jews of Ukraine)
United States Army, D Company, 315th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division
Killed in Action November 5, 1918
Mr. Morris Miller (uncle), 3129 Morse St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Collingdale, Pa. – Section I, Lot 3189, Grave 2; Buried September 25, 1921
Philadelphia Inquirer Casualty Lists – December 17, 1918 and January 15, 1919
Soldiers of the Great War, Volume III – 146
Name in Center for Jewish History list

Here is Morris’ matzeva, at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Collingdale, Pa.  He was buried on September 25, 1921.  Did his parents or any siblings, probably all still in Ukraine at the time of his death, ever emigrate to the United States and have the chance to visit his grave?

__________

Max Masey, Pvt., 2,337,430
Born in Poland: Bialystok – March 13, 1892
United States Army: K Company, 4th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
Survived: Wounded in Action July 15 and October 1, 1918
Mr. Abraham Masey (father), 108 Forsyth St., New York, N.Y.

__________

Nathan Theodore Nesselson (Nathan Tobiah; “Nate”), Pvt., 1,247,301
Born in United States: Bradford, Pa. – August 31, 1893
Killed in Action: Distinguished Service Cross for actions on August 11, 1918
C Company, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division
Mr. and Mrs. Max (1854-1942) and Bessie Vada (“Ida”) (1862-5/23/98) Nesselson (parents); Miss Etta Helen Nesselson (sister), 5 State St., Bradford, Pa.
Also 72 Kennedy St., Bradford, Pa.
Beth Israel Cemetery, Bradford, Pa.; Buried June, 1921
McKean Democrat June 16, 1921 and May 21, 1925
Bradford Era, November 7, 2020: “Kindness of a child leads to friendship letters with soldier”, by Sally Ryan Costick (see photo below)
Name in Center for Jewish History list

(Only after I created this post did I realize that these records for Pvt. Nesselson, and Lt. Bernheimer, both pertain to August 11, 1918.)

From DSC Citation: “Private Nesselson repeatedly exposed himself to heavy enemy fire in order to deliver messages from his company to the battalion commander.  In the performance of this mission it was necessary for him to cross the Vesle River, which was constantly swept by enemy machine-gun fire.  He volunteered to carry a message after others had been killed in the attempt and continued to perform this perilous duty until he was mortally wounded.”

From “Missing Report or Details of Death & Burial” card (see below): “It is not exactly known just where Private Nesselson was killed, but the above named [Pvt. Clayton D. Roche] was present when he ran several messages through a terrific machine gun and artillery barrage from Fismette to battalion headquarters at Fismes on August 11th.  To deliver and return with these messages he had to cross the Vesle River, the bridge over which, was covered by enemy machine gun fire and the bullets of snipers.  Private Nesselson was aware of this and volunteered to deliver the messages.  He made two trips that Private Roche knows of and it is presumed that he was struck by a shell.  If anyone in any fighting division deserves a D.S.C. Private Nesselson is entitled to one.  All soldiers in this company who were in Fismette that day agree to this.”

__________

Israel Rosenberg, Pvt., 2,337,493
Born in England: London – June 2, 1895
United States Army, Headquarters Company, 4th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division
Survived: Wounded in Action July 27 and October 9, 1918
Mrs. Mary Rosenberg (mother), 941 Simpson St., New York, N.Y.

__________

Max Seller, Pvt., 52,861
Born in Austria: Lemberg (…or, Lviv? (Ukrainian), Lvov?? (Russian), or Lwow??? (Polish)…) – 1896
United States Army: B Company, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
Survived: Wounded May 26 and September 30, 1918
Mrs. Rose Gluck (sister), 43 West 212th St., New York, N.Y.

____________________

And so, on Armistice Day…

Monday, November 11, 1918

7 Kislev, 5679

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

Killed in Action or Died of Wounds

Altman, Henry, Cpl., 2,255,240
4th Infantry Division, 39th Infantry Regiment, Headquarters Company
Mr. and Mrs. Louis (6/55-3/22/18) and Catherine (“Carrie”) (Lobel) (3/60-11/15/32) Altman (parents)
Emma, Esther, Ira, Joseph, Mark, and Minnie (brothers and sisters)
324 15th Ave., San Francisco, Ca.
Born San Francisco, Ca., 8/1/86
Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, Colma, Ca.
San Francisco Bulletin 12/31/18
San Francisco Call 12/30/18
San Francisco Examiner 12/31/18
Soldiers of the Great War, Volume I – 139

This image of Cpl. Altman’s simple matzeva is by FindAGrave contributor Diane Reich.

____________________

Bloom, Louis, Cpl., 1,697,870
77th Infantry Division, 305th Infantry Regiment, G Company
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Mollie (Silverman) (1857-4/7/35) Bloom (parents)
Charles, Harry, Oscar, and Sara (brothers and sister)
230 Riverside Drive, New York, N.Y.
Born New York, N.Y., 4/15/95
Washington Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y. – Cemetery 1, Range 7, Plot 72, Row 1, Grave 2; Buried 3/23/21
Soldiers of the Great War, Volume II – 343

The photographer and nature of the occasion are unknown, but this image from FindAGrave, by contributor ColtonlThomas, shows Cpl. Bloom.

____________________

Lipsky, Abraham, PFC, 1,025,275
7th Infantry Division, 34th Infantry Regiment, D Company
Died of Disease / Died of Disease or Other Causes
Mr. and Mrs. David and Katherine Lipsky (parents)
Bessie, Esther, Eva, and Lena (sisters)
459 Washington St., Haverhill, Ma.
Born Massachusetts, 5/13/98
Place of burial unknown
Soldiers of the Great War, Volume II – 35

____________________

Steinthal, Jesse, Pvt., 3,209,817
81st Infantry Division, 321st Infantry Regiment, K Company
Mr. and Mrs. Raphael and Rosalie Steinthal (parents), 697 West End Ave., New York, N.Y.
Born New York, N.Y., 2/16/88
Mount Neboh Cemetery, Glendale, N.Y. – Buried 1921
New York Tribune 11/10/16, 12/9/18, 12/8/19
The Argus 12/12/18
Soldiers of the Great War, Volume II – 356

Two years and one day before the last battle:  This remarkable sketch of Jesse Steinthal and his business partner A.F. Windeler, manager (butcher) and grocer at of the Volunteer Food Market at 573 8th Avenue in Manhattan, accompanies an article about retail grocers that appeared in the New York Tribune on November 10, 1916.  (Accessed via FultonHistory.)  The “A.F. Windeler” mentioned in the article might be Adolph Francis Windeler, who was born in 1856 and died in California in 1941.  

Dated June 5, 1917, this is Jesse’s Draft Registration Card.

The intersection of the past and the present: This Oogle Street View from June of 2019 shows the then (relatively) contemporary appearance of 573 Eighth Avenue in New York City, the location now being the site of five adjacent restaurant / take-out establishments.  Perusing the web reveals that as of early 2021, the WOK TO WALK restaurant no longer exists at this location.  Given that the adjacent and nearby buildings are all multi-story structures (like the Manhattan Hotel at 273 West 38th Street, and, the building directly behind the cluster of five restaurants, while 573 Eight Avenue is a one or two-story building, it seems (?) that the building which housed Jesse Steinthal’s Volunteer Market was demolished in the century between 1916 and 2019.  

What will be here a century from now?

This map shows the location of the above intersection, designated by Oogle’s ironic red pointer.  

Jesse Steinthal’s simple matzeva at Mount Neboh Cemetery, and, a memorial plaque in his honor, in images by FindAGrave contributor Athanatos.

SONY DSC

Died of Wounds

Stern, Jacob, Pvt., 1,704,872
77th Infantry Division, 307th Infantry Regiment, B Company
Mr. Harry Stern (father), 284 East Second St., New York, N.Y.
Also 432 East Houston St., New York, N.Y.
Born Kaspar, Hungary, 1888
Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, Seringes-et-Nesles, France – Plot C, Row 4, Grave 19
Soldiers of the Great War, Volume II – 370

____________________

Vogel, William, Jr., Cpl., 45,695
1st Infantry Division, 18th Infantry Regiment, Machine Gun Company
DOW
Mr. Adolph Vogel (father), 2319 West Taylor St., Chicago, Il.
Also 1439 North Clark St., Chicago, Il.     
Born Chicago, Il., 11/18/86
Place of burial unknown; Buried 7/21
Soldiers of the Great War, Volume I – 284

Wounded in Action

Berger, Simon, Pvt., 2,388,750
5th Infantry Division, 61st Infantry Regiment, M Company
Wounded in Action (“shrapnel wound in back of left ear”)
Mrs. Rose (Greenspan) Berger (wife), Clara and Faiga (daughters), 2345 North 26th St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Mr. and Mrs. Joan and Faiga Berger (parents) and Mr. John G. Berger (brother), 2200 Cantrell St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Born “Dombrovan”, Russia, 1/3/92
Philadelphia Inquirer 12/9/18

____________________

Friedman, Abe, Pvt., 2,314,061
28th Infantry Division, 110th Infantry Regiment, C Company
Wounded in Action (Seriously wounded previously, on 10/18/18)
Mrs. Maxine Friedman (wife), Frances and Morton (daughter and son), 4139 Delevan St., Pittsburgh, Pa.
Mrs. Rachel Friedman (mother), 2620 Center Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa.
Born “Bashygolie” / “Bashygoin”, Russia, 4/5/92
Philadelphia Inquirer 10/31/18

____________________

Gershawitz, Abraham J., Pvt., 2,674,265
90th Infantry Division, 357th Infantry Regiment, H Company
Severely wounded in action
Mrs. Rosie Liss (sister), 20 High St., New London, Ct.
Also 67 Blackhall St., New London, Ct.
Born “Peresaska”, Russia, 1890

____________________

Gershowitz, Sam, Saddler, 2,672,037
78th Infantry Division, 308th Field Artillery Regiment, D Battery
Severely wounded in action
Mrs. Fannie / Jennie Braverman (sister), 12 Spring St., Montclair, N.J.
Also 71 Norfolk St., New York, N.Y.
Born “Navelduc”, Russia; 1895

____________________

Hershcovitz, Jacob, Pvt., 1,897,719
82nd Infantry Division, 326th Infantry Regiment, B Company
Severely wounded in action; Severely wounded in action previously; approximately 10/10/18
Mr. Samuel Hershcovitz (brother), 144 Forsyth St., New York, N.Y.
Mr. Leon Hershcovitz (brother), 63 Poplar St., Jersey City, N.J.
Born Romania, 8/23/88
Died 2/7/62

____________________

Kaplan, Barnet, Pvt., 547,873
3rd Infantry Division, 30th Infantry Regiment, K Company
Severely wounded in action; Severely wounded in action previously; approximately 7/15/18
Mr. Sam Kaplan (brother), 326 Washington Ave., New York, N.Y.
Also 307 Dumont Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Born Minsk, Belarus, 3/14/89

____________________

Nadler, Abraham, Pvt., 1,698,221
77th Infantry Division, 305th Infantry Regiment, I Company
Severely wounded in action; Severely wounded in action previously; approximately 8/15/18
Mr. David Nadler (cousin), 74 East 99th St., New York, N.Y.
Also 457 Powell St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Born Galicia, Austria-Hungary, 1888

____________________

Rabinowitz, Israel S., Pvt., 628,762
58th Coast Artillery Corps, D Battery
Severely wounded in action
Mr. Abe Salt (brother in law), 347 Bristol St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Also 231 Henry St., New York, N.Y.
Born Russia, 1892

Imperial German Army – Deutsches Heer

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

Blumenhein, Artur, Soldat (Pvt.)
Fussartillerie Bataillon 124, 3rd Kompagnie
Died of wounds Krankenhaus Moabit, Berlin
Born 12/28/93, in Berlin
Mrs. Anna (Kohn) Blumenhein (mother), Berlin
Mrs. Emma (Weiszenberg) Blumenhein (step-mother), Oldenburger Strasze 4, Berlin
Judischen Friedhof zu Weissensee, Berlzu, Germany
Bis der Krieg uns lehrt, was der Friede bedeutet – 58
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 133

____________________

Cohn, Gustav, Gefreiter (L/Cpl.)
Infanterie Regiment 352, 2nd Battalion, 7th Kompagnie
Missing
Born 11/9/96, in Beuthen
Resided Beuthen (O.S.)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 168

____________________

Eis, Philipp, Soldat (Pvt.)
Infanterie Regiment 116, 2nd Battalion, 5th Kompagnie
Born 1/9/98, in Frankfurt am Main
Resided Frankfurt am Main
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 210

____________________

Lewin, Richard Nathan, Sergeant
Wirtsch. Grp. 29 Mil. Kreisant Wilna.
Born 4/13/77, in Dolzig
Resided Dolzig, Provinz Posen
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 378

____________________

Schild, Ernst, Sergeant, Aviator [Flieger]
Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, Schlachtstaffel 5
Born 9/8/87, in Duisberg
Resided Duisberg
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – Anhang (Appendix) – 403

____________________

Schwabe, Benno, Gebreiter (L/Cpl.)
Infanterie Regiment 171, 1st Battalion, 1st Kompagnie
Born 10/7/92, in Wolfenbuttel
Resided Gottingen
Kriegsgräberstätte in Vladslo (Belgien), Block 9, Grab 1884
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 229

____________________

Stern, Louis, Soldat (Pvt.)
Bayerisch Reserve Infanterie Regiment 15, 2nd Battalion, 7th Kompagnie
Born 6/7/85, in Schwanfeld
Resided Schwanfeld
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 333

____________________

Stettiner, Alfred Emil, Leutnant (2 Lt.)
Landwehr Infanterie Regiment 111, 3rd Bataillon, 9th Kompagnie
Born 1/18/81 (!), in Stuttgart
Resided Stuttgart
Jüdischer Friedhof im Pragfriedhof Stuttgart – First World War Memorial
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 344

____________________

Tichauer, Hermann, Soldat (Pvt.)
Armee Korps XVII, Ersatz Pferdedepot
Born 7/20/73 (!), in Ptakowitz
Mrs. Ernestine Tichauer (wife)
Mr. and Mrs. Lobl and Ernestine Tichauer (parents), Jakob and Lina (brother and sister)
Resided Lublinitz
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 277

This image of Soldat Hermann Tichauer appears in his Geni.com biographical profile, maintained by Ronith Rimmel.

Here are Lots of References

News Articles (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Uncle Sparks Search for WWI Soldiers (March 14, 2001)

After Learning About His Uncle, Man Compiling List of WWI Soldiers (March 15, 2001)

Books (…Author Listed…)

Franks, Norman, Bailey, Frank, and Duiven, Rick, Casualties of the German Air Service – 1914-1920, Grub Street, London, 1999

Gumpertz, Sydney G., Capt., The Jewish Legion of Valor – The Story of Jewish Heroes in the Wars of the Republic – And a General History of the Military Exploits of the Jews Through the Ages, Sydney G. Gumpertz, New York, N.Y., 1934, 1941

Gumpertz, Sydney G., Capt., The Jewish Legion of Valor – The Story of Americans of the Jewish Faith Who Distinguished Themselves in the Armed Forces in All the Wars of the Republic – And a General History of the Military Exploits of the Jews Through the Ages, Sydney G. Gumpertz, New York, N.Y., 1934, 1946

Hank, Sabine; Simon, Hermann; Gauding, Daniela, Bis der Krieg uns lehrt, was der Friede bedeutet: das Ehrenfeld für die jüdischen Gefallenen des Weltkrieges auf dem Friedhof der Berliner Jüdischen Gemeinde (“Neue Synagoge Berlin-Centrum Judaicum.”; Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Schriftenreihe des Centrum Judaicum, Bd. 2.), Hentrich & Hentirch, Teetz, Germany, 2004

Haulsee, William Mitchell; Howe, Frank George; Doyle, Alfred Cyril, Soldiers of the Great War – Memorial Edition: Volume I (Alabama through Maryland), Washington, D.C., Soldiers Record Publishing Association, 1920

Haulsee, William Mitchell; Howe, Frank George; Doyle, Alfred Cyril, Soldiers of the Great War – Memorial Edition: Volume II (Massachusetts through Ohio), Washington, D.C., Soldiers Record Publishing Association, 1920

Haulsee, William Mitchell; Howe, Frank George; Doyle, Alfred Cyril, Soldiers of the Great War – Memorial Edition: Volume III (Oklahoma through Wyoming), Washington, D.C., Soldiers Record Publishing Association, 1920

Henshaw, Trevor, The Sky Their Battlefield – Air Fighting and The Complete List of Allied Air Casulties from Enemy Action in the First War, Grub Street, London, 1995

Sinclair, James J., Captain (Compiler), Final Report of the U.S. Military Mission on American Prisoners of War, U.S. Military Mission, Berlin, Germany, August 10th, 1919

Sterner, C. Douglas, U.S. Army Air Service Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross Awards – World War I, HomeofHeroes.com, P.O. Box 122, Pueblo, Co., 81005, 2006

Books (…No Specific Author…)

Die Jüdischen Gefallenen Des Deutschen Heeres, Deutschen Marine Und Der Deutschen Schutztruppen 1914-1918 – Ein Gedenkbuch, Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten, Forward by Dr. Leo Löwenstein, Berlin, Germany, 1932

The War Record of American Jews – First Report of The Office of War Records, American Jewish Committee, January 1, 1919, The American Jewish Committee, New York, N.Y., 1919

Officers and Enlisted Men of the United States Naval Service Who Died During the World War, From April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1920

The American Jewish Year Book, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, Pa.

5676 (9/9/15-9/27/16)
5677 (9/28/16-9/16/17)
5678 (9/17/17-9/6/18)
5679 (9/7/18-9/20/19)
5680 (9/21/19-9/12/20)

State Compilations of Military Casualties 

Connecticut: Connecticut Service Records – Men and Women in the Armed Forces of the United States During the World War 1917-1920 (In Three Volumes), Office of the Adjutant General, Hartford, Ct.
Volume I: pp. 1-1152 (Andover – Hartford)
Volume II: pp. 1153-2336 (Hartford – Plainfield)
Volume III: pp. 2337-3017 (Plainfield – Woodstock)

Indiana: Indiana Gold Star Honor Roll 1914-1918, Indiana Historical Commission, Indianapolis, In., 1921

Maryland: Maryland in the World War 1917-1919 – Military and Naval Service Records (In Two Volumes), Maryland War Records Commission, Baltimore, Md., 1933

North Dakota: Roster of the Men and Women Who Served in the Army or Naval Service (including the Marine Corps) of the United States of its Allies from the State of North Dakota in the World War, 1917-1918, Vol. I-IV. Bismarck, ND, USA: Bismarck Tribune Co., 1931

New York: Roll of Honor – Citizens of the State of New York who died while in the service of the United States during the World War (Albany, N.Y., 1922)

New York – Rochester and Monroe Counties: World War Service Record Rochester and Monroe County, N.Y. (In Two Volumes), The City of Rochester, N.Y., 1924
Volume I: Those Who Died for Us
Volume II: Those Who Went Forth to Serve

Ohio: The Official Roster of Ohio Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the World War, 1917-18., Columbus, OH, USA: The F.J. Heer Printing Co., 1926 (Digitized data at Ancestry; Digital Access at HathiTrust)

National Archives and Records Administration

Records Group 407 “Casualties of the AEF By State – World War One” – “WW I Organization Records Office File”, Stack 370, Row 25, Compartment 7, Shelf 5 – Entry 10 (UD)

Newspapers

The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Exponent
The New York Times
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Through These Pale Cold Days – “Operation Michael” – The German Spring Offensive of March 21, 1918

Some time during the last week of March in the year 1918 – the specific date will remain unknown – Isaac Rosenberg, a Private in the British Army serving in the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment – penned the following poem:

Through These Pale Cold Days

Through these pale cold days
What dark faces burn
Out of three thousand years,
And their wild eyes yearn,

While underneath their brows
Like waifs their spirits grope
For the pools of Hebron again –
For Lebanon’s summer slope.

They leave these blond still days
In dust behind their tread
They see with living eyes
How long they have been dead.

(From The Collected Works of Isaac Rosenberg, page 91)

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Photographic portrait of Private Isaac Rosenberg, Regimental Number 22311, probably taken in September, 1917, from Joseph Cohen’s Journey to The Trenches.

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Born in Bristol on November 25, 1890, Rosenberg was a painter and poet in civilian life.  Despite his pacifistic nature – attributable to his familial upbringing as much as his independent personality – both of which dispositions gave him a disinclination to military life, Rosenberg enlisted in the British Army in October of 1915.  His primary motivations were simple: Enervating uncertainty about making a livelihood, whether through the arts or most any other vocation, and more fundamentally, a matter-of-fact sense of resignation in terms of the tenor of the times.  Perhaps he felt that military service, even if he was largely unamendable to it physically, psychologically, or intellectually, would provide his life with structure and direction unavailable to him otherwise.  Even if this was in a time of war.

Rosenberg was killed in action on the first day of April in 1918, not long after he composed “Through These Pale Cold Days”, a poem which expressed his frustrated yearning to return to Eretz Israel, and, serve in a Jewish military unit, this last desire reflected by his persistent and unsuccessful application to transfer to the Judeans, the Jewish volunteer battalions organized by Vladimir Jabotinsky and then serving in Egypt and the Yishuv. 

His death came eleven days after the commencement of the great German offensive otherwise known as Operation Michael, which was (Wikipedia speaking here), “…launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France.  Its goal was to break through the Allied (Entente) lines and advance in a north-westerly direction to seize the Channel Ports, which supplied the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and to drive the BEF into the sea. …  The offensive ended at Villers-Bretonneux, to the east of the Allied communications centre at Amiens, where the Allies managed to halt the German advance; the German Army had suffered many casualties and was unable to maintain supplies to the advancing troops.” 

Rosenberg’s final battle was described by Tulane University faculty member Joseph Cohen, in his 1975 book Journey to the Trenches, as follows:

“The First King’s Own Regiment, still in the reverse trenches, moved quickly to the forward area, at one point suffering heavy casualties in terrain exposed to the enemy’s cross-fire.  Twenty-four hours later the Germans had overrun the front line, and the First King’s Own Regiment along with other adjacent units found themselves back in the reserve trenches, which became the new front lines.  Throughout that Saturday and Sunday, March 30-31, they stubbornly resisted the German advance.  When the attack eased on Sunday, the few survivors in Rosenberg’s company were ordered to the rear.  In the early morning hours of Monday, April 1, All Fools’ Day, the Company made its way back under cover of darkness.  The men had not gone more than two hundred yards when a runner caught up with them.  The attack had been renewed and every man was needed.  Since they had earned their brief respite from the fighting they were not ordered to return, but asked to volunteer.  No one had to go back.  Among the few who did was Rosenberg. 

“Certainly he knew what the odds were against his surviving that fateful hour.  He did not have to volunteer, but made the decision to go back as in 1915 he had made the decision to enlist.  He returned, and within an hour of reaching the battle area, somewhere close to the French Village of Fampoux, Isaac Rosenberg was killed in close combat.  He was twenty-seven.”

This account parallels the Wikipedia entry for Rosenberg, which states, “Having just finished a night patrol, he was killed on the night of 1 April 1918 with another ten KORL soldiers; there is a dispute as to whether his death occurred at the hands of a sniper or in close combat.  In either case, he died in a town called Fampoux, north-east of Arras.  He was first buried in a mass grave, but in 1926 the unidentified remains of the six KORL soldiers were individually re-interred at Bailleul Road East Cemetery, Plot V, Saint-Laurent-Blangy, Pas de Calais, France.  Rosenberg’s gravestone is marked with his name and the words, “Buried near this spot”, as well as – “Artist and Poet”.”

But, what of March 21, 1918, the opening date of the final German offensive in the west?

When I embarked on researching British Commonwealth Jewish military casualties of the Great War, based on information in The Jewish Chronicle and records accessible via the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, I soon noticed a relatively high number of records for soldiers killed in action on July 1, 1916, the opening of the Somme Offensive, of which I’d previously known only anecdotally.  In the same way, the CWGC database revealed a cluster of records for the fallen on March 21, 1918, of which – prior to that time being focused on the Second World War – I’d previously known, well, also-nothing-at-all.  That date, I soon learned, was the opening day of Operation Michael, which, “…had been costly for the Germans, who had suffered c. 40,000 casualties, slightly more than they inflicted on the BEF,” something paralleling, in terms of overall magnitude (though the specifics were different) the terrible events on the opening day of the Somme Offensive.

And so, akin to the post about the Somme battle, here are presented biographical records and photographs (where available) of Jewish military casualties on this March day, a little over a century and four years ago.

The names of 37 men are listed. 

Of the 37, thirty-three lost their lives in battle, one of whom, Pte. Max Rapaport, born in Rumania, was serving in the South African Infantry.  A 34th (L/Cpl. Moss Emanuel – died possibly? probably? – not in battle, similar to the 35th (Pte. Barnett Schwartz) who served in the Yishuv.  Schwartz seems to have no actual grave, being commemorated at the Jerusalem Memorial. 

Notably, the 36th man was an American: Air Mechanic Samuel Walter Arnheim, serial 152812.  From West End Avenue in New York City, he was a flying instructor in the Royal Flying Corps, and was killed in a aviation accident at the School of Aerial Gunnery at Camp Hicks, in Texas, though the specifics of that incident are unknown.  His death received extensive coverage in the both the general and Jewish press, having been reported on in at least six newspapers.

As for the “37th”, Pte. Samuel Waxman?  Wounded, he survived the day and the war.  A member of the 24th Battalion in the Australian Imperial Forces, he was born in Warsaw, and his Attestation Papers (accessed via the National Archives of Australia) reveal that as a Russian subject (however the word “subject” was then defined!) he was obligated to serve in the AIF, due to his obvious inability to return to Russia and serve in that country’s army.   

It’s notable that the names of nearly half of the 37 – fourteen – never appeared in The Jewish Chronicle, while the names of 12 of those 14 soldiers are likewise absent from the British Jewry Book of Honour.

And, awfully reflective of the awful and overwhelming nature of the Offensive’s opening day, only four of the aforementioned 33 have places of burial. 

But alas, there was more, and is more: The Wikipedia entry for the Offensive alludes to German losses for the opening day exceeding those of the British.  This is sadly reflected in the number of German Jewish soldiers lost in battle this day: 52.  Their names, military units, dates and places of birth and residence, and places of burial (where known) are listed below, though only Leutnant Erich Heilbrunn’s entry includes a photo.

As per the post about the Somme Offensive, to place the events of this day in a clearer context, I’ve included links to a variety of websites, and, some videos.

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“Self Portrait in Steel Helmet”, by Isaac Rosenberg (From Ben Uri Gallery & Museum Collection, at ArtsUK)

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Kaiserschlacht: The German Spring Offensive, at Anglo Historian (March 21, 2018)

______________________________

Thursday, March 21, 1918 – 8 Nisan, 5678

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

Killed in Action or Died of Wounds

Barnett, Samuel, Pvt., 204305
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st Battalion (Attached to 2nd/4th Battalion)
Mr. and Mrs. Elias and Polly Barnett (parents), 240 Mile End Road, London
Also 9 Gordon Road, Stoke Newington, London, N
Born 1898
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panel 85
(CWGC lists mother’s name as Polly; did father remarry?  If not, mother was actually Miriam (Belasco) Barnett.)
British Jewry Book of Honour – 79, 462

____________________

Bensusan, Harry, Rifleman, O/461
Rifle Brigade, 9th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Henry and Adelaide Bensusan (parents), David, Isaac, Joseph, Reuben, Rosetta, Solomon (brothers and sister)
8 Hutchinson Ave., Aldgate
Born Spitalfields, Middlesex, 1899
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 81 to 84
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Bernstein, Jacob, Pvt., 29444
West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own), 10th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Hyman and Leah Bernstein (parents), 53 Roseville Road, Leeds, 8
Born Leeds, 1897
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bay 4
British Jewry Book of Honour – photo section 128 (not listed elsewhere in book)

____________________

Inscription on matzeva: In loving memory of Jack – Mourned by his mother – Brothers and sisters

Cohen, Jacob, Pvt., 262663
Manchester Regiment, 2nd/6th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Wolf and Esther Cohen (parents), Israel, Reuben, Lilly, Minnie, and Victor (brothers and sisters)
31 Exchange St., Cheetham, Manchester
Born Manchester, 1894
Assevillers New British Cemetery, Somme, France – VI,D,10
The Jewish Chronicle 4/26/18 (incorrectly lists serial as 252263)
British Jewry Book of Honour – 84, 364; photo section 238

____________________

Cohen, Oscar, Pvt., G22470
The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 7th Battalion
Mr. Philip Cohen (father), 47 West Green Road, London, N15
Born Whitechapel, London, 7/2/98
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panel 16
The Jewish Chronicle 7/26/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 85, 238; photo section 229

____________________

Fiddler, Michael, Rifleman, S/35069
Rifle Brigade, 16th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Davis and Rachael Fiddler (parents), Benjamin, Blumah, Jacob, Lazarus, Samuel, and Sophy (brothers and sisters)
103 Slater St., Brick Lane, London, E
Born St. Thomas, Bethnal Green, 1899
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 81 to 84
The Jewish Chronicle 3/21/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 88, 383 (incorrectly lists surname as “Fidler”)

____________________

Fraser, Hyman, Sgt., 202360
The King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, 11th Battalion, C Company
Mrs. Minnie (Shock) Fraser (wife), 17 Bannerman St., Edgehill, Liverpool
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 21 to 23
The Jewish Chronicle 5/10/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 89, 288

____________________

Freedman, Mark, Pvt., 203869
Northumberland Fusiliers, 22nd (Tyneside Scottish) Battalion
Mrs. Betty Freedman (wife), 25 Grove St., Commercial Road, London
Mr. and Mrs. Morris and Annie Freedman (parents), 40 Merchant St., London, E
Born 1891
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bays 2-3
The Jewish Chronicle 5/24/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 90, 242 (Lists name as “Freedman, D.M.” (p. 90) and “Freedman, W.” (p. 242)); photo section 225

____________________

Goldberg, Edward (“Eddie”), Pvt., 85316
The King’s (Liverpool Regiment), 1st Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Abraham and Hannah Goldberg (parents), Joseph and Rachel (brother and sister)
185 Brunswick Buildings, Goulston St., Aldgate, London, E
Born Whitechapel, London, 1896
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bay 3
The Jewish Chronicle 5/17/18
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 4/26/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 91, 288

____________________

Goldstone, Leonard, L/Cpl., 44748 (Formerly 3320, London Regiment)
Royal Irish Rifles, 12th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred A. and Millie Goldstone (parents), 130 King St., Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Born Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 74 to 76
British Jewry Book of Honour – 378

____________________

Harris, Henry, Pvt., 18268
Royal Irish Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. John and Sarah Harris (parents), 18 (38?) Wilkes St., Spitalfields, London, E
Born 1889
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 30 and 31
The Jewish Chronicle 3/28/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 95, 305

____________________

Inscription on matzeva: Deeply mourned by brother – Sisters and relatives

Himmelstein, Harry, Pvt., 203842
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd/2nd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Simon and Liba Himmelstein (parents), Fanny, Rosa, and Solomon (sisters and brother)
94 Grove St., Commercial Road, Stepney, London, SE (E1?)
Born Whitechapel, London, 1899 (Or…born in Poland…)
Chauny Communal Cemetery, British Extension, Aisne, France – 3,F,11
The Jewish Chronicle 5/3/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 96, 472, 473

____________________

Jacobson, Samuel, Pvt., 51685
The King’s (Liverpool Regiment), 19th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Isaac and Yetta Jacobson (parents), Bertrice, Harry, Kate, Marks, Milly, Myer, Reuben, and Soloman (sisters and brothers)
39 Great Orford St., Liverpool
Born Liverpool, Lancashire, 1897
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 21 to 23
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Kutchinsky, Alec, Rifleman, R/32227
King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 9th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Michael and Rosie Kutchinsky (parents)
Dawn, Esther, Isaac, Judah, and Rachel (sisters and brothers), 48 Anthony St., London, E
Born St. George in the East, Whitechapel, London, 1894
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 61 to 64
The Jewish Chronicle 3/28/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 101, 360; photo section 132

____________________

Levi, Frederick Joseph, 2nd Lieutenant
Lincolnshire Regiment, 1st Battalion (Attached to 2nd/5th Battalion)
Mr. and Mrs. Mark and Bloom Levi (parents), Ada, Cissie, Lillie, and Manuel (sisters and brother)
116 Pershore Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham
Born Edgbaston, Birmingham, 1895
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bays 3 and 4
The Jewish Chronicle 4/19/18, 1/3/19 (Issue of 4/19/18 lists name as “Levi, F.I.”)
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 12/20/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 72, 293; photo section 45

An image of the matzeva of Frederick Joseph’s father Mark, by FindAGrave Contributor Hockley Lass, is shown below.  Note that their son, who is commemorated at the Arras Memorial, is memorialized by engraved text.    

IN LOVING MEMORY OF
MAURICE ALBERT LEVI,
SON OF
MARK AND BLOOM LEVI,
DIED MARCH 6TH 1919, AGED 26.
ALSO OF THEIR SON
FREDERIC JOSEPH LEVI,
WHO WAS KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE
MARCH 21ST 1918, AGED 23.
MAY THEIR SOULS REST IN PEACE

____________________

Levi, Reuben, Pvt., 40139
Royal Scots Fusiliers, 6th/7th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Marks (6/3/67-8/13) and Leah (Lazarus) (died 10/7/34) Levi (parents), Sarah (“Sadie”) (1900-1973) (sister)
75 Green Road, Leeds
Born Leeds, Yorkshire, 1895
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bay 5
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

Marks Levi’s naturalization form of September 2, 1912, from the Sargent Family Tree (by Jacqueline Sargent), at Ancestry.com, appears below.  Note that Reuben’s name (he was then 17) is recorded on the Certificate of Naturalization to an Alien sheet.

The following three images of Reuben (he’s the center figure in the group picture) are also displayed at the Sargent Family Tree page.  

Also among Sargent Family Tree documents is this Official notification of Reuben’s death, dated January 25, 1919.  Though he has no known grave, the document reveals that his body must have been recovered and identified by the German military.  

____________________

Levy, Henry, Pvt., 31092
York and Lancaster Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. William and Sarah Levy (parents), Florence, Jacob, Joseph, Julius, and Samuel (sister and brothers)
67 Frederick St., South Shields
Born South Shields, Durham, 1889
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bay 8
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Marks, David, Cpl., 41016
Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1st Battalion (Formerly Royal Field Artillery)
Mr. and Mrs. Labovitch (“Jacob”) and Rachel Marks (parents), Fanny, Harris, Israel, and Lazarus (sister and brothers)
9 Herdford Place, Meadwood Road, Leeds
Born Yorkshire, England, 1883
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 79 and 80
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Meltzer, Solomon, Pvt., 64462 (Transferred to Labour Corps, 108th Labour Company; serial changed to 11484)
The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 3rd/5th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. D. and L. Metlzer (parents), 15 Hewitt St., Hightown, Manchester
Born St. Peters, Bradford, West Yorkshire
Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, Pas de Calais, France – VII,B,32
The Jewish Chronicle 4/12/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 108, 442; photo section 58

Solomon’s matzeva appears in this image by FindAGrave Contributor PearLady

____________________

Mosely, Arthur, Pvt., 275217
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 3rd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Simon and Ann Moseley (parents)
Frances, John, Joseph, and Louis (sister and brothers), 68 Lincoln St., E3, Bow, London
Born Mile End, London, 1897
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panel 85
The Jewish Chronicle 3/28/19
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 3/28/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 109, 480, 481 (British Jewry Book of Honour – lists surname as “Moseley”, and “Mosely”, but CWGC lists surname as “Mosely”.  1901 Census lists surname as “Moseley”)

____________________

Nyman, Maurice, Rifleman, R35759
King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 1st Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob and Leah Nyman (parents), Harry, Hyman, Philip, and Sidney (brothers), 3 Cable St., Whitechapel East, London
Born Whitechapel, London, 1898
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bay 7
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Rapaport, Max, Pvt., 13190
South African Infantry, 2nd Regiment
Mr. and Mrs. Sulim and Hinda Rapaport (parents), Str Hagi, Vasluiu, Rumania
Born Rumania, 1889
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 95-98
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Rosenberg, Abraham, Pvt., 34958
Machine Gun Corps, 51st Battalion
Mrs. Dora Rosenberg (mother), 92 Grafton St. / 3 Stamford St., Leeds
Born London
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France
The Jewish Chronicle 5/10/18 (TJC lists name as “Rosenberg, H.”)
British Jewry Book of Honour – 114, 395

____________________

Rosenberg, Lewis, L/Cpl., 233855
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Israel and Edith Rosenberg (parents)
Harry, Hetty, Hyman, Leah, and Sammy (brothers and sisters)
220 St. George’s St., E (or) 21 The Highway, London
Born Wapping, London, 1898
Chauny Communal Cemetery, British Extension, Aisne, France – Sp. Mem. C; 2,F,1
The Jewish Chronicle 5/3/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 114, 483, 484

____________________

Rottstein, Harry, Cpl., 203390
Durham Light Infantry, 2nd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Reuben and Ada Rottstein (parents)
Abraham, Anne, Clara, Isaac, Joseph, Rebecca, and Rose (brothers and sisters)
8 Rich St., Limehouse, St. Georges, North Somerset
Born Mile End, London, 1892
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bay 8
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Rubenstein, Hyman, Pvt., 235283
East Lancashire Regiment, 2nd/4th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Leon and Rose Rubenstein (parents)
Blanche, Fanny, Hyman, Jack, Pearl, Ray, and Sarah (sisters and brothers), 153B Kensington, Liverpool
Born Leeds, Yorkshire, 1898
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panel 42 and 43
The Jewish Chronicle 4/26/18 (Incorrectly lists surname as “Rubinstein”)
British Jewry Book of Honour – 115, 321

____________________

Schratsky, Phillip, Rifleman, R/22366
King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 7th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Jack (John) and Mary (Minnie) Schratsky (parents), Benjamin, Dinah, Freeman, Isaac, Kate, Leah, Sarah, and Solomon (brothers and sisters)
6 Duval St., Spitalfields, London
Born Whitechapel, London, 5/30/94
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 61 to 64
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Segelman, Powell, Cpl., 44518
Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), 16th Battalion
Mrs. Mary Segelman (mother), Annie Cohen, Dora Levinson, Ellis, Hetty Baker, and Max (sisters and brothers)
113 Victor St., Lincolnshire, Grimsby
Born Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, 1892
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 52 to 54
The Jewish Chronicle 5/3/18 (Mentions that he served as “Grimsby”)
British Jewry Book of Honour – 117, 340

____________________

Smullen, Abraham, Pvt., 33847
Manchester Regiment, 16th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis and Ethel Smullen (parents), Hyman, Rachel, and Sarah (brother and sisters), 89 Stock St., Manchester
Born Belfast, Ireland, 1896
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 64 to 67
British Jewry Book of Honour – 119, 368

____________________

Solomons, Frank, L/Cpl., R/23189
King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 9th Battalion
Mr. Simon Solomons (father), 7 Frostie Place (12 Frostie Mansions), Whitechapel, E, London, England
Born Stepney, Middlesex
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 61 to 64
The Jewish Chronicle 5/3/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 119, 362

 

____________________

Williams, Nathan, Pvt., 141430
Machine Gun Corps, 58th Company
Wounded (gassed)
Mr. and Mrs. Louis and Rachel Williams (parents), Annie, Florry, Isaac, Ivy, Jacob, Leah, Morris, and Sarah (sisters and brothers)
172 Green St., Bethnal Green, London, E
Born Bethnal Green, London, 1898
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 90 to 93
The Jewish Chronicle 5/3/18, 3/28/19 (Chronicle lists name as “N.A. Williams”, and serial as 225727)
British Jewry Book of Honour – 123, 396

____________________

Yarmovsky, Jacob, Pvt., 31879
West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own), 1st Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Eli (“Hillel”) (1868-10/2/34) and Sophia (“Zifaie”) (1870-3/8/38) Yarmovsky (parents)
Elizbaeth Julia (“Lizzie”), Jacob Philip, Leah, Louis, Max, and Sarah Rebecca (sisters and brothers)
20 Henbury St., Benson St., Leeds
Born Leeds, Yorkshire, 1897
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bay 4
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Zimmerman, Naheim, Pvt., 267774
Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), 2nd/7th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Morris and Flora Zimmerman (parents), Aaron, Annie, Barnett, Beatrice, Ephraim, Harriet, Israel, Leah, and Leon (brothers and sisters)
184 High St., Shadwell, London, E
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France – Bay 7
The Jewish Chronicle 5/31/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 123, 341

Died Non Battle

Emanuel, Moss, L/Cpl., 41460
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion
Died non-battle
Mrs. Lilly (Weinrabe) Emanuel (wife)
Mr. and Mrs. Emanuel (5/1/54-7/31) and Elizabeth “Lizzie” (Lazarus) (1854-1/21) Emanuel (parents)
48 Brighton Road, Stoke Newington, London
Also 126 Maybury Road, Woking, Surrey
Born Whitechapel, London, 1886
Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France – Panels 38 to 40
The Jewish Chronicle 6/14/18, 9/27/18, 10/4/18
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 9/27/18, 10/4/18, 3/21/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 88, 317
The Sun – 3/26/18

____________________

In Egypt or The Yishuv

Schwartz, Barnett, Pvt., 51283
Imperial Camel Corps
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob and Kate Schwartz (parents), Abraham, Esther, Leah, Nathan, Samuel, and Sarah (brothers and sisters)
289 Oxford St., Stepney, London, E
Born Mile End, London, 1894
Jerusalem Memorial, Jerusalem, Israel – Panel 7
The Jewish Chronicle 3/28/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 117; photo section 26

An American Jew in the Royal Flying Corps

Arnheim, Samuel Walter, Cadet, 152812
Royal Flying Corps
Killed in flying accident at School of Aerial Gunnery, Camp Hicks, Texas, United States
Enlisted in Royal Flying Corps in July of 1917; sent to Texas as flying instructor.
Graduate of Yale University
Mr. and Mrs. Marks and Fannie (Frances?) (Lewald) Arnheim (parents), 246 West End Ave., New York, N.Y., United States
Mrs. Milton F. Untermeyer (sister)
Born New York, N.Y., 4/21/89
Jesherun New Burial Ground (Beth Shalom Fields?), Brooklyn, N.Y. – Plot 670, B; Buried 3/26/18 (Services led by Reverend Dr. Stephen S. Wise)
Occupation: Manufacturer of Clothing, US Army & Navy Officers’ Uniforms
The Jewish Chronicle 6/7/18
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 5/3/18, 3/21/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed
The Daily Standard Union (Brooklyn) – 3/22/18
The Independent Republican – 4/5/18
New York Herald – 3/22/18, 3/26/18
New York Tribune – 7/9/17, 3/26/18

Wounded in Action

Waxman, Samuel, Pvt., 5905
Australian Imperial Forces, 24th Battalion
Mr. Lazar Waxman (father), Warsaw, Poland
Also Rothdown St., Carlton, Victoria, Australia
Born Warsaw, Poland, 1896
Attestation Papers list civilian trade as “Salesman”
British Jewry Book of Honour – 565

This statement of August 7, 1916, by the Consulate of Imperial Russia, in Melbourne, communicates Samuel Waxman’s obligation to serve in the Australian Expeditionary Forces in lieu of his inability to serve in the Russian army.  

________________________________________

________________________________________

Germany

Imperial German Army – Deutsches Heer

German Tactics For 1918 Spring Offensive – THE GREAT WAR Special, at The Great War (March 12, 2018)

Kaiserschlacht – German Spring Offensive 1918 – THE GREAT WAR Week 191, at The Great War (March 22, 2018)

Operation Michael Runs Out Of Breath – THE GREAT WAR Week 193, at The Great War (April 5, 2018)

______________________________

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

Bachrach, Leopold, Soldat / Kanonier
Fussartillerie Bataillon 90, 2nd Kompagnie
Born 11/15/99, in Muhlhausen
Resided in Muhlhausen (Thur.)
Kriegsgräberstätte in St.Quentin (Frankreich), Block 3, Grab 704
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 289

____________________

Bauer, Julius, Leutnant
Infanterie Regiment 185, 1st Battalion, 2nd Kompagnie
Born 1/7/83, in Frankenthal
Resided in Mannheim
Kriegsgräberstätte in Rancourt (Frankreich), Block 3, Grab 697
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 281

____________________

Benger, Samuel, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 184, 2nd Battalion, 7th Kompagnie
Born 1/20/96, in Tworog
Resided in Breslau
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 177

____________________

Berdass, Artur, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 242, 1st Battalion, 2nd Kompagnie
Born 4/23/92, in Trebnitz
Resided in Chemnitz
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 188

____________________

Bernstein, Harry, Vizefeldwebel
Infanterie Regiment 92, 3rd Bataillon, 9th Kompagnie
Born 2/22/96, in Altenburg
Resided in Berlin
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 16, Grab 1264
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 132

____________________

Blumenthal, Walter, Unteroffizier
Fusilier Regiment 39, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Bor 8/8/91, in Hamm
Resided in Hamm
Kriegsgräberstätte in St.Quentin (Frankreich), Block 6, Grab 212
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 236

____________________

Bud, Rudolf, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 77, 1st Battalion, 3rd Kompagnie
Born 3/24/93, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 134

____________________

Cahn, Michael, Soldat / Grenadier
Garde Reserve Regiment 1, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 8/30/87, in Mainz
Resided in Hamburg
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 17, Grab 1110
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 370

____________________

Fabisch, Georg, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 25, 2nd Battalion, 8th Kompagnie
Born 2/11/90, in Tangermunde
Resided in Tangermunde
Kriegsgräberstätte in Maissemy (Frankreich), Block 5, Grab 1656
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 345

____________________

Feibel, Sally, Soldat / Jäger
Reserve Jäger Bataillon 2, 1st Kompagnie
Born 6/20/94, in Gr. Lichtenau
Resided in Danzig
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 8, Grab 481
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 191

____________________

Forsch, Richard, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 60, 2nd Battalion, 5th Kompagnie
Born 11/24/97, in Teschenmoschel
Resided in Teschenmoschel
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 346

____________________

Frankel, Hugo, Soldat
Infanterie Division XXXIV, Sturm Kompagnie
Missing
Born 5/10/95, in Barnsdorf
Resided in Barnsdorf
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 127

____________________

Frankenthal, Sally, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 453, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Born 7/8/91, in Altenlotheim
Resided in Altenlotheim
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 122

____________________

Glaser, Ernst, Soldat / Reservist
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 233, 3rd Battalion, 12th Kompagnie
Born 4/17/90, in Lubzin / Pom.
Resided in Stettin
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 21, Grab 695
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 340

____________________

Guggenheim, Erwin, Vize-Wachtmeister
Feldartillerie Regiment 14, 1st Battalion, 3rd Kompagnie
Born 12/9/94, in Gailingen
Resided in Gailingen
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 221

____________________

Haarburger, Hans, Soldat / Jäger
Jäger Bataillon 9, 4th Kompagnie
Born 9/22/97, in Hamburg
Resided in Hamburg
Kriegsgräberstätte in Viry-Noureuil (Frankreich), Block 5, Grab 135
GVDK says 3/26/18
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 371

____________________

Hammerstein, Wilhelm, Soldat
Fusilier Regiment 73, 3rd Battalion, 10th Kompagnie
Born 3/15/88, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 141

____________________

Heilbrunn, Erich, Leutnant, Eiserne Kreuz 2 Klasse, Entschliessung des Konigs Ludwig von Bayern (Iron Cross 2nd Class, Resolution of King Ludwig of Bavaria)
Bayerisch Infanterie Regiment 10, 2nd Battalion, 8th Kompagnie
Born 7/22/90, in Nordhausen
Resided in Nurnberg
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St. Vaast (Frankreich), Block 11, Grab 707
Freudenthal, p. 83-84
Ingolstädter Gesichter: 750 Jahre Juden in Ingolstadt – 257
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 305

Though the photographer’s full identity is not listed, this image of Leutnant Erich Heilbrunn’s matzeva in Neuville-St. Vaast appears in this image by “Simon“, from “Webmatters – Visiting Battlefields of the First World War”.  

____________________

Itzig, Franz, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 132, 1st Battalion, 3rd Kompagnie
Born 1/2/96, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 144

____________________

Koppel, Franz, Leutnant
Landwehr Infanterie Regiment 150, 3rd Battalion, 10th Kompagnie

Born 6/4/87, in Hamburg
Resided in Hamburg
“Koppel, Franz has not yet been transferred to a military cemetery set up by the Volksbund or could not be recovered as part of our reburial work. According to the information available to us, his grave is currently still in the following location: not recorded”
[Koppel, Franz wurde noch nicht auf einen vom Volksbund errichteten Soldatenfriedhof überführt oder konnte im Rahmen unserer Umbettungsarbeiten nicht geborgen werden.  Nach den uns vorliegenden Informationen befindet sich sein Grab derzeit noch an folgendem Ort: nicht verzeichnet.]

Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 372

____________________

Korbchen, Hans, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 262, , Maschinen-Gewehr Kompagnie 3
Born 4/20/93, in Geldern
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 147

____________________

Lachmann, David, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 232, 2nd Battalion, 8th Kompagnie
Born 2/20/84, in Grabow
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 147

____________________

Laumann, David, Gefreiter
Infanterie Regiment 150, 1st Battalion, 1st Kompagnier
Born 3/1/88, in Dollstaedt
Resided in Pr. Eylau
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 317

____________________

Levy, Joseph Isaac, Sanitats Gefreiter
Fussartillerie Regiment 90, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Born 2/6/98, in Hamburg
Resided in Altona
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 18, Grab 1154
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 123

____________________

Lewin, Michaelis, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 79, 3rd Battalion, 12th Kompagnie
Born 6/25/91, in Posen, Thuringia
Resided in Posen
“No burial report could be found for the dead man in the available documents.  However, since the French graves service carried out reburials from the surrounding places to collective cemeteries in the 1920s, he could have been buried as an “unknown” in the comrade’s grave at the war cemetery in Neuville-St.Vaast (France) prepared by the Volksbund.”
[Für den Toten konnte in den vorliegenden Unterlagen keine Grabmeldung ermittelt werden. Da der französische Gräberdienst jedoch in den 20er Jahren Umbettungen aus den umliegenden Orten jeweils auf Sammelfriedhöfe durchführte, könnte er auf der vom Volksbund hergerichteten Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich) als “Unbekannter” im Kameradengrab bestattet worden sein.]
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen
– 382

____________________

Lewysohn, Jakob Jaques, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 60, 1st Battalion, 2nd Kompagnie
Born 6/30/76, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 150

____________________

Lichtenstein, Leo, Offizier Stellvertreter
Infanterie Regiment 426, 3rd Battalion, 11th Kompagnie
Born 1/17/83, in Danzig
Resided in Berlin
Kriegsgräberstätte in St.Quentin (Frankreich), Block 8, Grab 365
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 151

____________________

Liffmann, Hugo, Unteroffizier
Infanterie Regiment 49, 3rd Bataillon, 9th Kompagnie
Born 2/27/90, in Odenkirchen
Resided in Munchen-Gladbach
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 294

____________________

Lindenheim, Bruno, Unteroffizier
Feldartillerie Regiment 76, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Born 8/22/97, in Mannheim
Resided in Mannheim
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 15, Grab 378
GVDK says 3/22/18
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 282

____________________

Maier, Ernst, Gefreiter
Reserve Fussartillerie Regiment 3, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 10/1/95, in Frankfurt am Main
Resided in Frankfurt am Main
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – Nachtrag (Addendum) 2 – 427

____________________

Michels, Josef Georg, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 230, 3rd Bataillon, 9th Kompagnie
Born 4/3/84, in Korlin
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 154

____________________

Moritz, Edwin, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 459, 2nd Battalion, 8th Kompagnie
Born 11/4/97, in Langenselbold
Resided in Langenselbold
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 270

____________________

Moses, Hugo, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 184, 1st Battalion, 1st Kompagnie
Born 10/2/98, in Gr. Strehlitz
Resided in Munster (Westf.)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 294

____________________

Nassauer, Salli, Soldat
Feldartillerie Regiment 10, 1st Battalion, 3rd Kompagnie
Born 7/31/89, in Wehen
Resided in Hamm.-Munden
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 238

____________________

Nathan, Simon, Soldat / Landsturmmann
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 219, 3rd Battalion, 11th Kompagnie
Born 10/16/77, in Czarnikau
Resided in Castrop
Kriegsgräberstätte in Viry-Noureuil (Frankreich), Block 5, Grab 81
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 188

____________________

Neumann, Max, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 233, , Maschinen-Gewehr Kompagnie 3
Born 11/24/98, in Leipzig-Reudnitz
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 156

____________________

Oppenheimer, Hermann, Soldat
Bayerisch Infanterie Regiment 10, 3rd Battalion, 11th Kompagnie
At St. Leger
Born 7/3/93, in Treuchtlingen
Resided in Treuchtlingen
Kriegsgräberstätte in St.Laurent-Blangy (Frankreich), Kameradengrab
Ingolstädter Gesichter: 750 Jahre Juden in Ingolstadt – 257 (lists date as 8/21/18)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 349

____________________

Ottenheimer, Max, Soldat
Garde Reserve Regiment 1, 3rd Battalion, 10th Kompagnie
Born 4/17/97, in Gemmingen
Resided in Gemmingen
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 224

____________________

Parieser, Hermann, Soldat / Musketier
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 38, 3rd Battalion, 12th Kompagnie
Born 10/4/97, in Russ (Krs. Heydekrug)
Resided in Konigsberg (Pr.)
Kriegsgräberstätte in Billy-Berclau (Frankreich), Block 4, Grab 46
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 264

____________________

Phillippsohn, Oscar, Gefreiter
Infanterie Regiment 162, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 7/31/96, in Hamburg
Resided in Hamburg
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 374

____________________

Reiss, Norbert, Unteroffizier
Bayerisch Infanterie Regiment 24, 1st Battalion, 3rd Kompagnie
Born 1/26/78, in Oberwaldbehrungen
Resided in Neustadt (Saale)
Kriegsgräberstätte in St.Quentin (Frankreich), Kameradengrab
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 299

____________________

Rosenbusch, Berthold, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 453, 2nd Battalion, 7th Kompagnie
Born 5/29/97, in Grunsfeld
Resided in Grunsfeld (i. Baden)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 232

____________________

Rothenberg, Max, Soldat
Fussartillerie Bataillon 158, 2nd Kompagnie
Born 2/19/90, in Schlochau
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 159

____________________

Salinger, Siegfried Fritz, Vizefeldwebel
Lehr Infanterie Regiment, 3rd Battalion, 10th Kompagnie
Born 12/16/94, in Marienburg
Resided in Berlin
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 19, Grab 836
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 160

____________________

Schonfeld, Hans, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 453, 1st Battalion, 1st Kompagnie
Born 11/24/92, in Sangerhausen
Resided in Koblenz
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 259

____________________

Seligmann, Jakob, Soldat, Musketier
Infanterie Regiment 147, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 6/2/98, in Emden
Resided in Emden (Ostfr.)
Kriegsgräberstätte in St.Quentin (Frankreich), Block 13, Grab 149
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 203

____________________

Simon, Siegfried, Soldat, Pionier
Pionier Kompagnie 100
Born 7/5/95, in Hamburg
Resided in Hamburg
Kriegsgräberstätte in St.Quentin (Frankreich), Block 6, Grab 77
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 375

____________________

Sprinz, Otto, Assistant Arzt
Bayerische Ersatz Infanterie Regiment 3, 2 Bataillon, Stab Kompagnie
Born 12/21/91, in Burghaslach
Resided in Wurzburg
Kriegsgräberstätte in Maissemy (Frankreich), Kameradengrab; bei Nauroy
Ingolstädter Gesichter: 750 Jahre Juden in Ingolstadt – 258
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 364

____________________

Weigert, Hans, Soldat, Kanonier
Fussartillerie Bataillon 50, 3rd Kompagnie
Born 5/11/99, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Kriegsgräberstätte in Maissemy (Frankreich), Block 1, Grab 871
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 165

____________________

Wertheim, Eugen, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 117, 2nd Battalion, 7th Kompagnie
Born 5/2/86, in Offenbach
Resided in Offenbach (Main)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 310

____________________

Wittstock, Erich, Gefreiter
Born 2/8/97, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 13, Grab 394
JGD lists rank as “Soldat”; Rank here from Volksbund.de.
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – Anhang (Appendix) – 400

____________________

Wolf, Julius, Gefreiter
Garde Regiment 123, 2nd Battalion, 5th Kompagnie
Born 5/5/82, in Sennfeld
Resided in Heilbronn
Kriegsgräberstätte in Maissemy (Frankreich), Block 1, Grab 2159
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 241

References

Books (…Author Listed…)

Adler, Michael, and Freeman, Max R.G., British Jewry Book of Honour, Caxton Publishing Company, London, England, 1922 (Republished in 2006 by Naval & Military Press, Uckfield, East Sussex)

Cohen, Joseph, Journey to the Trenches – The Life of Isaac Rosenberg, 1890-1918, Basic Books, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1975

A Book (…No Specific Author…) …

Die Jüdischen Gefallenen Des Deutschen Heeres, Deutschen Marine Und Der Deutschen Schutztruppen 1914-1918 – Ein Gedenkbuch, Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten, Forward by Dr. Leo Löwenstein, Berlin, Germany, 1932

Some Websites…

Operation Michael

Operation Michael, at Wikipedia

German Spring Offensive, at Wikipedia

The Importance of the Operational Level: The Ludendorff Offensives of 1918,(Lorris Beverelli), October 28, 2019, at The Strategy Bridge 

Why did the German Spring Offensive of 1918 Fail?, at Daily History

WWI’s Massive German Spring Offensive of 1918 (Mike Phifer), at Warfare History Network

Major John George Brew – 1918: Retreat from St. Quentin, via Web Archive  (http://brew.clients.ch/stquentin.htm)

German Infantry Divisions of the Great War (H.G.W. Davie), July 13, 2018, at HGW Davie

Jäger (Infantry), at Wikipedia

List of German Jäger Battalions before 1918, at Wikipedia

Isaac Rosenberg

…at Wikipedia

…at Poetry Foundation

… at Poets.org

…at Writers Inspire

…at FindAGrave

…at ArtsUK.org (12 Paintings)

…at Representative Poetry OnLine, at University of Toronto, via Internet Archive Wayback Machine (5 Poems)

 

Shabbat Morning on the Somme: July 1, 1916

Does the past want the future back?

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To begin this post, here’s a kind of story:

Some years ago, in very much “another life”, I worked for a firm specializing in the indexing and abstracting of the contents of academic journals.  Time passed.  Then, I received a promotion to a newly created position, where I was tasked with editing a product providing bibliometric information for academic journals in the sciences and humanities.  

I initially (- initially -) assumed that I’d be charged with responsibilities as novel as they were complex, and, be involved with interactions with customers and co-workers that – even if sometimes naturally challenging – would be a source of accomplishment.  Well, that was true, but it turned out to be only partially the case.  “Things” were different – far, far (did I say “far”?!) different – than what I’d assumed prior to accepting the position. 

Suffice to say (but it really doesn’t suffice!) that, consistent with the nature of cubicle land, what I imagined would’ve been a steppingstone to greater levels of accomplishment turned out to be the ironic and complete opposite:  Rather than being plunged into the stereotypical challenge of contending with an overwhelming, near-impossible-to-complete workload, for many months I encountered the complete opposite:  I had very little to do.  Sometimes, I had nothing to do. 

In retrospect, my sojourn in bibliometric-world could’ve (could still?) provided raw material for cartoons in The New Yorker, episodes of The Office, or, the Amazon Prime animated series Laugh Along With Franz!  (As in Kafka.)    

So, I was showered with a myriad of lemons.  (Paraphrasing the overused expression.)

And what do you do when you have little or nothing to do?  I made lemonade.  Allegorical lemonade, that is.  (As goes the overused expression.)

It was starting at roughly the same time – the early 2000s – that historical information in government repositories, heretofore previously accessible only through “on site” visits or direct correspondence with archivists, was becoming freely available in digitized form through the Internet.  

And so, one quiet morning, I discovered the website of the American Battle Monuments Commission.  And so, one sluggish afternoon, I discovered the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).  And so, one empty day, I came upon an idea:  I’d use these and other websites to identify and obtain biographical information and historical records about Jewish servicemen who served in the Second World War, and, access information about other topics, most (but not all) in the realm of military history.  The result years later has been the many posts – more to come! – “here”, at TheyWereSoldiers.

Though at that time I wasn’t focused on Jewish military service in World War One, I thought – in a perfunctory sort of way, simply because the information was “there” and immediately accessible – it’d be worthwhile to obtain records about Jewish soldiers who served in that war, as well.  I had the vague idea that some day, somehow, I’d do something with this information, far beyond simply acquiring it. 

Time passed.  I decided to assemble these records and create a record of Jewish servicemen in the Allied forces in Great War, focusing on men who were casualties (killed, wounded, and missing), prisoners of war, or those who – whether casualties or not – were involved in incidents or actions that could be tied to a specific calendar date, in terms of awards and honors for military service.  Having already done this for French Jewish Soldiers, German Jewish soldiers, and Italian Jewish soldiers, this entailed a focus on Jews in the armed forces of the British Commonwealth and the United States, the subject of blog posts here and here

The primary source of information I used in this research was The Jewish Chronicle, which was accessed as 35mm microfilm (remember microfilm?) at the New York Public Library, where it was reviewed at the Library’s Dorot Jewish Division, and, in the Library’s Milstein Microform Reading Room, using mechanical (remember mechanical?) microfilm viewing machines (remember machines?!), by which I made a myriad of paper (remember paper!?) photocopies of casualty lists, news articles, editorials, letters, and some items completely unrelated to the war.  In this, I reviewed all issues of the Chronicle published from early August, 1914 through mid-1919, by which late date very brief casualty lists … actually, nominal confirmation of soldiers’ killed in action status … on rare occasion appeared in that newspaper. 

As to the total number of research visits I made to the Library for this and other research projects?  I’ve utterly no idea; I never bothered to count.  Well, it was nice walking to the Library along the streets of lower Manhattan, even if that “Manhattan” ceased to exist after 2020, and probably will not return.  

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The Former World: The New York Public Library, 12:30 P.M., Friday, August 26, in the year 2011.

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Then, I correlated the names of soldiers listed as killed or missing, in the casualty lists carried in the Chronicle, to records in the CWGC database.  These names were in turn matched to names in the British Jewry Book of Honour, the Australian Jewry Book of Honour (also accessed at the Dorot Jewish Section – their copy’s holding up pretty well, considering that in 2023 it’s a century years old!), The Sky Their Battlefield, Serving Their Country – Wartime Memories of Scottish Jews, and, other references, the ultimate goal being to tie together this information as much as possible. 

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Here’s the title page of Dorot’s copy of the Australian Jewry Book of Honour.  Fraying around the edges, bull still intact.

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If this resulting assemblage of information can be viewed as comprising as database, then the “primary key” consists of multiple data fields: a serviceman’s surname, his given name, his serial number, and (where relevant) the calendar date on which an incident occurred. 

The result?  Many names; many calendar dates; many serial numbers; numerous military honours; a plethora of bravery; an incalculable degree of sadness and tragedy; a continuous sense of irony.

This process wasn’t straightforward; quite the contrary.  

It’s my understanding that Chronicle’s Casualty Lists, which present an adventure in ambiguity (albeit ambiguity that can be solved with effort) are based on information provided to the newspaper by Reverend Michael Adler, about whom you can read more at the Jewish Museum of London, and (naturally) Wikipedia

Simply put, the content of the Chronicle’s lists is simple:  Whether a soldier was killed, wounded, missing, a POW, or only temporarily missing, they merely comprise a soldier’s surname, the first initial (and only that letter!) of his given name, his rank, and, the name of his Regiment.  Absolutely no other information appears, though commencing with the issue of July 27, 1917, the Chronicle did include a soldier’s serial number.  (Did British officers have serial numbers?  I don’t know.  It doesn’t seem that way.)

The time lag between the appearance of a soldier’s name in the Chronicle, versus the calendar date on which he became actually became casualty, shows enormous variation.  The names of some soldiers appeared in the newspaper as little as two weeks after they became casualties, while for others, months, a year, or more would transpire until the appearance of their names. 

This limited amount of information sometimes made correlating a soldier’s name to CWGC records challenging, obviously a moot point for soldiers who were wounded and survived the war, for whom by definition there are no CWGC records.

In any event, the presentation of names in the Chronicle provides an interesting contrast with casualty information as available in the American news media, an example of which – published in The New York Times on November 18, 1918 – is shown below. 

Note that a soldier’s full name, rank, degree of casualty status, next of kin, and residential address are fully given, or, made nominally available.  However, unlike British Commonwealth soldiers, the serviceman’s serial number and military organization are not listed.  Also, note that the casualty list as published in the Times encompasses the entire United States, probably because of the newspaper’s scope, prominence, and (not just physical) “size”.  Though during the Second World War editors and publishers of newspapers were instructed by the War Department to limit publication of casualty information to include only casualties who resided in the immediate geographic area of a newspaper’s coverage, this seems not to have been so – for the American media – during the Great War. 

(Not that I actively or actually read the Times.  I haven’t done so in years.  I just use it as a source historical information.)

And so, my “list” of WW I Commonwealth Jewish soldiers is largely done.    

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Well.  There are days in the history of men and nations that have particular historical significance, whether in terms of war and conflict, demographic and economic impact, cultural and social impact and legacy, the mood of a nation and people – whether of optimism or pessimism; ultimately, expressing the spirit and mood of an age.  Such a day was the 1st of July in the year 1916, which marked the opening day of the Battle of the Somme (or, the “Somme Offensive”) during which the British Army suffered, “57,470 casualties … including 19,240 killed … the worst in the history of the British Army.”  (From Wikipedia; see sources in list of references.)

As a symbol and example of the military service of British Jewish soldiers in the Great War, and, the significance of the Somme Offensive in general, the names and biographical information for the British Jewish soldiers fallen on July 1, 1916 (forty that I know of) are listed below.  Also shown are scans of photocopies of relevant casualty lists. 

One of the forty men, Rifleman Aubrey Fraser, wounded and captured on the first day of the offensive, died eight days later in the Cologne Military Hospital, Germany.  Another soldier, Sergeant Leonard Nathan, severely wounded and captured, is listed as well.  Born in 1888, he died at the age of 73 in 1961.  He received the Military Medal.   

Of the forty men, six were officers, reflective of the extremely high toll of British officers during the offensive. 

Twenty-one of the forty men have no known graves, and are commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial.    

Three of the forty were wounded prior to the opening day of the Somme Offensive.  They were:

Rifleman Harry Goldstein – Wounded in February, 2015
Private Morris Althansen – Wounded in April, 2015
Corporal Ernest Isaac Ramus – Wounded in December of 1914, and, February of 1915

Five of the forty appear not to have been listed in the British Jewry Book of Honour.  They are:

Rifleman Harry Goldstein (same man as above)
Rifleman Harold W. Marsh
Private Charles Rittenberg
Private David Rosenbloom
Rifleman Moses Schwartzburg

Among the many families that lost multiple sons during the Great War was that of Samuel and Sarah Gerber of Manchester, whose son L/Cpl. Eli Gerber was lost during the first day on the Somme.  Only a little over a month earlier, on May 26 or 27, Eli’s brother “Solomon” (actually, Joe Solomon), serial 3266, a Private in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (1st/8th Battalion, D Company), was killed in action.  He rests at the Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, in Pas de Calais, France.  The Gerbers were survived by seven other children: Ada, Dora, Esther, Hyman, Gertie, Jacob, and Jane.

Where available in the British Jewry Book of Honour, my list is accompanied by photographic portraits of soldiers. 

But, there’s more… 

The list is followed by the names of thirty-two other Jewish soldiers fallen on the same day, two in the French Army – the Armée de Terre – and thirty in the Imperial German Army – the Deutsches Heer.  I have no idea if any of the German soldiers men fell in combat with British forces during the Somme Offensive.  Well, given this number of men, I would suppose some did.

To better describe the historical context of this day, I’ve included links to numerous videos, while my bibliography lists a variety of websites.

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Well, in the lives of nations as much as individual men, irony abounds. 

On a major note, the first day of the Somme Offensive, the first day of July in the year 1916, was the 30th day of the month Sivan in the year 5676.  That day was Saturday. 

That day was Shabbat. 

On a minor note, I commenced work on this post, and several other similarly-themed other posts about Jewish military casualties during the Great War (on the opening day of the German Offensive of March 21, 1918; among soldiers in the United States Army on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918; illustrating photographs of WW I soldiers from the state of Pennsylvania, and more) on the morning of February 24, 2022.  I hope this doesn’t turn out to have been a case of synchronicity

Whether in July of 1914, or the year 2023, knowledge of the future is unavailable to men.  In this, there is ironic comfort.  In this, there will always be the unexpected.  

So, in the spirit of the old proverb (supposedly Turkish in origin, but probably universal in concept), “Measure a thousand times, and cut once.”

Is the past calling the future back?

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From the Routledge Atlas of the First World War, this general diagram of the Somme battlefield shows the successive locations of the German front line from the commencement of the offensive in July, through late November.

This accompanying map from the Routledge Atlas provides an example of the layout and relative location of British and German trenches on the Somme.  Interestingly, the Atlas’ editors have depicted trench systems located in the far northwest corner of the battlefield – which appears in the very upper left-hand corner of the above map – rather than the “center” (as it were) of the battlefield, near Montauban, Maurepas, or Longueval. 

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Videos

What Most People Get Wrong About the Battle of the Somme (Alan Wakefield), at Imperial War Museum (June 23, 2021)

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How Many Died During The First Day Of The Somme?, at Timeline – World history Documentaries (July 10, 2021)

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England

There are many striking photographs of British soldiers during the Battle of the Somme, whether in preparation for the offensive, advancing towards German trenches, or after combat, with the latter category particularly including images that are evocative and haunting.  However, the picture below, taken by Lieutenant Ernest Brooks and entitled “British sentry going up to his post near Beaumont Hamel.  July 1916,” is especially notable – in photographic terms, that is! – in clarity, composition, and contrast.  The picture really shines on levels symbolic and emotional, because of the soldier’s anonymity (his position, posture, and, backlighting by the sun, combine to make him unrecognizable), and, on a visual level at least (certainly other soldiers would have been nearby, but they don’t appear in the image), his solitude. 

Though the photo in its original form is Imperial War Museum Photo Q 729, the colorized version of the image shown here, from WarHistoryOnLine, is by Marina Amaral.

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Casualty List published in The Jewish Chronicle on July 14, 1916

Killed: William Berson (see more below), Jack Cohen, Michael I. Freeman

Missing: Eli Gerber, Joseph Josephs, Wilfrid A. Kohn

News item about Raymond Litten; see more below…

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Casualty List published in The Jewish Chronicle on July 21, 1916

Killed: Michael G. Klean

 Missing: Barnet Griew, Harold W. Marsh, Joseph D. Wiener, Aubrey Fraser (about whom see news item below…)

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Casualty List published in The Jewish Chronicle on July 28, 1916

Killed: Percival (“Percy”) Braham, Abraham Hansell, Harry Zodickson, and Aubrey Fraser (about whom see news item below…)

Missing: Joseph Tobias

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Casuyalty List published in The Jewish Chronicle on August 11, 1916

Killed: John Cohen, Lewis Levy

News item about Leonard Nathan; see more below…

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The Fallen

Saturday, July 1, 1916 – Shabbat, 30 Sivan, 5676

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

Killed in Action or Died of Wounds

Abrahams, Stanley, Rifleman, 2278 (British Jewry Book of Honour lists serial as 2268)
London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), 1st/6th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph and Caroline Abrahams (parents), Donald (brother), 1 Riffel House, Riffel Road, Cricklewood, London, NW
Born Willesden, London, 1889
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 13C
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 7/14/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 77, 461

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Althansen, Morris, Pvt., 3629
King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), 1st Battalion, D Company
(Wounded previously; gassed ~ 4/21/15)
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob and Millie (“Milly”) (Tropp) Althansen (parents), 47 Tower St., Mare St., Hackney, London
Also 28 Darnley Road, Hackney, London, NE
Born St. Georges in the East, Middlesex, London, 1896
Occupation: Laborer
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 5D and 12B
The Jewish Chronicle 5/21/15, 7/28/16, 3/2/17 (TJC 5/21/15 lists name as “Althausen, M.”, and status as wounded (“gas poisoning”), TJC 7/28/16 lists name as “Althusen, M.” and status as wounded, TJC 3/2/17 lists name as “Althusen, M.” and status as missing)
British Jewry Book of Honour – 77, 239; photo section 116, 151

The below correspondence, concerning an inquiry about Pvt. Althansen’s well-being by B.N. Michelson of the United Synagogue, on behalf of the soldier’s mother Millie, was found at Ancestry.com, within “UK, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920”.

United Synagogue
SAILROR’S AND SOLDIER’S DEPENDENTS COMMITTEE
Beth Hamedrash and Jewish Institute

Dear Sir

          Re Pte M. Althansen 3629
                           M.G.S. 1st King’s Own

May I enquire on behalf of Mrs Althansen, 52 Devonshire Rd. whether anything is known of her son above.  She has not heard from some considerable time.

Yours faithfully
B.N. Michelson

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52 Devonshire Rd.
Hackney, N.E.
2/8/16

R.L. 3629

          Sir

The Rev B.N. Michelson kindly wrote for the enquirant as to my son’s state of health on the 27th ult.  You sent A.F.B. 104-85 numbered to above in answer.  I have since received letters which I addressed to my son.  The envelopes of which I am sending you herewith.  I should be glad if you can give me any further information & where I may now address him. 

Yours faithfully,
          Milly Althansen

This portrait of Pvt. Althansen appears in the photographic section of the British Jewry Book of Honour.  Though the image as published in the book is diminutive in size (quite typical of other portraits in the monograph) it’s nonetheless of excellent quality.

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Berson, William, Pvt., 18156
Essex Regiment, 13th Battalion, D Company
Mr. and Mrs. Myer and Rachel Berson (parents), Albert, Annie, Bernard, Eva, Lizzie, and Mathew (brothers and sisters)
77 North Street, Leeds
Born Yorkshire, Leeds, 1885
Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, Pas de Calais, France – II,C,15
The Jewish Chronicle 7/14/16, 7/21/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 80, 337; photo section 308

This image of Pvt. Berson’s matzeva is by FindAGrave contributor M.H. Barksdale.  

On July 21, twenty days after Pvt. Berson’s death, the following tribute and news item about the soldier appeared in The Jewish Chronicle:

With reference to the death of Private A. Berson, who, as reported in our issue of the 14th inst., has been killed in action, Mr. T. Gerald Morton, the manager, at the performance on Friday at the Stratford Empire, read to the audience the following letter, which had been received from the Captain of a Company of the Essex Regiment: –

I should like to stand on the stage of the Stratford Empire and tell the people of it.  Pte. Berson joined up at Stratford as anyone else, just one of the crowd.  In civilian life I believe he was assistant manager at the Empire.  As an infantryman in our ‘D’ Company he was a nuisance; he could not soldier somehow.  He was far too sensible, too much of a gentleman to commit crime, but it was just that ‘something’ which prevented him becoming a smart soldier.  When he was attached to a Trench Mortar Battery we felt somewhat relieved.  He took a fancy to his new work and an interest in it – the change suited him.  The night of our little ‘show’ his Battery Commander called for a volunteer.  Berson was the first, arguing that as his regiment was going over the top he wished to be in it, and thought it only right that he should!  He was ordered to work his gun for a certain time at ‘A,’ then move to position ‘B’.  He did work his gun; he moved – but when they found him it was as a corpse, the gun in his arms, and his body covering it.  His was the last body I visited to identity, and as I looked at his poor dear face and reviewed his association with ‘D’ Company, I thanked God for the example of courage and devotion to duty of the Jew.

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Braham, Percival (“Percy”), Pvt., 21941
The King’s (Liverpool Regiment), 20th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Sampson (1868-6/17/37) and Annie / Hannah (Neiman) (1868-4/5/20) Braham (parents)
Ida, May, and Sydney (1905-3/58) (sisters and brother)
31 Madeline St., Liverpool, England
Born Toxteth Park, Lancashire, 10/98
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 1D, 8B, and 8C
The Jewish Chronicle 7/28/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 82, 286

Private Braham’s mother Annie’s matzeva, as seen in this Ancestry.com image from David Wilson, includes a tribute to her son, who – like so many men killed in this battle; so very many men killed during the Great War – has no grave.

Also In Affectionate Remembrance
OF HER SON PERCY,
WHO WAS KILLED IN ACTION 1ST JULY 1916
AGED 17 YEARS.

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Cohen, Benjamin, Pvt., 26196
Manchester Regiment, 21st Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Reuben and Yetta Cohen (parents), Bella, Jacob, and Miriam (sisters and brother)
146 Broughton St., Cheetham, Manchester
Born Manchester, Lancashire, 1898
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 13A and 14C
British Jewry Book of Honour – 83, 364

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Cohen, Jack, Pvt., 17176
The King’s (Liverpool Regiment), 18th Battalion, D Company
Mr. Simon Cohen (father), 109 Paddington, Liverpool
Born Middlesex, London, 1894
Danzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France – VIII,U,7
The Jewish Chronicle 7/14/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Memorial notices) 9/1/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 84, 287

The image of Pvt. Cohen’s tombstone is by FindAGrave contributor Richard Andrew Roberts.

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Cohen, John, Rifleman, 5467
Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion
Mrs. Annie Cohen (mother)
Isaac, Rebecca, Reuben, and Solomon (brothers and sister), 86 Boundary St., Shoreditch, NE, London
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 16B and 16C
The Jewish Chronicle 8/11/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 84,382

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Davis, Harry, Company Sergeant Major, 4827
East Yorkshire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Mrs. Kate Davis (wife) (died 5/6/08), Lilian Madeline Davis (daughter) (born 7/20/07)
Esther Elizabeth Benjamin (guardian), 6 St. Gabriel’s Place, Cricklewood, London
Mr. and Mrs. Charles and Kate Davis (parents), S.M. Benjamin and Lillie Davis (sisters), 12 Soho St., Soho Square, London, NW
Also 6 St. Gabriel Road, London, NW
Born 1877
Gordon Dump Cemetery, Ovillers-la-Boisselle, Somme, France – X,B,5
The Jewish Chronicle 8/25/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 8/11/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 83, 302

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Inscription on matzeva: Far from home he is laid to rest – What God ordains is for the best

Freeman, Michael Isaac, Pvt., 15579
Highland Light Infantry, 17th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Simon (1847-1907) and Rhoda Yetta (Summ) (1854-1937) Freeman (parents)
Alexander, Eli (Ellis), Harry, Joseph, and Louis C. (brothers)
51 (or # 7 ?) Avoca St., Belfast, Ireland
Born Latvia, 1881
Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France – II,B,7
The Jewish Chronicle 7/14/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 6/27/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 90, 375; photo section 164

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Gerber, Eli, L/Cpl., 18620
Lancashire Fusiliers, 19th Battalion, D Company
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel (1861-1919) and Sarah (3/16/68-1/43) Gerber (parents)
Pvt. Joe Solomon Gerber (brother), Ada, Dora, Esther, Hyman, Gertie, Jacob, and Jane Gerber (sisters and brothers)
16 Whitfield St., Cheetham, Manchester
Born Prestwich, 4/91
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 3C and 3D
The Jewish Chronicle 7/14/16, 2/15/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 91, 308; photo section 244

FindAGrave contributor Bob the Greenacre Cat took this photo of the matzeva of Samuel Gerber, L/Cpl. Gerber’s father.  The English-language text engraved on the lower part of the matzeva appears below the photo…

In Loving Memory of
SAMUEL GERBER
WHO DIED NOV 16TH 1919
AGED 60 YEARS
DEEPLY MOURNED BY HIS SORROWING
WIFE & CHILDREN
ALSO L CPL ELI GERBER
KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE JULY 1ST 1916
AGED 25 YEARS
ALSO PTE SOLOMON GERBER
DIED OF WOUNDS IN FRANCE MAY 26TH 1916
AGED 24 YEARS

A member of D Company, 1st/18th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Pvt. Joe Solomon Gerber (3266), born in 1894, is buried at the Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France (I,C,39).  His name appeared in a casualty list published in The Jewish Chronicle on June 23, 1916, and can be found on pages 91 and 379 of the British Jewry Book of Honour.  Though his father’s matzeva lists his date of death as May 26, 1916, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists the date as May 27.  

As can be seen above, Samuel died just over one year after the war’s end.

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Gilbert, Sidney, L/Cpl., 4421
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion
Mrs. Annie Gilbert (mother), Pvt. Louis Gilbert (serial 3596) (brother), 7 High St., Stepney, E, London / 46 Crispin St., Spitalfields, London
Also 21 Hawking St., London, E
Gommecourt British Cemetery No. 2, Hebuterne, Pas de Calais, France – III,G,3
The Jewish Chronicle 8/4/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 91, 469; photo section 262

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Goldstein, Harry, Pvt., 5107
Rifle Brigade, 2nd Battalion
(Wounded in Action previously; approximately 2/19/15)
Mr. and Mrs. John B. and Helen Poke (uncle and aunt)
Born Spitalfields, Middlesex
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 16B and 16C
The Jewish Chronicle 3/19/15
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

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Gordon, Myer, Rifleman, 301364 (serial also 2520)
London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 1st/5th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Lazarus and Judith Gordon (parents), 16 Marine Ave., Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex
Albert, Cecil, Francis, Minnie, and Moss (brothers and sisters), 186 Dalston Lane, London, NE
Born Shoreditch, London, 1897
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 9D
The Jewish Chronicle 2/22/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 93, 469

Myer Gordon’s name appears in “UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870-1916” at Ancestry.com, where (at the age of four months, on June 22, 1898), it was recorded by his father, Abraham Lazarus, along with the names of his brothers Albert and Moses (“Moss”?), and sister Minnie (“Minna”).  

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Griew, Barnet, Rifleman, 300863 (serial also listed as #1398)
London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 1st/5th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Solomon and Rebecca Griew (parents) (surname was originally “Grenvitsky” or “Grewvitsky”)
Alice, David, Fanny, Harry, Joseph, and Maurice (sisters and brothers)
171 Amherst Road, London, N
Born St. John at Hackney, London, 1897
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 9D
The Jewish Chronicle 7/21/16, 2/22/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 94, 469

An excellent portrait of Rifleman Griew, by FindAGrave Contributor Nancy Wright.

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Hansell, Abraham, Pvt., 9444
Manchester Regiment, 17th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Mark (1864-6/29) and Paulina (born 1866) Hansell (parents)
Esther and Joseph (sister and brother), Fanny, Jacob, and Rachel (half-sisters and half-brother)
27 Brunswick St., Cheetham, Manchester
Born Manchester, Lancashire, 1895
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 13A and 14C
The Jewish Chronicle 7/28/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 94,365

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Hart, Cecil Lyon, Captain
Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), 3rd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Moss Alexander and Marguerite Hart (parents), Reni Victoria and Netta Adelaide Hart (sisters)
12 Alexandra Mansions, London, NW
Born Kimberly, South Africa, 1889
Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Colincamp, Somme, France – I,H,10
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 7/7/16, 7/5/18, 7/4/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 71, 176; photo section 362

Like the above portrait of Pvt. Althansen, this image of Capt. Hart is also from the British Jewry Book of Honour

This image of Capt. Hart’s matzeva, which also appears in the British Jewry Book of Honour (albeit there of lesser photographic quality than “this” web image) is from Capt. Hart’s biographical profile at British Jews in the First World War.  

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Hart, Samuel, Rifleman, 300116 (serial previously #9521)
London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 1st/5th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Emanuel and Matilda Hart (parents), Elizabeth Marion, Joseph, Myer, and Rebecca (sisters and brothers)
19 Anson Road, Cricklewood, London, NW2
Born Hackney, London, 1895
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 9D
British Jewry Book of Honour – 95, 471; photo section 293

Also in the British Jewry Book of Honour is this portrait of Rifleman Hart.

 

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Isaacs, Alexander, Pvt., 5835
London Regiment (London Scottish), 1st/14th Battalion
Mr. Lewis Isaacs (father), 34 Tottenham Court, London, W
Born London
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 9C and 13C
The Jewish Chronicle 2/22/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 94, 473

____________________

Josephs, Joseph (Avraham Yosef ben David), 2nd Lieutenant
London Regiment (The Rangers), 1st/12th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. David and Sabina Josephs (parents), 206 Willesden Lane, NW, London
Address also 72 Highbury New Park, London, N
Born 1897
Gommecourt British Cemetery No. 2, Hebuterne, Pas de Calais, France – I,C,4
The Jewish Chronicle 7/14/16, 6/29/17
British Jewry Book of Honour – 72, 459

Lt. Josephs’ portrait at FindAGrave, uploaded by Contributor Nancy Wright, is Imperial War Museum photo IWM HU 116509…  

While at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Lt. Josephs’ name appears as entry 44, with the notation, “For particulars of layout inscription etcetera see schedule PC.”…

…and at the bottom of the form appear the instructions:

NOTE TO CONTRACTOR: – An inscription in Hebrew characters is to be engraved on this Stone (No. 54.) execution of this Stone should therefore not be proceeded with until an Inspector of the Commission visits your works when he will provide you with the necessary Layout and Inscription and the manner in which the Inscription is to be set out.

Moving over a century forward, two images of Lt. Josephs’ matzeva, taken by his great niece Lola Fraser, appear at British Jews in the First World War.  Notice the phrase, “BELIEVED TO BE” engraved at the top of the stone.     

This first image is an overall view of the stone… 

…while a close-up of the above-mentioned Hebrew inscription appears below. 

The first line is Josephs’ Hebrew name, Avraham Yosef ben David, while the lower line is ה’ נתן וה’ לקח, יהי שם ה’ מבורך, the English-language translation being, “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord”, taken from Job 1:21, another translation being, “The Lord gave and the Lord took; may the name of the Lord be blessed.”  (Special thanks to Ari Dale for the translation! – Thanks, Ari!)  

Though tombstones provided by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission conform to strict requirements of size, design, composition and color, and, the amount (total number of characters) of text engraved on the stone, it is notable that the CWGC does provide allowance for textual characters other than English, an example paralleling that of Lt. Josephs’ being the matzeva of WW II Canadian Sergeant Samuel Moses Hurwitz.  

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Inscription on matzeva: In loving memory – Of our dear Michael

Klean, Michael Graham, 2nd Lieutenant
Northumberland Fusiliers, 16th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Simeon and Lenora (“Leonora”?) Klean (parents), 26 Hatton Garden, London, EC
Elsie and Bluebell (sisters), 8 Golder’s Green Crescent, Golder’s Green, London, NW
Born Middlesex, London, 1878
Lonsdale Cemetery, Authuile, Somme, France – IV,T,1
The Jewish Chronicle 7/21/16, 7/28/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 7/21/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 72, 241; photo section 42

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Kohn, Wilfrid Arthur, 2nd Lieutenant
East Lancashire Regiment, 11th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur and Rose C. Kohn (parents), Madelene D. Cohn (sister), 79 Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, London, SW
Born Kensington, London, 1892
Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps, Somme, France – I,D,13
The Jewish Chronicle 7/14/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 72, 320

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Lapinski, Albert, Pvt., 16400 (served as “Lappin”)
Royal Fusiliers, 20th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. David (1863-5/22/33) and Rebecca (Grossmith) (1866-4/16) Lapinski (parents)
18 Osbaldeston Road, Stoke Newington / 44 Colvestone Crescent, Dalston, London, NE
Esther, Jacob, Leah, and Pearl (sisters and brother)
Born Middlesex, London, 1897
Danzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France – VIII,T,1 (Crucifix on matzeva)
The Jewish Chronicle 8/4/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 8/11/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 101, 237; photo section 122

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Lazarus, Raphael (Ralph), Pvt., 5851
Lincolnshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Mrs. Maggie May (Clifford) “Margaret” Lazarus (wife) (9/87-1947), Miriam and Mildred “Millie” Marie (daughters)
Mr. and Mrs. Lasser (1944-11/27/12) and Rose (Trauslitier) (1859-10/18/32) Lazarus (parents), Hannah, Harry, Joseph, Joshua, Moses, and Rebecca (sisters and brothers)
Born Whitechapel, Middlesex, 3/83
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 1C
British Jewry Book of Honour – 293 (Not specifically listed in British Jewry Book of Honour – Roll of Honour)

____________________

Levy, Harold, L/Cpl., 12086
Devonshire Regiment, 9th Battalion
Mrs. Elsie Levy (mother), 1 Gwy Cliffe Cottages, Oakleigh Road, Whetstone, London
Born London
Devonshire Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France – B,1
The Jewish Chronicle 11/17/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 104, 294; photo section 270

L/Cpl. Levy is buried immediately alongside six comrades, as seen in the below FindAGrave image by chris(tine) eaton.  Of this group of seven soldiers, six – all killed during the first day of the Somme Offensive – are from the Devonshire Regiment.  

Wright, D., Serjeant, 20496 (November 10, 1916) “B” Battery, 92nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
Brown, Harry, Pvt., 3/7239, 9th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
Down, John Thomas, Pvt., 20876, 9th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
Gough, W.H., Pvt., 10501, 8th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
Harwood, A.E.J., Pvt., 12185, 9th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
Dunn, W.J., Pvt., 16497, 8th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

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Inscription on matzeva: Nobly he answered – His duty’s call

Levy, Lewis, Pvt., 18418
Hampshire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Mrs. Sarah (Springer) Levy (wife), Henry and Evie (children), 104 Eric St., Mile End Road, London
Mr. and Mrs. Henry (11/28/44-11/5/21) and Mary Ann Eva / Eve (Griffin) (1850-3/11) Levy (parents)
Rebecca (sister), 132 Bridge St., Bow, London, E3
Born Bethnal Green, London, 1892
Bertrancourt Military Cemetery, Somme, France – Plot I, Row G, Grave 13
The Jewish Chronicle 8/11/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 7/14/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 104, 329

Akin to other soldiers listed in this post, Pvt. Levy has no grave.  His name and memory are commemorated on the matzeva of his father Henry, as seen in this Ancestry.com photo at the “Marquis French Family Tree”, by RCTreeby

Also LEWIS,
DEARLY BELOVED SON OF
HENRY AND THE LATE EVE LEVY,
WHO WAS KILLED IN THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
1ST JULY 1916
AGED 23.
שָׁלוֹם
____________________

Inscription on matzeva: All you had hoped for – All you had you gave – To save mankind

Litten, Raymond, Captain
Royal Berkshire Regiment, 6th Battalion, B Company
“He was killed in action … at the head of his Company (‘B’) within the first hour, in the first wave of the attack.”
Mr. and Mrs. Tobias Raphael and Frances Litten (parents), Adelaide D., Edith Miranda, Hilda, Maude, and Violet (sisters)

21 Pembridge Villas, Notting Hill, London, W
Born Kensington, London, 8/83
Carnoy Military Cemetery, Somme, France – Q,19
The Jewish Chronicle (biography) 7/14/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 7/7/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 73, 343

From FindAGrave:

He was Killed In Action on the 1st.July 1916, (First Day of The Battle of The Somme) Aged 32, at the head of his Company (‘B’) within the first hour, in the first wave of the attack.  Seven brother officers of the 6th.Btn. died this day with six buried in a row together in Carnoy cemetery, the seventh is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing.

From The Jewish Chronicle:

Capt. Raymond Litten, of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, who was killed in action on July 1st, was the only son of the late Mr. Tobias Raphael Litten and of Mrs. Litten, of 21, Pembridge Villas.  Capt. Litten was born in August, 1883, and was educated at the City of London School.  He joined the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps on August 3rd, 1914, and received his commission six weeks later.  He went in the front in July, 1915, and was enrolled a Freeman of the City of London on December 15th last.  He was a member of the Stock Exchange.  A photograph of Capt. Litten is printed in the current issue of the Jewish World.  

Lt. that of like Josephs’, Captai Litten’s portrait at FindAGrave, uploaded by Contributor laurinlaurinespie, is an Imperial War Museum photo, in this case IWM HU 124199

…while this portrait of Capt. Litten is c/o FindAGrave Contributor Jofen

And so, here is an image of his matzeva, by FindAGrave Contributor Jofen

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Marcus, Dudley Harold, Rifleman, 470364 (British Jewry Book of Honour lists serial as 2216)
London Regiment (The Rangers), 12th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Julius (4/2/44-6/30/13) and Ida Selma (Koppel) (3/3/53-8/14/03) Marcus (parents)
Emily Walter, Evelyn J., Gladys F., and Rudolph B. Marcus (sisters and brother)
76 Melrose Ave., Cricklewood, London, NW
Born Hampstead, London, 4/95
Gommecourt British Cemetery No. 2, Hebuterne, Pas de Calais, France – I,A,21
The Jewish Chronicle 5/11/17
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 5/18/17
British Jewry Book of Honour – 107, 480

____________________

Marsh, Harold William, Rifleman, 30162
London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 1st/5th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Elijah (12/2/73-11/8/51) and Emily Harriett (Cusack) (born 4/9/73) Marsh (parents), Bertram G. and Thomas L. Marsh (brothers)
6 Woodland Road, Loughton, Essex
Born Dalston, London, 1898
Thiepval Memorial, France – Pier and Face 9D
The Jewish Chronicle 7/21/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 3/28/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed (Baptised 9/25/98 at Dalston, St. Mark, England)
The Jewish Chronicle lists name as “Marsh, H.W.”, and serial as 2505, while CWGC lists secondary serial as 3505

____________________

Polakoff, Jacob, Rifleman, S/15089
Rifle Brigade, 2nd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Morris and Leah Polakoff (parents), Esther, Gershon, Herman, Marks, and Samuel (sister and brothers)
41 Osbaldeston Road, Stoke Newington, London, N
Born 1894
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 16B and 16C
The Jewish Chronicle 10/19/17
British Jewry Book of Honour – 112, 361; photo section 63

The following documents, at from “UK, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920” at Ancestry.com, pertain to his mother’s inquiry about the disposition of her son’s possessions (a silver cigarette case, a pipe with gold rim, a tobacco pouch, an illuminated wrist-watch, and a bone knife), which I would think were gifts from his family.  No information would ever be forthcoming about these items, but then again, perhaps no information could ever be forthcoming, for his body was never identified.  

The following articles were with Rfn. J. Polakoff when he was killed, but have not yet been received: –

Silver cigarette case.
Briar pipe with gold rim.
Tobacco pouch.
Illuminated wrist-watch,
And bone knife.

Yours Truly
L Polakoff

Replied no further effects
4-12-17

__________

J. Polakoff
S/15089 Rfn.
2nd Batt R B

1 pipe
1 5 photo’s
1 regulation Ca[p?]

____________________

Ramus, Ernest Isaac, Cpl., 1599
London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles), 1st/9th Battalion
(Seriously wounded previously; approximately 12/29/14)
(Wounded previously; approximately 2/19/15)
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Alfred (12/27/58-3/47) and Esther (Bloomfield) (3/62-6/36) Ramus (parents)
Arthur N., Elizabeth Leah, Norman J., Sidney A., and Stanley L. Ramus (brothers and sister)
23 Park Drive, Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Born Hendon, Middlesex, 7/91
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 9C
The Jewish Chronicle 3/19/15, 7/21/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 7/28/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 113, 484

____________________

Rittenberg, Charles, Pvt., 5791
Machine Gun Corps, 107th Company
Mrs. Edith (Connor) Rittenberg (wife), Charles Jr. (son; born 1909)
19 Guthrie St., Upper Baker St., Liverpool
Jacob and Harriet Rittenberg (parents), Clara and Leah (sisters)
Born West Derby, Liverpool, Lancashire, 1886
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 5C and 12C
British Jewry Book of Honour – (Married 7/4/09 at Church of Saint Philip)

____________________

Rosenberg, Harry, Pvt., 10640
Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), 2nd Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Barnett Louis and Jane Ross (parents), 18 Preston St., Roundhay Road, Leeds
Also 13 Lovell Road, Leeds
Born Yorkshire, 1897
Thiepval Memorial, France – Pier and Face 6A and 6B
The Jewish Chronicle 6/8/17
British Jewry Book of Honour – 114, 325
Served as “Ross, Harry”.  Listed in British Jewry Book of Honour – and The Jewish Chronicle as “Ross, H.”

____________________

Rosenbloom, David, Pvt., 19263
Welch Regiment, 9th Battalion
Mrs. Leah (Rosenbloom) Goldenberg (mother), 7 St. Jame’s Churchyard, Bristol
Born 1895
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 7A and 10A
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

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Inscription on matzeva: Sadly missed – By his dear mother – Brother, sisters – And all relatives

Rosenthal, Maurice, Pvt., 27547
Lancashire Fusiliers, 15th Battalion, C Company
Mr. and Mrs. Simon (1857-1899 or 1901) and Betsy (born 1860) Rosenthal (parents), Jacob, Jane, Kate, Mathilda, Sarah, and Yetta (brother and sisters)
41 Exchange St., Manchester
Born Manchester, Lancashire, 1889
Connaught Cemetery, Thiepval, Somme, France – II,G,9
The Jewish Chronicle 1/12/17
British Jewry Book of Honour – 115, 309

FindAGrave Contributor “geoffrey gillon” took this photo of Pvt. Rosenthal’s matzeva.

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Schwartzburg, Moses, Rifleman, 471204
London Regiment (The Rangers), 1st/12th Battalion
Mrs. Louisa (Holliday) Schwartzburg (wife; married 7/26/14), Maurice Leon (son) (born 1/14/15)
57 Rawstone St., St. John’s, Clerkenwell EC, London
Mrs. Charlotte Schwartzburg (mother), Joseph (brother)
Born Clerkenwell, London, 1890
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 9C
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

____________________

Telfer, Henry Adam, Lieutenant
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 9th Battalion (attached to 64th Trench Mortar Battery)
Mr. and Mrs. William Telfer and Catherine (“Florrie”) Leviansky (parents), 90 & 91 Queen St., London
Lt. Claude William Telfer (brother), 16 Belsize Park, London, NW25
Born 1893
Gordon Dump Cemetery, Ovillers-la-Boisselle, Somme, France – II,N,9
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 7/14/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 75, 346; photo section 44

____________________

Inscription on matzeva: The Lord gave the Lord hath taken – Blessed be – The name of the Lord

Tobias, Joseph, Rifleman, B/397
Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion
Father Isaac; Mr. and Mrs. Morris and Rebecca Cohen (step-parents), Benjamin (step-brother), Hyman (brother)
6 Elsie House, Philip St. (Backchurch Lane East), Commercial Road, London, E
Born Liverpool, Lancashire, 1896
Redan Ridge Cemetery No. 1, Beaumont-Hamel, Somme, France – A,18
The Jewish Chronicle 7/28/16, 2/15/18
British Jewry Book of Honour – 121, 387; photo section 164

____________________

Weiner, Joseph Davis, Rifleman, 301649 (or 2538)
London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 1st/5th Battalion
Mr. and Mrs. Davis (1865-6/27) and Jane (1867-6/28) Weiner (parents)
Abraham, Barbara, Bertha, Sybil / Sarah (brother and sisters)
25 Spital Square, London, E
Born London, 1899
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France – Pier and Face 9D
The Jewish Chronicle 7/21/16, 2/28/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 123, 489

____________________

Zodickson, Harry, Pvt., 11057
The King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, 18th Battalion
11 Southampton St., Firtzroy Square, London, W
Mrs. Hyman Zodickson (father), Abram, Charles, Louis, Max, Moses, Myer, Sammy, and Sarah (brothers and sisters)
Born Russia, 1896
Danzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France – IV,S,8
The Jewish Chronicle 7/28/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – 124, 291

Prisoner of War: Died of Wounds

Fraser, Aubrey, Rifleman, 2818
London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 5th Battalion
Prisoner of War; Died of wounds 7/9/16 at Cologne Military Hospital, Germany
Mr. and Mrs. Israel (9/26/69-12/26/41) and Fanny (Featherman) (6/14/71-1/19/46) Fraser (parents)
1-4 Argyll Place, Regent St., London, W1
Beatrice, Edna, Joseph, and Joshua (sisters and brothers)
96 Maide Vale, London, W
Born Manchester, Lancashire, 1898
Deutz Jewish Cemetery, Cologne, Germany – Grave 1660
The Jewish Chronicle 7/21/16, 7/28/16
The Jewish Chronicle (Obituary section) 7/28/16, 7/4/19
British Jewry Book of Honour – 89, 468

The following news item, about Pvt. Fraser’s death in Germany as a wounded prisoner of war, appeared in The Jewish Chronicle on July 28, 1916.  Though I cannot cite specifics (as I type this blog post!), I believe that the Chronicle, at least in the early part of the Great War, did on occasion publish transcripts of communications from Jewish religious leaders in Germany, and, brief articles touching upon Jewish life in that country.  

THE LATE RIFLEMAN AUBREY FRASER
TOUCHING LETTER FROM A GERMAN RABBINER.

Rifleman Aubrey Fraser (the second son of Mr. I. Fraser, member of the Board of Management of the St. John’s Wood Synagogue, and Mrs. Fraser) who was reported wounded and missing in our last issue died from the effects of his wounds on July 9th.

Mr. Fraser has received the following letter, in German, from Rabbi Dr. Ludwig Rosenthal, of Cologne.

Dear Sir, – It is my sad duty to inform you that your son Aubrey, of the London Rifle Brigade, who was brought here severely wounded and taken to the hospital succumbed to his wounds on the 9th July.  I was with him at the time of his death, 2 a.m., and the last conscious words of your dying son were of his father and mother.  A religious service was held in the hospital, after which he was interned in the Jewish cemetery.  Full military honours were accorded him.  May God comfort you and endow you with strength to submit to the words recited by me at the burial: “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Prisoner of War: Severely Wounded; Survived

Information about Commonwealth and French Jewish prisoners of war of the First World War in German captivity (not Jewish POWs from the Central Powers in Allied captivity!) is scanty, but does exist.  One such soldier was Sergeant Leonard Nathan, who was awarded the Military Medal, probably and specifically for his actions during the Somme Battle.  Very badly wounded, missing, and later determined to have been captured, Sgt. Nathan survived, to return to his family.  

Nathan, Leonard, Sgt., 390263, Military Medal
Queen Victoria’s Rifles
Prisoner of War
Seriously wounded in action: “Gunshot wound face, cranium, ear, blind eye”. 
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick (4/29/58-9/33) and Sarah (Jacobs) Nathan (born 1964 (parents), 73 Fountain Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham

Reuben and Violet (brother and sister); Sergeant Major M. Nathan (uncle)
Born Warwickshire, Birmingham, 9/20/88; Died March, 1961, Warwickshire, Birmingham
The Jewish Chronicle 8/11/16
British Jewry Book of Honour – Not Listed

Though Sgt. Nathan’s name didn’t appear in any casualty list published in the Chronicle, that newspaper did publish this news item on August 11, 1916:

“Mr. and Mrs. F. Nathan, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, have just heard from their son, Sergt. Leonard Nathan, Q.V.R.s.  He has been missing since July 1st.  He was badly wounded and a prisoner of war in a German Hospital, where he is being well treated and doing well.  Sergt. Nathan has received a note from the Divisional General complimenting him in his work with his machine gun team and informing him that he was awarded the Military Medal for his distinguished conduct.  He went out with the attackers into the German lines and fought his gun until it was put out of action when he found a Lewis gun and worked that for three quarters of an hour until he was wounded and captured.  We are indebted to Sergt.-Major M. Nathan, the boy’s uncle, for the interesting information.”

The following Fold3.com documents, in Sgt. Nathan’s Pension Ledger, attest to the grievous nature of his wounds.  His injuries comprised a gunshot wound to the face, cranium, and ear, and blindness in one eye.  On December 7, 1922, at the age of 34, he was categorized as being 70% disabled, and awarded 24 1/3 (weekly?) for the rest of his life, commencing retroactive to January 29, 1919.   

While the Great War ended for Sgt. Nathan on July 1, 1916, his own war never really ended.   

____________________

From the British Jewry Book of Honour (page 116 in the Photographs Section, to be specific!), this image is entitled “On active Service: Rev. Michael Adler, S.C.F., and group, Rouen, May 19, 1915”.  Particularly relevant for this post is the fact that the image includes two soldiers mentioned above.

In the back row, Sergeant Leonard Nathan, MM, is fourth from left.

In the middle row, Pvt. Morris Althausen is eighth from left.

The men’s names are listed below the photo.

Back Row

Schweitzer, S., Driver, Army Service Corps
Levy, L., Pvt., Manchester Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Spero, J., Pvt., Army Service Corps
Nathan, L., Sgt., Military Medal, Queen Victoria’s Rifles
Hepstone, J., Pvt. – Killed in Action (Actually, Pvt. Julius Epstein, 11508, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, 1st Battalion (Gassed ~ 4/21/15; died of effects of gas 6/7/15, Commemorated at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium – Panel 12 (The Jewish Chronicle 5/21/15, 5/28/15, 6/25/15))
Abrahams, J., Pvt., Indian Veterinary Corps
Goldman, A., Pvt., West Riding Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Cohen, D., Rifleman, London Regiment, 12th Battalion
Carlish, A., Pvt., Army Service Corps

Middle Row

Hershman, J., Driver, Army Service Corps
Lessman, S., Pvt., London Regiment, 3rd Battalion
Spicker, F., Pvt., Army Service Corps
Friedlander, R., Pvt., London Regiment, 7th Battalion
Needle, M., Pvt., Army Service Corps
Goodman, R., Pvt., Royal Army Medical Corps
Gavson, M., Pvt., Army Service Corps
Althausen (incorrectly listed as “Althusen”), M., King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, 1st Battalion, KIA
Levy, M., Pvt., Army Service Corps
Lyons, B., L/Cpl., West Yorks Regiment, 1st Battalion

Front Row

Blush, L., Pvt., Army Service Corps
Bernstock, J.H., Pvt., London Regiment, 4th Battalion
Harris, J., Sgt., Cyclist Corps
Polack, M.M., Sgt., Army Service Corps
Adler, Michael, Reverend, Senior Chaplain to the Forces
Joseph, M., Capt., Indian Pay Corps
Salmon, B., Pvt., Army Service Corps
Simmons, R., Pvt., Royal Army Medical Corps
Goldstuck, N., Pvt., Royal Army Medical Corps
Constad, H., Pvt., Army Service Corps

________________________________________

________________________________________

France

French Army – Armée de Terre

From the April 14, 1916 issue of l’Univers Israelite, this image shows a group of Jewish Zouaves at Verdun.  

____________________

Note that Caporal Heller served in the Foreign Legion, and Soldat Rigal, though not listed in Les Israelites dans l’Armée Française, was born in Warsaw.  

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

Heller, Marcel, Caporal, 19595
Infanterie, 219eme Regiment d’Infanterie
Killed by the enemy (Tué a l’ennemi) at Foucaucourt, Somme
Born 8/7/84, 9eme Arrondissement, Paris, France
Les Israelites dans l’Armée Française – 42

____________________

Rigal, Schoel, Soldat de 2eme Classe, 23787
Infanterie, Légion étrangère, Regiment de Marche de la Legion Etranger (“En subsistance au 22eme Regiment d’Infanterie”)
Killed by the enemy (Tué a l’ennemi) at l’Eclusier, Somme
Born 6/1/94, Varsovie (Warsaw), Pologne
Les Israelites dans l’Armée Française – Not Listed

________________________________________

________________________________________

Germany

Imperial German Army – Deutsches Heer

This image, originally from Media Drum Images.com, is via News24.blogspot, and is captioned as showing, “German trenches on the Somme front line”.  The image was colorized by Royston Leonard.  

A list of Jewish military casualties in the Imperial Germany Army on July 1, 1916, follows below. 

The names of 30 men, all of whom presumably were killed in action or died of wounds, are listed, while a 31st, Hauptmann (Captain) Alfred Rosenfelder, died in Germany under unexplained circumstances – it s e e m s (?) that he was murdered.  Though I don’t know the identity of the German military units assigned to or serving along the Somme front, I’m certain that – by virtue of the sheer number of men listed – at least some of the 30 must have fallen in combat with British forces on this opening day of the Somme Offensive. 

But first, a video at Mc C’s YouTube ChannelThe Germans on the Somme.  As captioned, “The Germans saw with interest the success of the British film “The Battle of the Somme” by Malins (the most watched film until Star Wars was released) and the value of propaganda, so decided to make their own version, it was never as successful and very unknown, but nonetheless very interesting.”

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

Adler, Hermann, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 17, 2nd Battalion, 5th Kompagnie
Declared legally dead
Born 6/1/80, in Rhina
Resided in Kreuznach
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 267

____________________

Barth, Ludwig, Gefreiter
Infanterie Regiment 60, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Born 3/14/93, in Flehingen
Resided in Frankfurt am Main
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 209

____________________

Bernheim, Wilhelm, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 111, Maschinen-Gewehr Scharfschutzen Truppe
Missing
Born 3/9/88, in Wangen
Resided in Wangen (Baden)
Kriegsgräberstätte in Rancourt (Frankreich), Block 5, Grab 239
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 355

____________________

Bielschowsky, Adolf, Gefreiter, Schutze
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 202, 1st Battalion, 3rd Kompagnie
Born 1/12/94, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 132

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Bock, Arthur, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 167, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Born 3/7/94, in Neubrandenburg
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 133

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Courant, Ernst, Vizefeldwebel
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 91, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 11/30/91, in Glatz
Resided in Berlin
Kriegsgräberstätte in Neuville-St.Vaast (Frankreich), Block 12, Grab 1114
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 136

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Ellenstein, Bernhard, Leutnant, Eiserne Kreuz 2 Klasse, Eiserne Kreuz 1 Klasse, Bayerisch Militarverdienstorden 4 Klasse mit Schwerten (Iron Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, Bavarian Military Order of Merit 4th Class with Swords)
Bayerisch Reserve Infanterie Regiment 6, 2nd Battalion, 7th Kompagnie
Mametz-Montauban, Somme, France
Mr. and Mrs. Siegfried and Rosa Ellenstein (parents), Nurnberg, Germany
Born 1/8/87, in Wixhausen
Resided in Nurnberg
Kriegsgräberstätte in Fricourt (Frankreich), Kameradengrab
Freudenthal, p. 49-50
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 304

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Faber, Moritz, Soldat, Musketier
Infanterie Regiment 69, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Born 5/16/76, in Mertloch
Resided in Philippsburg
Kriegsgräberstätte in Achiet-le-Petit (Frankreich), Grab 313
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 315

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Grunebaum, Isidor, Soldat
Bayerisch Reserve Infanterie Regiment 8, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Born 6/29/92, in Diedelsheim
Resided in Aschaffenburg
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 124

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Jesse, Fritz, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 99, 1st Battalion, 2nd Kompagnie
Born 9/17/87, in Warburg
Resided in Warburg
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 355

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Kahn, Moritz, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 110, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 12/26/84, in Kulsheim
Resided in Kulsheim
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 268

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Kaufmann, Nathan, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 109, 3rd Bataillon, 9th Kompagnie
Born 1/13/81, in Baiertal
Resided in Mannheim
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 282

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Kochmann, Alwin, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 201, , Maschinen-Gewehr Kompagnie
Born 2/11/87, in Munster
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 146

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Korbchen, Ludwig, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 90, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 4/24/91, in Bremen
Resided in Bremen
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 176

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Kuhl, Alfred, Soldat
Bayerisch Reserve Infanterie Regiment 13, 1st Battalion, 1st Kompagnie
At Mylsk, Russia
Born 3/1/96, in Unsleben
Resided in Schopfloch
Ingolstädter Gesichter: 750 Jahre Juden in Ingolstadt – 257
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 332

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Laband, Manfred, Soldat
Fuhrpark Kolonne 233
Born 10/28/90, in Myslowitz
Resided in Hindenburg
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 245

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Levy, Eugen, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 111, 1st Battalion, 1st Kompagnie
Born 9/30/88, in Albersweiler
Resided in Albersweiler
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 120

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Loebmann, Max, Gefreiter
Pionier Bataillon 6, 3rd Kompagnie
Maurepas, France
Born 9/24/84, in Hindenburg
Resided in Antonienhutte
Kriegsgräberstätte in Rancourt (Frankreich), Kameradengrab (?)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 124

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Marx, Bernhard, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 109, 3rd Battalion, 11th Kompagnie
Born 8/30/79, in Schriesheim
Resided in Karlsruhe (Baden)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 253

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Moses, David, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 111, 1st Battalion, 4th Kompagnie
Born 8/16/76, in Kirchen
Resided in Kirchen (Baden)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 257

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Nehab, Julian, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 52, 2nd Battalion, 5th Kompagnie
Declared legally dead
Born 1/31/86, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 155

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Neuhaus, Martin, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 82, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 2/2/90, in Bremke / Gottingen
Resided in Gottingen
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 229

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Picard, Wilhelm, Vizefeldwebel
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 111, 1st Battalion, 1st Kompagnie
Born 5/6/86, in Wangen
Resided in Konstanz
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 265

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Simoni, Martin, Soldat, Reservist
Bayerisch Reserve Infanterie Regiment 6, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Mametz-Montauban, Somme, France
Declared legally dead
Born 8/19/99, in Stettin
Resided in Stettin
Kriegsgräberstätte in Fricourt (Frankreich), Kameradengrab
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 341

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Stern, Benjamin, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 109, 3rd Battalion, 11th Kompagnie
Born 3/27/81, in Gissigheim
Resided in Konigheim
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 262

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Ullmann, Alfred, Vizefeldwebel
Fussartillerie Batterie 471
Born 10/31/91, in Strassburg
Resided in Strassburg, Elsass-Lothringen
Kriegsgräberstätte in Pontfaverger (Frankreich), Block 1, Grab 13 (?)
GVDK says 7/3/16; Gefreiter
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 393

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Walter, Siegfried, Soldat
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 109, 3rd Battalion, 11th Kompagnie
Declared legally dead
Born 5/23/96, in Schwegenheim
Resided in Walldorf (Baden)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 354

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Warschauer, Ernst, Sanitats Unteroffizier
Garde Infanterie Regiment 6, 3rd Bataillon, 9th Kompagnie
Born 11/17/93, in Berlin
Resided in Berlin
Kriegsgräberstätte in Romagne-sous-les-Cotes (Frankreich), Block 1, Grab 179
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 165

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Weil, Friedrich, Soldat
Infanterie Regiment 169, 1st Battalion, 3rd Kompagnie
Born 6/27/95, in Steinsfurt (Baden)
Resided in Steinsfurt (Baden)
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 339

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Weiss, Fritz, Unteroffizier
Reserve Infanterie Regiment 111, 2nd Battalion, 6th Kompagnie
Born 8/21/95, in Mannheim
Resided in Mannheim
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 283

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Murdered? – No further information available

Rosenfelder, Albert, Hauptmann
Bayerische Infanterie Regiment 21, Ersatz Bataillon 1
Murdered: Shot in the head while en route home from military exercise at Hainburg (near Furth), Germany
Born 9/9/64 (!), in Furth
Resided in Furth (i. Bay.)
Gavish and Groschel, Over the Front, Summer, 2001
Die Jüdischen Gefallenen – 221

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Finally, to conclude, here are two videos about the Somme battlefield, as it appeared in 2016 and 2018, respectively.  

Also at Mc C’s You Tube ChannelThe Somme then and now… 1916 – 2016, uploaded to YouTube on August 1, 2016, one hundred years and one month after the opening day of the offensive.  As captioned: “After watching the film many times, over many years, I wanted to find these locations and stand in their foot prints and re-film.  Some locations were easy to find, some took much research and some I haven’t yet been able to locate, but all the ones in this documentary are within yards to feet of where they filmed originally, none are guesses or just possibilities.  I hope you enjoy watching and it helps you to understand please leave comments this is worth more to me than earning money I ask for nothing but love remarks.”

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And, at Living History, we have Walking the Battle of the Somme, by Mat McLachlan:

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References

Books (…authored…)

Adler, Michael, and Freeman, Max R.G., British Jewry Book of Honour, Caxton Publishing Company, London, England, 1922 (Republished in 2006 by Naval & Military Press, Uckfield, East Sussex)

Boas, Harold (Hon Lt. – Compiler), Australian Jewry Book of Honour – The Great War 1914-1918, Perth, Western Australia, 1923 (Covers New Zealand)

Gilbert, Martin, The Routledge Atlas of the First World War (second edition), Routledge, London, England, 2002

Henshaw, Trevor, The Sky Their Battlefield – Air Fighting and The Complete List of Allied Air Casualties from Enemy Action in the First War, Grub Street, London, 1995

Macdonald, Lyn, Somme, Michael Joseph, London, England, 1983

Middlebrook, Martin, First Day on The Somme – 1 July 1916, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1972

Richards, Frank (DCM, MM), Old Soldiers Never Die, Berkley Publishing Corporation, New York, N.Y., 1966 (Berkley paperback edition book number S1191; specifically see pages 118-140, for chapters: “The Somme: Capture of High Wood”, and, “Trenches in High Wood”)

Books (…No Specific Author…)

Die Jüdischen Gefallenen Des Deutschen Heeres, Deutschen Marine Und Der Deutschen Schutztruppen 1914-1918 – Ein Gedenkbuch, Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten, Forward by Dr. Leo Löwenstein, Berlin, Germany, 1932

Les Israelites dans l’Armée Française (Israelites [Jews] in the French Army), Angers, 1921 – Avant-Propos de la Deuxième Épreuve [Forward to the Second Edition], Albert Manuel, Paris, Juillet, 1921 – (Réédité par le Cercle de Généalogie juive [Reissued by the Circle for Jewish Genealogy], Paris, 2000)

Serving Their Country – Wartime Memories of Scottish Jews, Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, Glasgow, Scotland, November, 2001
(c/o Harvey L. Kaplan, Glasgow, Scotland)

Other References

Lists of [South African] Jews Who Served in the Forces in the First World War 1914/18
List of [South African] Jews Who Lost Their Lives in the First World War 1914/18
(Both lists c/o Dr. R. Musiker, Johannesburg, South Africa)

NAJEX Detail, June, 2001

Australian War Memorial File “25 171/12”

Casualty Figures – as listed at Wikipedia – from:

Edmonds, J. E. (1993) [1932]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1916: Sir Douglas Haig’s Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme.  History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I (Imperial War Museum & Battery Press ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-89839-185-7.

Prior, R.; Wilson, T. (2005), The Somme, Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10694-7.

Here Are Some Websites

What Was the Battle of the Somme?, at Imperial War Museum

5 Things You Need to Know About The Battle of the Somme, at Imperial War Museum

Battle of the Somme, at National Army Museum

Battle of the Somme, at Wikipedia

Battle of the Somme, by Ben Johnson, at Historic UK

Battle of the Somme, at Spartacus Educational

Battle of the Somme centenary: What happened and why it is the defining British battle of the First World War?  (Matt Payton), at Independent (June 29, 2016)

Scars of the Somme: Breathtaking pictures show how – a century on – French fields still show signs of the battle which claimed 300,000 lives (Chris Summers), at Daily Mail (May 26, 2016)

Canada and the Battle of the Somme, at The Canadian Encyclopedia (December 21, 2006)

The Somme: The Battle that France Forgot (Hugh Schofield), at BBC News (June 29, 2016)

The Somme: The German Perspective, at HistoryGuild (March 7, 2021)

The German Experience at the Battle of the Somme, at Roads to the Great War (July 6, 2013)

17 Haunting Coloured Pictures From the WW1 Battle of the Somme (Damian Lucjan), at War History On Line (April 29, 2017)

Colourised World War I images show soldiers on the Western Front and in the trenches of the Somme, at News From World (August 31, 2018)

…and…

Marina Amaral

A Soldier from Germany Remembered: Private Eric M. Heilbronn, United States Army

A number of my posts pertaining to Jewish soldier in the Second World War have focused on or referenced German-born Jews who served in the Allied armed forces.  One such soldier was Private Eric M. Heilbronn, who, serving in the United States Army’s 34th Infantry Division, was killed in Italy on January 7, 1944. 

Eric Heilbronn’s story is particularly notable because he was the subject of a short biography in the German “exile-newspaper” Aufbau (“Reconstruction”), which was accompanied by his photograph.  A brief biographical profile of Erich appeared in my post pertaining to Captain and Silver Star recipient Howard K. Goodman of the United States Marine Corps, who was killed in action on January 7, 1944.  

And, there Erich Heilbronn’s story remained.  That is, until late 2020 (hey, time flies…) when I received a most interesting communication from Dr. Bastiaan van der Velden of the Open University of the Netherlands, which follows below: 

Dear Michael

Thanks for your mail.  Erich’s father was born in the same village as my family [Tann] – and the two families married a couple of times, that’s why I have the info collected.  I will sent you also a wetransfer for a larger file.  I think there you find all the sources I used (you can search them).  

A youth picture [of Erich Heilbronn, within a biography of Emil and Fanny Jondorf, on page 8].

Success with the work

Kind Regards
Bastiaan

In light of Bastiaan’s generous contributions, this post presents a more complete picture of Erich Heilbronn and his family, seen through the eyes of his friend, fellow German-Jewish émigré soldier, Frank A. Harris (originally Frank Siegmund Hess).

But first – to recapitulate and save you from redundant mouse-clicks! – here’s the biographical record of Pvt. Erich Heilbronn which appears in the above-mentioned blog post about Captain Goodman, including the photo and article that originally appeared in Aufbau.  

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Heilbronn, Eric Moses (Moshe ben Yitzhak), Pvt., 32816833, Purple Heart
United States Army, 34th Infantry Division, 168th Infantry Regiment, A Company
Rabbi Isak [6/4/80-6/9/43] and Mrs. Erna Esther [2/9/92-5/3/77] Heilbronn (parents), Cecil and Irmgard (Pinto) Heilbronn, 382 Wadsworth Ave., New York, N.Y.
Born Nurnberg, Germany, 1924
Burial location unknown
Casualty List 2/22/44
Aufbau 5/12/44
American Jews in World War II – 342

The May 12, 1944 edition of Aufbau, in which news about Private Heilbronn’s death appeared in the far left column, is shown below:

Here’s the news item about Private Heilbronn, which is followed by a transcription of the original German, and an English-language translation:

Pvt. Eric M. Heilbronn

ist im Alter von nur 20 Jahren auf dem italienischen Kriegsschauplatz gefallen.  Er war seit dem 7 Januar dieses Jahres als vermisst gemeldet, aber erst vor wenigen Tagen hat seine Mutter die Nachricht von seinem Tod erhalten.

Pvt. Heilbronn ist der Sohn des ihm sieben Monate im Tod vorangegangenen Rabbiners Dr. Isaak Heilbronn und stammte aus Nurnberg.  Er widmete such insbesondere der Jugendbewegung innerhalb der Gemeinde seines Vaters, der Congregation Beth Hillel, und versuchte, die eingewanderte deutsch-jüdische Jugend mit der americanischen Weltanschauung vertraut zu Machen und sie fur die Ideale Amerikas zu begeistern.

Pvt. Heilbronn kam Antang 1939 nach Amerika, absolvierte die High School in New York und nahm später Abendkurse in Buchprüfung am City College.  Tagsüber war er bei der Federation of Jewish Charities beschaftigt.  Im März 1943 rückte er in die Armee ein.

Pvt. Eric M. Heilbronn

died at the age of only 20 in the Italian theater of war.  He was reported missing since January 7 of that year, but only a few days ago his mother received the news of his death.

Pvt. Heilbronn is the son of Rabbi Isaac Heilbronn from Nurnberg, who died seven months before his death.  He was particularly dedicated to the youth movement within his father’s congregation, Congregation Beth Hillel, and tried to familiarize immigrant German-Jewish youths with the American world view and to inspire them with the ideals of America.

Pvt. Heilbronn came to America in 1939, graduated from high school in New York and later took evening classes in auditing at City College.  By day he was employed by the Federation of Jewish Charities.  In March 1943 he joined the army.

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Frank Harris’ story can be found in the document “Biography of Frank A. Harris, Fürth“, at the website of RIJO Research, and, in the form of an interview by Jeffrey Boyce that was published at the website of the “National Food Service Management Institute – Child Nutrition Archives”, I think in late 2014; I think no longer accessible!  However, having kindly been given access to this interview by Bastiaan, the text of the document – up to and including Frank’s account of discovering Erich’s grave near Cassino, Italy, in early 1944 – follows.  (There’s more to Frank Harri’s story, but it’s not included here.) 

The transcript of the Jeffrey Boyce interview then is followed by a transcript of Frank’s biography, from in the Leo Baeck Institute’s Frank A. Harris Collection, 1977-1992

For both documents, I’ve highlighted those sections directly pertaining to Private Erich Heilbronn in dark red.  (Like “this”.)     

__________

Frank A. Harris
Oral History

Interviewee: Frank A. Harris
Interviewer: Jeffrey Boyce
Interview Date: June 8, 2011

JB: I’m Jeffrey Boyce and it’s June 8, 2011.  I’m here with Mr. Frank Harris in Somers, New York. Frank is going to share his story of child nutrition and some other things about his life with us.  Welcome Frank and thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.

FH: Thank you very much and thank you for coming a long distance, and we much appreciate it.
JB: Happy to do it. We’ve been working on this about two years now haven’t we?
FH: That’s right. That’s just about what it is.

JB: Could we begin today by you telling me a little bit about yourself, where you were born and where you grew up?

FH: All right. I was born in Furth, Bavaria, Germany.  Furth is a city next to Nuernberg.  It’s like Minneapolis and St. Paul, kind of a twin city.  I was born on December 7, 1922, the second child born in 1922, which was very unusual.  My sister was born on January 3rd.  When my mother became pregnant again she was hesitant to tell my father, but in the long run she couldn’t hide it.  He became so upset muttering “People think I have nothing better to do.”  But when I did come I was totally accepted and my mother was delighted because she raised us almost like twins.

JB: So you were born in the same year?

FH: Same year, 1922, which was very unusual, so I could really say I was an accident, but a happy accident.

JB: Tell me a little bit about your childhood. You started school in Germany?

FH: Yes, I started school in Germany.  I started at an elementary school in 1929.  As you know, Hitler came to power in 1933.  In the beginning nothing much happened.  After I graduated from elementary school we went to high school, where the atmosphere became quite uncomfortable for us.  We had four Jewish students in our class.  Classes are not twenty-four like here in the United States.  We had about 35-40 students.  Our classroom teacher was Professor Berthold, who was marvelous.  He wrote all the French textbooks in Germany.  He himself was not a Nazi, but we had two gym teachers, Mr. Vilsmaier & Mr. Steinhardt.  We the four Jewish kids were superior in all athletic activities.  The students couldn’t accept us because the teachers pictured all Jews as clumsy and smelly, and would order the gentile students, “Ok.  It’s time to beat up the Jews.”  So our classroom teacher, Dr. Berthold, urged my father to take Franz out (my name was not yet Frank) and enroll him in the Jewish school.”  Myself and the other Jewish boys were taken out of the public high school and were enrolled in the Jewish high school in the Blumenstrasse in Furth.  This is where I met all the youngsters who have remained my friends for a lifetime.  Our teachers were excellent scholars.  We were taught many subjects, not only Hebrew.  The director, Dr. Prager, was superior, and the chemistry and math teachers were excellent.  We had a wonderful class, of about 30-35.  As of today there are still 12-15 alive.  Some have died in the Shoah, (in the Holocaust).  Many of them have immigrated to the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, etc.  We have maintained a wonderful relationship with all the survivors.

JB: I understand one of those men is quite well-known to most people who would be reading this – Mr. Kissinger.

FH: That’s right.  Henry Kissinger was one of my classmates.  He sat right behind me.  I should tell you – I’m not claiming that I was a great student – I really wasn’t.  I was great in imitating most of the teachers.  That was my greatest contribution.  Henry was not the greatest student either.  He was a good student.  He was interested in history.  We had an outstanding class of really outstanding students, but Henry was not an outstanding student.  He was a good student.  And I can truly say that we have remained friends to this very day.

JB: Were there any sort of nutrition programs in the schools you attended in Germany?

FH: No, we did not have any nutrition programs in the schools.  As a matter of fact school days were divided.  We attended school in the morning and at noontime we went home for lunch.  And it was not really lunch.  We like most families had our big dinner at noontime.  My father, who was the owner of a toy factory, came home for our big meal at noontime, and then took a nap, while my sister and I went back to school in the afternoon.  We did not have a nutrition program.  We had all our meals at home.  In order to get my dad home on time for our noon-time meal our dog Bobby ,who was a mean little creature , but very smart, left the house, ran down to my dad’s business, waited until my dad came out, and then raced back to alert us that Dad was on his way.  He never walked with him, but when Bobby arrived home; my mother could get the soup and the meat and everything ready, because Dad was on his way home.

JB: Sounds like a smart dog.

FH: Yes.

JB: You spoke earlier about why you changed schools.  Things were getting bad in Germany.  Then you ended up leaving Germany.  Tell us about that.

FH: Yes, ok.  That came a bit later.  You have no doubt heard of the Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938, when the Germans used as an excuse that a secretary at the French Embassy in Paris was killed by a Jew, to round up all the Jews in Germany and burn all the synagogues.  We were awoke at three o’clock in the morning.  The doorbell rang and some SA men, the home forces of the secret police, came to our house to arrest us.  Interestingly enough one of them was one of my father’s World War I comrades.  My Dad fought in the First World War and felt nothing ever could happen to him because he was born and lived in Germany all his life.  No matter whatever the Nazis did, whatever the Nazis said, nothing will ever happen to us.  But that night his Army comrade arrested him and all of us.  The other SA man that picked us up was the owner of the delicatessen store whose business flourished because of his Jewish clientele.  And we had very little time just to get dressed.  They took us to a place called Plaerrer, where all the Jews were assembled.  We marched through town.  Next to me was a little girl.  She was six years my junior.  I only had one pair of gloves that I shared with little Eva because it was November and bitter cold already.  It was supposed to be an action that nobody knew about, but the entire population was out.  They screamed and they hollered and they spat at us.  And we marched to this place called the Plaerrer, where some of us were beaten up.  Our little rabbi was asked to step on the Holy Bible, the Holy Torah, and when he refused to do this, he too was beaten up.  In the background we could see all of our synagogues were aflame.  We had one courtyard with one Haupt (Main) and four other smaller synagogues.  The Nazis burned them all down that day.  Later on we were marched to a huge auditorium.  This auditorium was called the Berolzheimerianum that was donated by a Jew many, many years ago.  We were lectured on the history of the Nazis, and why the Nazis are superior to everyone else, the superior Aryan race.  First they discharged the women and the girls.  Afterwards they released boys under sixteen.  I was one month shy of sixteen, born on December 7th, and this was only November 9th.  Therefore I was released while all the men were taken to the Justizpalast in Nuernberg, the very building where, after the war, all the Nazi criminals were put on trial.  All the adult men were kept overnight.  My friend Eva, the one I shared the gloves with, went with me to the Gestapo.  We had the courage to go, pleading to learn where they had taken our Pappas.  They told us that they were taken to the Justizpalast.  We went home to get some chicken soup, and returned to the Justizpalast to give the chicken soup to the guard, asking him to deliver it to our fathers.  Much, much later after their release, we found out that they never got the chicken soup.  The guard must have eaten the chicken soup prepared by Jews.  Along with all other men, my father was taken to a concentration camp, called Dachau.  In order to gain his release my mother and I were summoned to the Gestapo, the secret German police, to sign over my father’s business – the co-owner of a toy manufacturing company – and his Mercedes car to the tune of twenty marks, which is equal to about $10-15.  They indicated any reluctance on our part to sign could become a death sentence for my dad.  Therefore we shall never ever see him again.  And this is when I learned the real priorities very early in my life.  Not what was important the day before – my father’s business and the car, the jewelry or the Kristall that we owned – no, what was important was to get my father out of the K.Z. to allow us to function as a family once again, and get out of Germany.  While my father was in Dachau we went to the American Consulate in Stuttgart, to receive a number to allow us to immigrate to the United States.  There was a quota system.  We got our number – somewhere in the 14,000s – I will get back to this part of my life a little later.  My father was released five weeks after his arrest.  He was a totally broken man.  His first concern after his release was to get me out, since by that time I’d turned sixteen.  I quickly attended a cooks and bakers school to take a speed course in cooking and baking.  On March 7th or 9th, my dad – not my mother who was too upset – took me in the middle of the night to the railroad station to take a train with lots of other children called the Kindertransport, destination Holland.

JB: This was 1938?

FH: 1939.  March of 1939.  And Jeff, I will never forget the feeling when the train pulled into the station and I climbed aboard.  We had all these kids, some as young as three or four years old, and the train pulling out seeing your – in my case my father – while others seeing their parents at the railroad station, really not knowing if they’ll ever see them again.  I was fortunate.  I saw my parents again, but many, many of the other children never saw their parents again.  They didn’t understand why they were sent out of Germany.  They begged their parents to let them stay with them.  It was the greatest sacrifice that these parents had to make, to send their children out, to gain their freedom, even if in the long run they themselves couldn’t get out.  So we crossed the border and arrived in Holland, where we stayed first at a camp in Rotterdam close to the harbor.  Later on we were taken to a monastery, to be taken care of by nuns, who absolutely mistreated us.  This was very unusual because the Dutch people in general were very helpful.  I stayed there for a few weeks.  A cousin of mine Stefan, who was about twelve years my senior had earlier immigrated to Holland and had started his own business.  He came to visit with me regularly.  I begged him to get me out of there, and he did.  I lived with Stefan until my parents and my sister got out of Germany, arriving via France in England.  Upon their arrival they called Stefan, who took me to Hoek van Holland to cross the English Channel to Dover.  When officials looked at my papers they claimed that my entry visa into England had expired, and if they don’t allow me to enter England they’re going to send me back to Germany.  My cousin Stefan bribed the captain of this little boat and said, “That kid will never go back to Germany.  He has permission to be in England; just his entry visa has expired because his parents got out so late.”  I could not speak English at the time, since I was taught French in school by my famous Professor Berthold.  I looked extremely young, even though I was sixteen, but I looked like twelve.  After throwing up on the entire trip from Hoek van Holland to Dover the captain took me by the hand, put a little navy cap on me, and with my little suitcase, the Captain put me on a train destination London where my dad picked me up.  It was a happy reunion.  Together we moved from London to West Bromwich, Staffordshire, where my dad had a business friend who assisted us in starting a small toy business.  This lasted barely one year, when the war broke out, and my Dad and I were interned, but not my mother nor my sister.  We were arrested and taken for a couple of nights to a local jail.  I shall never forgot this either.  The arresting official, Police Commissioner Clark, apologized a thousand times for our arrest.  Those were orders by the Home Office to arrest us and to be classified as Enemy Aliens.  Not until many, many months or years later that our classification was changed from Enemy to Friendly aliens.  After a couple of nights at the local jail we were transferred to an internment camp, first to Lingfield, a racetrack in London.  We slept on the steps of the racetrack.  Later on we were taken to Huyton internment camp near Liverpool.  When we arrived at Huyton, one of my childhood friends, Lutz, tipped me off that a transport was leaving that night, either for Australia or for Canada with all the male youngsters.  During the night I escaped from where I was stationed to join my dad, which saved me from going to Australia.  We stayed in the internment camp until we were called up to the American Consulate under police guard, where we also met my sister and mother again and where we got our visas.  We had to go back to the internment camp while my mother and my sister went back to West Bromwich, to pack up whatever belongings we had, and join us in Liverpool.  We were released one night before our boat was to leave and stayed at a hotel that was bombed during the night by the Nazis.  The bombs hit the front of the building and we were in the rear of the hotel.  We were extremely fortunate.  We left on a boat called the S.S. Samaria that had 500 British evacuees, kids that were going to Canada.  We traveled in a convoy.  The boat was hit by a mine, but fortunately didn’t sink, because it was equipped with a device called a Churchill Device that neutralized the mine and saved our boat.  It was a very traumatic crossing.  Everybody was seasick.  My dad advised me not to undress at night, to stay prepared and ready for any emergency.  It so happened when the mine hit the boat I was dressed and he had undressed to clean and shave.  All of us had to go up on deck until they were sure that the boat was safe to continue our journey.  We were part of a convoy with destroyers racing around since they were not sure if it was a mine or a torpedo.  To make a long story short, we arrived safely in the United States on October 2, 1940.  It was the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and my first trip was to go to synagogue to thank the Good Lord that I made it.  At the entrance somebody stopped and asked me, “Where’s your ticket?”  I said, “What do you mean ticket?  I don’t need to get a ticket to go to synagogue to pray and thank God for my survival.”  “Oh, you need a ticket.”  But it was the synagogue of our congregation, Nuernberg, Furth, and Munich, and I responded by asking the guard to get my friend Eric Heilbronn, the rabbi’s son.  He came out running.  He was so excited that he ran right back into the synagogue up on the pulpit to tell the Rabbi (his Dad), “Papa, Papa, Franz ist da – Frank is here.”  “Let him come in,” was Rabbi Heilbronn’s response.  I could go in and see all my old friends – Walter Oppenheim, Hans Sachs, and Henry Kissinger, and so many others who were happy to see me again.  Rosh Hashanah 1940 we were reunited again.

JB: Wow, what an amazing story.  And then from there?

FH: Next step was for me to find a job.  My first trip was to visit an outfit called “The Blue Card”, who assisted German refugees who immigrated to the United States.  The Executive Director was a Dr. Richard Jung, who recognized me.  He was a friend of my uncle, Dr. Arnold Frankenau.  Since he was in no position to help me in finding a job he smiled and said, “Franz, here are ten dollars, and you don’t ever have to pay them back.”  I have never forgotten this good deed.  Years later I became very active with The Blue Card.  At present I am still Vice-President of this wonderful organization, who honored me at a special dedication at the Heritage Museum in New York in 2005.  I will talk about the wonderful work of The Blue Card a bit later on.

I had to find a job in 1940.  I walked along Fifth Avenue, and was told that Fifth Avenue is the dividing line between east and west.  There was a jewelry store called Richter’s.  I went in and asked if they could use somebody.  They said, “OK.”  They gave me a job, ten dollars a week.  Ok.  I got the job, and had to take many jewelry items to the repair shops that were located in the 30s and in the 40s streets, to be repaired and then bring them back.  At night Mr. Richter gave me deliveries to make on my way home.  I walked up Fifth Avenue through Central Park, which was quite safe at the time.  Since most of the deliveries were on the West Side I walked through Central Park to save the 0.5 subway fare.  The first week was over; it was Friday.  I went out during my lunch period to buy little gifts for my family.  At night when I got my pay, I got my ten dollars, and Mr. Richter said, “Listen, I’ve got to let you go because you didn’t produce enough.”  I worked my everything off and tried to please the Richter Jewelry Store and I was fired after one week.  At least I had the good sense to say, “Mr. Michter, at least give me a recommendation.  Say that I have worked here for six months.  It will help me to find another job because I have only been in the country for two weeks.”  So he gave me the recommendation that is still in my possession.  The recommendation reads that I worked for six months for Richter’s and I was very satisfactory.  So I arrived home with a recommendation but without a job.

The next job I took was for a carpet outfit in Brooklyn.  I took the subway to Brooklyn, which for me was quite difficult.  I was never very tall.  I was never very strong.  I had to schlep these carpets, and yes after one week I quit.  I also got paid ten dollars.  So basically, ten dollars was my life.  I should have mentioned, when we arrived in the United States, we were allowed to bring in ten dollars per person, so it was ten dollars each for my father, for my mother, for my sister, and for me.  When I went to The Blue Card I got ten dollars to tie me over.  When I was fired from Richter’s I got ten dollars.

When I quit the carpet store I got paid ten dollars.  So again I was out of a job.  And I looked for some other jobs, and held all kinds of really crazy jobs.  I wanted to get into hotel work since I had taken a course in cooking and baking.  I went to the Waldorf-Astoria and I asked Monsieur Lugot, who was a Frenchman, if he could give me a job.  He looked at me, and since his eyesight was rather poor out of one eye, and out of the other one I believe he could see nothing.  He looked me over and said in his strong French accent, “Brrr.  Monsieur Harris, at your age I was potato peeler.  Don’t tell me you can cook.  Get out of here.  Come see me in a few years.”

I did come back and worked at the Waldorf after my army service.  I’m going to talk about it later on during this interview. 

JB: So after New York, you said a couple of years later you joined the army?

FH: Yes.  I had a few other jobs.  My dad unfortunately died in 1942, two years after we came to the States.  I got a deferment from the army for one year.  In 1943 I was drafted for the army.  When they looked at me, since I looked so young, the sergeant said, “Come on, stop kidding.  Send your brother.”  I said, “No, I’m the one.”  My name at that time still was Franz Siegmund Hess.  I was accepted and really enjoyed the army.  I was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey, and from Fort Dix I was sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to cooks and bakers school.  The Military training was rather tough.  It was one day basic training and one day working in the kitchen.  At least I was able to get my foot in the kitchen, which was an advantage.  This is what I wanted.  As part of basic training we had a marathon race.  From every company they had to send a couple of fellows to run the marathon.  I certainly didn’t volunteer, but the sergeant said, “Hess, you’re the one that goes on the marathon.”  I had not trained for such a race, nor was I in any shape for it.  To make a long story short, I was ordered to run this marathon, even though I protested, since I had to work that night in the officers’ mess.  The response from the sergeant was, “I don’t want any excuses.  You’re going on the marathon.”  But it wasn’t an excuse – the real marathon is usually 26 miles – this marathon was 14 miles, but it was incredible.  When I finished all I wanted to do is lay down but they didn’t let me.  They marched me because you’re not supposed to lie down.  So I finished the marathon, swore to myself that I will never, ever volunteer, or will fight anyone that’s going to volunteer for me.  I still worked that night in the officers’ mess.

At another time I was once more tricked into a boxing tournament.  I was a featherweight – and was opposed by a fellow from the South, who hated me because I was a Yankee.  I tried to impress upon him that I’m not really a Yankee, I’m a refugee.  But he was so strong he beat the hell out of me.  And in between rounds my trainer said, “Go back and get him.”  I said, “No, you go get him.”  He didn’t and I took a heck of a beating, but I finished at least.  There were only three or four rounds, whatever it was.  But those were my special experiences at basic training.  Upon completing basic training we were transferred to Camp Meade, MD.  On a beautiful Fall day I was taken to Baltimore, Maryland, where I became an American citizen, a proud American citizen.  When I was asked, “Do you want to change your name?”  I said, “Yes, absolutely.”  As I mentioned earlier, my name was Franz Siegmund Hess.  So I requested a change from Franz to Frank.  And Hess, I didn’t want anyone to ever question me if I’m related to Rudolph Hess, the Deputy Fuehrer.  I asked to change it from Hess to Harris, but leave my middle initial S.  Somehow when the papers came back the army messed this up and made Frank A. Harris out of it, so that’s when Franz Siegmund Hess became Frank A. Harris.  From Camp Meade, Maryland, we went to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia, and later on sailed on a troop transport to Casablanca.  I was terribly seasick.  They put me on a gun crew to look for submarines.  I was completely useless for this assignment, because all I did was throw up for the entire period of my duty.  This was a ship – the Empress of Scotland – that was used in peace time as a luxury liner to transport cruise passengers to the United States from England.  During the war this luxury liner was used as a transport ship for soldiers.  In place of 500 cruising passengers, we had 5000 seasick soldiers.  It was a horrible trip.  You couldn’t stand in line for food because the lines went all around the boat for any of the meals.  I became quite seasick and was taken on sick call.  The medic advised me “You need to eat.”  My response, “I agree please get me something to eat.”  He responded, “I can’t do that.  You have to stand in line.”  There was no way.  I made a deal with one of the sailors from the Empress of Scotland.  He sold me a dozen oranges for ten dollars – again here come the ten dollars – that saved me on the whole trip to Casablanca.

Being on the watch for submarines we had one tall fellow on the ship by the name of Walt Dropo.  Walt Dropo was the tallest of the company and I was the shortest.  One night on my submarine watch I felt that I had the urge again to throw up.  Since I was on my way up on top deck I raced out to the bridge to make sure that nothing happened to any of the boys on the lower deck.  All I could hear out of the dark, “I’m going to catch this son of a – that puked on my head and I’m going to throw him overboard.”  And as much as I wanted to die when we got back to our sleep quarters, I did not tell him who the son of a gun was.  At least not until we got to North Africa, when I confessed and he responded, “Frank you’re so smart that you didn’t tell me then – no telling what I would have done to you.”  And I tried to explain that I went out of my way to avoid this mess.  We remained good friends.  Walt Dropo, after his discharge, as some of you might remember, was the first choice of the Chicago Bears, a top choice of a basketball team.  His preference was baseball, and he became the famous first baseman for the Boston Red Sox.  Later on he also played for the Detroit Tigers.  After we were discharged I told my friends, “Oh, Walt Dropo’s a friend of mine.”  ‘Oh, tell me another one’ was my friend’s’ response.  So we attended a Yankee game, when they played the Detroit Tigers.  I went down in between innings to the top of the dugout asking the guard, “Tell Walt Dropo to come over here.”  He greeted me with a big grin, “Frankie Boy!  So good to see you again.”  So my friends were truly convinced that he was my army buddy.

JB: So from Casablanca you went where?

FH: From Casablanca we were transported to Oran with the 40 and 8, boxcars.  They were called 40 and 8 because at one time they were used for transporting horses.  We stayed in Oran for a few weeks, where we were taken frequently on long marches.  I never forgot that we arrived in Oran during the rainy season in Africa.  We were stationed on a hill where we had to pitch our tents.  It was horrible because the rain ran right through our tents.  But we survived this ordeal as well.  By boat we were transported to Naples, staying in a replacement depot until I was assigned to the 2759th Combat Engineers.  On our way north we bypassed Cassino and Anzio arriving in Leghorn (Livorno), where our outfit built bridges.  On one of my days off I was able to visit Cassino.  My childhood friend Eric Heilbronn – the one who got me into the synagogue without a ticket on my arrival in the States – was sent overseas about one month before me.  Permit me to back up a little bit.  Eric was in the military intelligence when his father the rabbi died.  Eric attended his father’s funeral in New York, and on the way back to South Carolina he passed through Fayetteville, North Carolina.  From Ft. Bragg I traveled to the railroad station to see and shake hands with Eric for the last time.  He was taken out of the military intelligence, put in the infantry, and sent overseas.  He only became a U.S. citizen overseas and was immediately sent into combat and killed the first day in combat.  When I traveled to Cassino I looked at some of the graves, when somebody told me that there was a cemetery about ten kilometers further back.  I hitchhiked there and saw literally thousands of graves.  Cassino was a total disaster.  The very first grave that I looked at was the grave of my friend Eric.  I had to inform his mother, who at this time was only notified that he was missing in action, while he was already killed.  I took pictures of his grave to send to his mom, who in many ways kind of adopted me, as the closest friend to her son.  Our company left Leghorn, Italy on our way to France.

____________________

From Frank A. Harris Collection at Leo Baeck Institute Archives

My parents and I moved in together with the Jonas’s, Grete Herzberg, her mother Lilli Huber and an assortment of “Unter Mieters”.  All of us had to earn a living, so I went to work the very first week as a delivery boy for Richter’s Jewelry store on 5th Avenue.  The pay – $10.00 per week.  The hours – 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, 6 days a week.  Length of employment, 1 week.  Reason for dismissal-not lack of work, nor incompatibility, nor dishonesty – but that I was not productive enough for “that much money”.

And so I made the rounds from job to job – a “carpet schlepper” (the first job that I quit, because it was so strenuous) to chandelier assembler, to paper slipper § machine operator, to cook in a hotel.   This was my preference, having had training in Munich.    I also attended food trade high school at night in New York.   All of us were most active in the Beth Hillel Synagogue’s youth group.

December 7, 1941 – my 19th birthday.   During my party, the news came over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.   All of us realized that, sooner or later, we would be inducted to serve our new Country.

On August 18, 1942 my father died at the age of 57, never really recovering from the traumatic experiences in the concentration camp K. 2 and the internment camp in England.   So I became head of our household and chief provider at the ripe old age of 19.

My mother, who is now 84, is well and is now residing at the Isabella Home in Washington Heights, N.Y.C., along with many elderly friends from Nuernberg and Fuerth.

Barely 6 months after, I was drafted into the Army at Ft. Dix, took my basic training in Ft. Bragg, N.C. in the field artillery.  Needless to point out, I was a model soldier, bubbling with enthusiasm and patriotism, while live bullets were shot over my head during the obstacle course.  Some of my other accomplishments:  a) I volunteered for the marathon – to get out of K.P. – and, upon completion, it took me 6 hours to catch my breath, b) I was in the boxing finals of featherweights against a Southerner who liked me personally, but hated all Yankees.  He treated me as a Yankee in the ring.  I lost by a TKO.  The referee, also being a Yankee and having compassion for me, stopped the fight.  (No Purple Heart for my gallant efforts?)  Weekends I spent – meeting my friends, Henry K. [Henry Kissinger] (then a buck private) or Eric Heilbronn, both stationed in S.C.  Eric I saw for the last time when he returned from his father’s funeral.

I became a citizen and changed my name from Franz Siegmund Hess to Frank A. Harris in Baltimore, Maryland in October 1943.  This was one of the few quick moves I made in my life.  I had intentions of changing my first name from Franz to Frank.  The woman behind the desk asked about the 2nd name and as quickly as she asked, I answered “change it from Hess to Harris”.  The Army goofed up the middle initial from S. to A.  The real reaction came with my mother’s first letter, moaning over the fact that the “Stammbaum” will die.

While stationed at Ft. Meade (met my cousin Gus Osier there) my last stop in the U.S. was Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia, where the then Capt. Martin Herrmann was Supreme Commander of a colored outfit.  They were also guarding prisoners.  Since Martin was a linguist, he taught his men the German language (one of them stood in front of the doctor’s office instructing the prisoners

“Hosenturchen Zumaehen”.

I left the good old U.S. on Thanksgiving 1943 on the “Empress of Scotland”, a Cunard luxury liner designed for 500 passengers.  It was my good fortune that the British consider an 0 as a Zero, so there were 500(0) (five thousand) passengers aboard.  It was a never to be forgotten trip.  I was so seasick, that the ship’s commander thought I was an excellent prospect for the gun crew – to look for submarines.  I was on duty for two hours and off for four hours, and I never prayed so hard that some torpedo would get me out of my misery.  Food was non-existent on the boat and the toilet facilities were air-conditioned -overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  I arrived in Casablanca unexpectedly one day early, in terrible physical and mental condition, but with full field pack, gas mask and M-l rifle, marching down the gangplank to music by an Army band, witnessed by a crowd of suspicious-looking Arabs.  All I wanted was one square meal but I had to wait a full 24 hours for it.  After a couple of weeks of fraternizing with the Moroccans, I took the 40 and 8 train to Oran (40 refers to 40 hours for 400 miles, 8 for 8 box cars).  We slept in shifts, since there was little room to stand up, let alone lay down.

Oran is a very scenic city in French Algeria, but since every Arab looked at every American as a potential rapist or killer, it was totally unsafe to visit the city to engage in legitimate business transactions, such as selling your “Raleigh cigarettes” (they preferred Camels), we stayed around camp waiting for reassignment, which came shortly afterwards to Naples, Italy via Sicily.  You know the old saying “See Naples and die” – but I didn’t want to die in Naples – I had to fight the Germans in Germany.

It was then that I learned of the death of my friend Eric Heilbronn and I found his grave near Cassino – also Pauli Harris (Hechinger), and the cruelty of this war struck home some more.

I was assigned to the 2759th Combat Engineers of Clark’s 5th Army (I shared a tent with Henry Landman, Lisa Oettinger’s husband), finishing in Livorno, Italy before moving on the Marseilles, France and Gen. Patton’s 7th Army.  It was there that I met my cousin Al Moss (Mosbalner) again.  During the winter of 1944, we moved through France into Germany and what a feeling to return as a soldier of the U.S. Army!  I don’t know if I should say in retrospect that I was proud of what I had done in Germany.  I do know that I was full of hate and fury and I have no regrets, after what the Nazis had done to my father and to many of my friends and family.  The day I returned to Fuerth, my old friend Helmut Reissner came back from the K-2.  I was in Ausburg when word came that the war in Europe was over.  I left Germany, vowing that I would never return.  I was shipped back to Marseilles, waiting to be assigned to the Pacific.  The Atom bomb on Hiroshima finished the war there and exactly two years to the day from leaving the U.S., I embarked once again for the U.S.  I arrived near Boston on December 5th, 1945 and headed for the first phone booth to call my mother and share with her my safe return, waiting for three hours to get through, expecting my mother’s voice, choking with emotion that I am alive.  Her first words were “Franz, wo bist du denn?” [Franz, where are you?] and when I answered not in Germany nor in France, but in Boston and I will be home tomorrow, she didn’t say “I am so happy” but “Bring mir bitte ein seifewpulver und butter mit denn das ist sehr knapp hier” [“Please bring me some soap powder and butter, because that’s very scarce here”].

__________

“The very first grave that I looked at was the grave of my friend Eric.  I had to inform his mother, who at this time was only notified that he was missing in action, while he was already killed.  I took pictures of his grave to send to his mom, who in many ways kind of adopted me, as the closest friend to her son.  Our company left Leghorn, Italy on our way to France.”

Here’s Frank Harris’ photograph of the grave of his friend Erich Heilbronn, near Cassino.  

____________________

Like their son Erich, Rabbi Isak Heilbronn and his wife Erna Esther are buried at Cedar Park Cemetery in Paramus, New Jersey.  This photo of their matzeva is by FindAGrave contributor dalya d.

Erich is buried alongside three other WW II Army casualties of German-Jewish ancestry.  As seen in the photo below (also by dalya d) from left to right, these men are: T/5 John S. Weil, Pvt. Werner M. Strauss, PFC Paul M. Harris.  Erich’s grave is at far right. 

Biographical information about these three soldiers follows this image.  Note that information about them appeared in Aufbau, and, American Jews in World War II.

.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím

May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

John Samuel Weil (Shmuel ben Dovid), T/5, 42078365, Purple Heart
Luxembourg, January 19, 1945
Born Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 9/5/10
Mrs. Maxine (“Mayme”) (Leibovitz) Weil (mother), 820 West End Ave., New York, 25, N.Y.
Sgt. Eric Lennart (step-brother)
Casualty List 3/8/45
Aufbau 2/2/45, 2/23/45
American Jews in World War II – 466

Werner Martin (Michael) Strauss (Mikhael ben Mordekhai), Pvt., 32898487, Purple Heart
30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
Italy, January 28, 1944
Mr. and Mrs. Max and Recha Strauss (parents), 880 West 180th St., New York, N.Y.
Born 3/11/24
Casualty List 3/17/44
Aufbau 3/3/44
American Jews in World War II – 457

Paul M. Harris (Pinkhas ben Yehuda), PFC, 32812529, Purple Heart
Italy, February 8, 1944
Dr. Otto M. Weller (friend), 676 Riverside Drive, New York, N.Y.
Mr. Leo Marlow [Manhardt] (uncle?), 44 Bath Road, Buxton, England
Born Munich, Germany, 3/3/24
Surname was originally “Hechinger“
Casualty List 11/19/44
Aufbau 8/11/44, 10/20/44
American Jews in World War II – 341

________________________________________

In closing, here’s a biography of Rabbi Heilbronn in English, followed by the original text in German, via RIJO Research.  Note that the document was written in February of 1937…

Rabbi Dr. Isaak Heilbronn

(Born June 4, 1880 in Tann in the Rhön)

Nuremberg-Furth Israelite Community Paper No. 12 from February 1, 1937 (16th year), page 198

On the 25th official anniversary of Rabbi Dr. Isaak Heilbronn in the religious community in Nuremberg

More than half a century ago our celebrant saw the light of day in Tann in the Rhön; his education took him to the Jewish universities of Berlin and Breslau via the Göttingen grammar school; he received his license to practice as a rabbi in the Breslau seminary, and in Erlangen he received his doctorate with a thesis on “the mathematical and scientific views of Josef Salomo Delmedigo”.

In the year 1904 Dr. Heilbronn got his first job as a preacher in Spandau.  The position was withdrawn for reasons of economy, because the community’s resources had been severely weakened due to the departure of the most efficient censite. [?]  What was an isolated case in those happy times threatens to become almost a general phenomenon today, due to the emigration of so many fellow believers and the decline in assets and income of those who remain behind.

From Spandau, in 1912 Dr. Heilbronn committed to our religious community.  That was a considerable promotion, which was also a testament to his excellent qualifications.

However, it was not pure and unclouded happiness that awaited him in Nuremberg.  Based on the provisions of the old Bavarian state church law, which was still in force at the time, Rabbi Dr. Freudenthal, who had been in charge of the rabbinate since 1907, [that] Dr. Heilbronn should not be treated on an equal footing, but only as a “rabbinate substitute”.

That was a structural limitation of his functions, but it must be said that even with equality, it would not have been easy [for] Dr. Heilbronn to emerge next to next to Freudenthal whose life maxim was a downright fanatical will to work, a man whose insatiable creative will could not even break severe shocks to his health, who would have needed rest even in the time when his reduced physical strength was most urgent, had refused any discharge; added to this was the genteel reluctance that Dr. Heilbronn exercised with consideration for the higher years of life and service of his official colleague.

Through all of this, Dr. Heilbronn had a very limited field of activity; the shackles that were imposed on him left little room for the free development of the forces that slumbered in him; until Freudenthal’s resignation he could rarely speak from the pulpit to the congregation and only serve their members as pastors at weddings and funerals for short periods of time.  The fact that he won the hearts of everyone very soon, the love and trust of the widest circles, speaks to a high degree for his rabbinical ability, for the warmth and humanity of his being that radiates from him.  Dr. Heilbronn knew and always knows in his sermons to instruct his listeners by virtue of his great knowledge, to arouse them and to sooth them, he always finds words to fill the many people who are desperate today with God’s-trusting confidence.  On the altar and on the bier, threads of solidarity weave from him to the happy and the mourning to create a kind of deeply human community.

A very special area of Heilbronn’s work has always been the education of young people; years ago, Dr. Heilbronn recognized with a clear view the paramount importance, especially in our religious community, of the training of religious youth who are not ashamed of their Judaism but are proud of it.

But the very own field of Dr. Heilbronn, towards which his innermost being urges him, is after all caring for the poor and depressed, a circle that is expanding almost from day to day in this difficult time.  There is hardly a welfare organization in our community in which Dr. Heilbronn is not in a leading position or in any other influential position, and everywhere he is the warm, eloquent advocate for all who have to struggle hard for their existence.

Josef Salomo Delmedigo, who life chose Dr. Heilbronn chose as the subject of his doctoral dissertation, was a scholar of high grades, of unusual versatility, he was an astronomer, doctor, philosopher, mathematician, but he was certainly not a role model for his biographer in mathematics and even less in one whole other area.

A mathematician, if you mean an arithmetic artist in the usual sense, is not Dr. Heilbronn at all; at least not in welfare.  He doesn’t calculate at all, but yields in the exuberance of his heart, or to put it more correctly, he would give if the writer of these lines didn’t give him a friendly stop every now and then.  – But the difference in lifestyle is even greater.  Delmedigo has not always expressed his true conviction – perhaps under the pressure of a frequently changing but always difficult to treat environment – he has not infrequently thrown diplomatic veils over his innermost thoughts.  In this point, Dr. Heilbronn is just the opposite: his word is clear, his manner open, sincere and true.  This truthfulness, like the mildness of his being, is also the cornerstone for the harmonious cooperation between him and the chairman of the community.

The cradle of our jubilee was shrouded in the harsh winds of the Rauen Rhön, but they did not give him any of their roughness on the path of life, his mind was and remained full of tender feelings, understanding everything human, open-minded everything human, his heart filled with kindness and love.

Anniversary articles usually close with friendly pictures for the next span of life, with beautiful prospects for a bright future; such words would be empty phrases, hollow idioms in this dark time that has come upon us all.  On the contrary, the rabbi’s duties will weigh particularly heavily on our celebrant in the near future.  From the pulpit he will have to try more than ever to instill courage and confidence in the souls of the oppressed parishioners.  Welfare care will make ever greater demands with the growing need and ever more difficult problems will have to be mastered.

We therefore close with the wish: [that for] Dr. Heilbronn and his honored wife, the loyal and proven helper in works of charity, may strengths be retained for many years to help overcome the endless difficulties that surround us and await us.  [Ludwig] Rosenzweig

On February 10, 1939, the Heilbronn family emigrated to New York via London, where Dr. Heilbronn together with the former Munich rabbi Dr. Leo Baerwald founded a community for emigrants from Germany, in which many people from Nuremberg, Munich and Fürth became members and found a spiritual home.  His son Erich died as an American soldier in World War II.

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Rabbiner Dr. Isaak Heilbronn

(geb. 4.6.1880 in Tann i.d. Rhön)

Nürnberg-Fürther Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt Nr. 12 vom 1. Februar 1937 (16. Jg.), S. 198f.:

Zum 25jährigen Amts-Jubiläum des Rabbiners Dr. Isaak Heilbronn in der Kultusgemeinde Nürnberg

Vor mehr als einem halben Jahrhundert erblickte unser Jubilar in Tann in der Rhön das Licht der Welt; sein Bildungsgang führte ihn über das Göttinger Gymnasium auf die jüdischen Hochschulen von Berlin und Breslau; im Breslauer Seminar erhielt er seine Approbation als Rabbiner und in Erlangen promovierte er mit einer Arbeit über “die mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Anschauungen des Josef Salomo Delmedigo” zum Doktor.

Im Jahre 1904 erhielt Dr. Heilbronn seine erste Anstellung und zwar als Prediger in Spandau.  Die Stelle wurde aus Sparsamkeitsgründen eingezogen, weil die Mittel der Gemeinde wegen Wegzugs des leitungsfähigsten Censiten sehr geschwächt worden waren.  Was in jenen glücklichen Zeiten ein Einzelfall war, droht heute durch die Auswanderung so vieler Glaubensgenossen und durch den Vermögens- und Einkommensverfall der Zurückbleibenden beinahe eine Allgemeinerscheinung zu werden.

Von Spandau wurde Dr. Heilbronn im Jahre 1912 für unsere Kultusgemeinde verpflichtet.  Das war ein beträchtlicher Aufstieg, der zugleich Zeugnis für seine ausgezeichnete Qualifikation war.

Ein reines und ungetrübtes Glück war es jedoch nicht, das ihn in Nürnberg erwartete.  Auf Grund der Bestimmungen des damals noch geltenden alten bayerischen Staatskirchenrechtes konnte Dr. Heilbronn Herrn Rabbiner Dr. Freudenthal, der seit 1907 das Rabbinat betreute, nicht gleichgestellt, sondern nur als “Rabbinatssubstitut” angestellt werden.

Das war schon eine strukturelle Einschränkung seiner Funktionen, aber es muss gesagt werden, dass es auch bei einer Gleichstellung Dr. Heilbronn nicht leicht geworden wäre, neben einem Freudenthal, dessen Lebensmaxime ein geradezu fanatischer Arbeitswille war, aufzukommen, neben einem Manne, dessen unstillbaren Schaffenswillen nicht einmal schwere gesundheitliche Erschütterungen zu brechen vermochten, der auch in der Zeit, in der seine geminderten körperlichen Kräfte dringendst der Schonung bedurft hätten, jede Entlastung abgelehnt hat; dazu kam noch die vornehme Zurückhaltung, die Dr. Heilbronn mit Rücksicht auf die höheren Lebens- und Dienstjahre seines Amtskollegen übte.

Durch all das hatte Dr. Heilbronn ein sehr eingeschränktes Wirkungsfeld, die Fesseln, die ihm auferlegt waren, liessen der freien Entfaltung der Kräfte, die in ihm schlummerten, wenig Spielraum; er konnte bis zum Rücktritt Dr. Freudenthals nur selten von der Kanzel zur Gemeinde sprechen und nur während kurzer Zeiträume ihren Mitgliedern bei Trauungen und Bestattungen Seelsorger sein.  Dass er sich trotzdem sehr bald die Herzen aller gewann, die Liebe und das Vertrauen weitester Kreise errang, spricht in hohem Mass für sein rabbinisches Können, für die Wärme und Menschlichkeit seines Wesens, die von ihm ausstrahlt.  Dr. Heilbronn wusste und weiss immer in seinen Predigten seine Zuhörer kraft seines grossen Wissens zu belehren, aufzurütteln und auch zu beruhigen, er findet immer wieder Worte, um die vielen Menschen, die heute am Verzagen sind, mit gottvertrauender Zuversicht zu erfüllen.  Am Traualtar wie an der Bahre weben sich von ihm zu den Frohen wie zu den Trauernden Fäden der Verbundenheit zu einer Art tiefmenschlicher Gemeinschaft.

Ein ganz besonderes Gebiet Heilbronnschen Wirkens war von jeher die Erziehung der Jugend; Dr. Heilbronn hat schon vor Jahren mit klarem Blick erkannt, welch überragende Bedeutung gerade in unserer Glaubensgemeinschaft der Heranbildung einer religiösen Jugend, die sich ihres Judentums nicht schämt, sondern stolz auf es ist, zukommt. 

Aber das ureigenste Feld Dr. Heilbronns, auf das ihn sein innerstes Wesen hindrängt, ist doch die Fürsorge für die Armen und Bedrückten, ein Kreis, der sich in dieser schweren Zeit fast von Tag zu Tag erweitert.  Es gibt in unserer Gemeinde kaum eine Wohlfahrtsorganisation, in der Dr. Heilbronn nicht an leitender oder sonstiger einflussreicher Stelle steht, und überall ist er der warme, beredte Fürsprecher für alle, die hart um ihr Dasein ringen müssen. 

Josef Salomo Delmedigo, dessen Leben sich Dr. Heilbronn zum Gegenstand seiner Doktor-Dissertation gewählt hat, war ein Gelehrter von hohen Graden, von ungewöhnlicher Vielseitigkeit, er war Astronom, Mediziner, Philosoph, Mathematiker, aber ein Vorbild für seinen Biographen war er bestimmt nicht in der Mathematik und noch weniger auf einem ganz anderen Gebiet.

Ein Mathematiker, wenn man darunter einen Rechenkünstler im üblichen Sinne versteht, ist Dr. Heilbronn ganz und gar nicht; wenigstens nicht in der Wohlfahrt.  Da rechnet er überhaupt nicht, sondern ergibt im Überschwang seines Herzens, richtiger gesagt, er würde geben, wenn ihm der Schreiber dieser Zeilen nicht mitunter ein freundschaftliches Stop entgegenhalten würde.  – Noch grösser aber ist der Unterschied in der Lebensführung.  Delmedigo hat nicht immer – vielleicht unter dem Druck einer häufig wechselnden, aber stets schwer zu behandelnden Umwelt – seine wahre Überzeugung zum Ausdruck gebracht, er hat nicht selten diplomatische Schleier über seine innerste Gedankenwelt gebreitet.  In diesem Punkte verkörpert Dr. Heilbronn das gerade Gegenteil: sein Wort ist klar, seine Art offen, aufrichtig und wahr.  Diese Wahrhaftigkeit, wie die Milde seines Wesens, sind auch die Grundpfeiler für das harmonische Zusammenwirken zwischen ihm und dem Vorsitzenden der Gemeinde. 

Die Wiege unseres Jubilars war umwittert von den harten Winden der Rauen Rhön, aber sie haben ihm von ihrer Rauheit nichts mit auf den Lebensweg gegeben, sein Gemüt war und blieb voll zartester Empfindung, alles Menschliche verstehend, allem Menschlichen aufgeschlossen, sein Herz erfüllt von Güte und Liebe.

Jubiläumsartikel schliessen gewöhnlich mit freundlichen Bildern für die nächste Lebensspanne, mit schönen Ausblicken auf eine frohe Zukunft; solche Worte wären in dieser düsteren Zeit, die über uns alle gekommen ist, leere Phrasen, hohle Redensarten.  Im Gegenteil, die Pflichten des Rabbiners werden in der nächsten Zeit besonders schwer auf unserem Jubilar lasten.  Von der Kanzel herab wird er mehr wie je versuchen müssen, Mut und Lebenszuversicht in die Seelen der bedrückten Gemeindemitglieder zu träufeln.  Die Wohlfahrtspflege wird mit der wachsenden Not immer grössere Anforderungen stellen und immer schwierigere Probleme werden zu meistern sein.

Wir schliessen daher mit dem Wunsche: mögen Dr. Heilbronn und seiner verehrten Gemahlin, der getreuen und bewährten Helferin in den Werken der Nächstenliebe, noch lange Jahre die Kräfte erhalten bleiben, um die unendlichen Schwierigkeiten, die uns umgeben und unserer harren, überwinden zu helfen.  [Ludwig] Rosenzweig

Am 10.2.1939 wanderte die Familie Heilbronn über London nach New York aus, wo Dr. Heilbronn zusammen mit dem ehemaligen Münchner Rabbiner Dr. Leo Baerwald eine Gemeinde für die Emigranten aus Deutschland gründete, in der viele Menschen aus Nürnberg, München und Fürth Mitglieder wurden und eine seelische Heimat fanden.  Sein Sohn Erich fiel als amerikanischer Soldat im Zweiten Weltkrieg.

Reference  (Just One)

Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947.

Acknowledgement

My deep thanks to Bastiaan van der Velden for enabling me to present a fuller historical picture of Erich Heilbronn and his family.  

An Unintended Return:  The Tale of S/Sgt. Walter Bonne, a German-Born Jewish Soldier’s Experiences as a Prisoner of War – Aufbau, May 18, 1945

Sometimes, life can be an unintended circle:  You return to the place from which you started or start from a place to which you’ll return.  At least, for a while.    

Such was the case of United States Army Staff Sergeant Walter Bonne, whose experience as a prisoner of war was reported by literary agent and “literatus” (that’s a term new to me!) Kurt Hellmer in the May 18, 1945 issue of Aufbau.  While mainstream in literary style and stylistically akin to postwar accounts of captivity penned about or by many another American Ex-POW – at least, captured in the European Theater of War – S/Sgt. Bonne’s tale is at the same time unusual:  Not only was he a Jew, but he was born in Germany, which in the hindsight of 2021 could be thought to have leant a very fraught dimension to his experiences.  But…  

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In June, 1943, Walter posed for this snapshot at Fort McClellan, Alabama  (From the album of Linda Nachenberg.)

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As for Walter Bonne himself, born in Nurnberg on May 6, 1908, he was one of seven children born to Nathan and Bertha (Stern) Bonne, who passed away in 1933 and 1929, respectively, thus by fate essentially and really being spared the ordeal of surviving in and escaping from Nazi Germany.  Mercifully and thankfully, five of Walter’s six siblings – Alfred, Bella Bernhardine, Felix, and Martin – also survived the war.  However, his older brother Justin Jehuda, born in 1895, died during the influenza epidemic in February of 1919, due to wounds incurred during military service during the First World War.  

Walter sailed from Rotterdam aboard the SS Statendam, arriving in Havana on October 1, 1938.  He reached Miami the following December 6 via the Pan Am Sikorsky S-40 seaplane “Southern Clipper” (NC752V).  In his Declaration of Intention, dated November 29, 1939, he listed his Race as Hebrew and Nationality as German, his last foreign residence as Havana, and, his Occupation as Merchant.  

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From famgus.se, here’s an undated photo of the Southern Clipper, taken at Miami.  

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Walter Bonne’s Draft Card, filed on October 26, 1940, lists his employer as the Greta Restaurant, at 112 Central Park South in Manhattan, consistent with his work in the hospitality business, as described in Aufbau.  The “Name of Person Who Will Always Know Your Address” was his brother Martin, at 287 Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn.   

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From Apartments.com, here’s an undated – but I guess recent! – photo of 112 Central Park South, the building appearing in the center of the photo.

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According to NARA’s World War II Army Enlistment Records database, Walter enlisted in the Army on March 11, 1943, in Manhattan, his serial number being 32860314.  Eventually, he was assigned to the 54th Armored Infantry Battalion of the 10th Armored Division.  Captured during the Ardennes Offensive on December 17, 1944, he was first interned at Stalag 9B (Bad Orb), and then Stalag 9A (Ziegenhain), the latter probably commencing in February of 1945.  Liberated from that POW camp on March 28, 1945, he was flown to Camp Lucky Strike, at Le Havre, France, on April 9.  And from there, he returned to the United States.  

Along with Kurt Hellmer’s Aufbau article of May 18, Staff Sergeant Bonne’s name appeared in that newspaper on April 27, while his name was published in an Official Casualty list – under the very apropos heading “Liberated Prisoners” – in The New York Times on May 5, 1945.  There, rather than his brother Martin, his next of kin is listed as his wife Genia, who resided at 535 West 111th Street in Manhattan.  His name never appeared in the book American Jews in World War Two.  The absence of his name from this reference work is not unusual, since a soldier’s status as a returned POW – per se – was not specifically a criteria for inclusion in the book.  

Walter Bonne passed away on November 3, 200, while Genia (born Genia Eisenstaedter), born on November 3, 1917, died on May 24 of the same year. 

Some twenty images of the Bonne family can be found at Geni.com, where the three photographs below (and the one above, of Walter as a soldier!) were found.  

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Dated 1927 and taken in Nuremberg, this photo shows Martin (left) and Walter.  The lady’s name is unknown.  (From the album of Linda Nachenberg.)

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Walter, probably photographed in Gemany.  (From the Bonne Family album, via Nurit Bertha Gillath)

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Passenger list for the SS Statendam, date October, 1938.  Walter’s name is the third entry.  

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Walter’s Declaration of Intention, of November, 1939.

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Walter’s Draft Card.

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And so, Kurt Hellmer’s article.  The German text of the article follows these two images, and in turn is followed by an English-language translation.

Interestingly, the article does not address a central question about Walter Bonne’s experiences as a prisoner of war:  Did he personally experience any repercussions from his captors upon capture and interrogation (even if his interrogation was only cursory) or later, given that he was a Jew, born in Germany?  Since this topic is unmentioned, there are three possible answers:  1) This didn’t happen.  2) If he did experience any mistreatment, he didn’t wish to dwell upon the subject.  3) He didn’t deem the subject of sufficient importance for discussion with Kurt Hellmer.  Well, some questions will have to remain unanswered.

In a larger sense, the article alludes to an event that received little serious focus until the 1990s, though it received nominal attention in the news media as early as the summer of 1945: The segregation of Jewish POWs at Stalag 9B, as a preliminary step towards the “transport” of 350 American POWS to the slave labor camp at Berga-am-Elster.  Hellmer’s article states, “There were special barracks for Jewish prisoners of war, against which the Americans successfully protested.”  Though S/Sgt. Bonne probably believed and hoped this was so, it was not:  There was no collective protest, let alone a successful one, over the segregation of the Jewish POWs at Stalag 9B. 

And so, on to Bonne’s story…

In Deutschland kriegsgefangen
Die Erlebnisse des Sgt. Bonne – Von KURT HELLMER

Aufbau
May 18, 1945

Die Nichteinhaltung den Genfer-Konvention durch die Deutschen ist heute eine notorische Tatsache.  Schon seit langem haben wir hier an dieser Stelle auf diesen Skandal hingewiesen und ihm die korrekte Beachtung der Bestimmungen, wie sie von den amerikanischen Behörden durchgeführt werden, gegenübergestellt.  Leider ist man heute jedoch nur allzu leicht geneigt, rasch abgestumpft zu werden und neuen Nachrichten über die Verletzung der Genfer-Konvention die nötige Aufmerksamkeit zu versagen.  Das liegt an der Schnellebigkeit unserer Zeit; die Ereignisse überschlagen sich, die Eindrücke konkurrieren miteinander.  Das Ende des Krieges in Europe scheint alles überholt zu haben.  Was gestern noch die Gemüter erregt hat, ist heute schon so verblasst, als wäre es nie gesch_hen.

Diese Einstellung ist nicht ungefährlich.  Denn wenn man die Entwicklung, die heute in der Welt von sich geht, beeinflussen, wenn man zu dem gewaltigen Aufbau Europas beitragen und wenn man den von den Deutschen in Europa Unterdrückten das bringen will, was sie von ihren Befreiern erwarten, nämlich Gerechtigkeit, dann muss man allen neuen Nachrichten aus Deutschland das richtige Gewicht geben.  Dann, und nur dann, wind es möglich sein, gerecht zu handeln.

Die Erlebnisse des S/Sgt. Walter Bonne, eines in Nürnberg gebürtigen amerikanischen Soldaten, der jetzt aus deutscher Gefangenschaft nach New York zurückgekehrt ist, sprechen für sich.  Man braucht sie nicht weiter zu kommentieren.  Aber man muss immer wieder darauf hinweisen, mit welcher darauf hinweisen, mit welcher Bewusstheit die Deutschen die Genfer Konvention gebrochen haben.  Man muss betonen, dass es sich hier nicht um sogenannte Einzelaktionen sogenannter unverantwortlicher Nazis handelt, sondern um die von der deutschen Wehrmacht planmässig durchgeführte Missachtung der in der Genfer Konvention enthaltenen Bestimmungen.  Die deutsche Armee und ihr Generalstab können sich nicht darauf ausreden, dass die Nazis sie zu diesem Bruch veranlasst haben.  Der Generalstab, der jetzt den Zusammenbruch Nazi-Deutschlands zu überleben scheint, ist dafür verantwortlich.  Er gehört ebenso in die Reihe der Kriegsverbrecher wie die Nazis, die sich an deutschen und ausländischen Zivilisten vergangen haben.

In knappen Zügen sind das die Erlebnisse – von S/Sgt. Bonne und tausender anderer amerikanischer Kriegsgefangener in Deutschland:

Die Gefangennahme

Es war acht Uhr abends am Sonntag, den 17 Dezember 1944 als S/Sgt. Walter Bonne zusammen mit 60 seiner Kameraden im Keller eines Hauses in dem luxemburgischen Kurort Clervaux bei Bastogne von den Deutschen gefangen genommen wurde.  Zwei Tage schon hatte schweres Artilleriefeuer getobt; am Sonntag morgen hatten die Deutschen die Amerikaner in dem Ort emgekreist.  Ein Entkommen war nicht moglich: Widerstand gegen den zahlenmässig überlegenen Feind sinnlos.

Mit wurfbereiten Granaten in der Hand kamen einige Deutsche die Kellertreppe herunter und befahlen den Amerikanern, nach oben zu kommen.  Die Deutschen “beschlagnahmten” nicht nun ihre Jeeps, sondern auch ihre Füllfederhalter, Zigaretten, Süssigkeiten, ihre Reisesäcke, Mäntel, Unterwäsche und Toiletteartikel.  Dann pferchten sie die Gefangenen in ein Zimmer ein, das so klein war, dass sie die Nacht stehend verbringen mussten.…

Fünf Tagemärsche

Am Montag früh mussten die Gefangenen losmarschieren.  Den ganzen Tag, ohne Unterbrechung.  Spät abends wurden sie in einer Kegelbahn einquartiert, in der sie die Nacht sitzend zubringen mussten, da zum Liegen kein Platz war.

Am Dienstag kamen die Gefangenen spät abends in einem kleinen Ort in der Eiffel an.  Die Deutschen hatten beschlossen, sie die Nacht — mitten im Dezember! — im Freien verbringen zu lassen.  Die Gruppe, die inzwischen auf 1200 Gefangene angewachsen war, Offiziere und Mannschaften, protestierte.  Man öffnete ihnen die Kirche und gab ihnen zu essen — zum ersten Male nach 72 Stunden schweren Marschierens!  Jeder bekam ein Drittel Laib Brot, einen Löffel Rübenmarmelade und nichts zu trinken, nicht einmal Wasser.

Die Dorfbewohner sahen recht deprimiert drein und manche gaben den Amerikanern heimlich das “V”-Zeichen mit den Fingern. . . .

Inzwischen hatte es zu schneien begonnen und es wurde kälter und kälter.  In der Kirche war es kalt und das Liegen auf dem Steinboden, noch dazu ohne Decke, kein Vergnügen.

Nach einem weiteren Tagesmarsch am Mittwoch wurden die Gefangenen wiederum in einer Kirche untergebracht.  Diesmal erhielten sie eine Tasse Kaffee und nichts zu essen.  Am Donnerstag wurde der Marsch fortgesetzt; spät nachts wurden die Gefangenen in einem Eisenbahnschuppen einquartiert, der so klein war, dass die 1200 Mann stehend schlafen mussten.  Am nächsten Tag, dem fünften Tag seit den Gefangennahme, erreichten die Amerikaner Gerolstein am Nachmittag, wo jeder einen halben Laib trockenes Brot bekam.  Für Getränke waren sie auf Bäche, Brunnen, Schnee und Eis angewiesen.

Im Güterzug

In Gerolstein wurden die Gefangenen in einen Güterzug verfrachtet, je 50 bis 60 Mann in einen Viehwagen mit Stroh und Pferdedreck auf dem Boden.  Die Deutschen schlossen sie ein und machten die nächsten drei Nächte und vier Tage nicht wieder auf.  Ihre Bedürfnisse mussten sie in ihre Helme verrichten und diese durch die kleinen Fenster ausleeren — dieselben Helme, in denen sie auf den Bahnhöfen Wasser fassen mussten.

Auf der Reise wurde der Zug von allierten Bombern beschossen, denn er war nicht als Kriegsgefangenen zug markiert.  Ein Amerikaner wurde bei einem Fluchtversuch niedergeknallt; ein anderer so schwer verletzt, dass er 16 Stunden später, während der Fahrt, gestorben ist.

Ankunft in Bad Orb

Am vierten Tag um 4 Uhr früh erhielten die Gefangenen je ein Drittel Laib Brot und eine Büchse Corned Beef für 15 Mann.  Am Nachmittag kamen sie in Bad Orb an und erhielten die erste warme Mahlzeit: einen Liter Suppe.  Von nun an war ihr tägliches “Menü”: zum Frühstück schwarzer Tee ohne Zucker oder Milch, mittags ein Liter Rüben- oder Gemüsesuppe mit ein paar Gramm Hundeoder Pferdefleisch, und abends etwas Brot mit Margarine und wieder ein halber Liter von dem sogenannten Tee.

Das Lager war die vielen aus ihrer in Deutschland verbrachten Jugend bekannte “Wegscheide”.  Hier gab es Sonderbaracken für jüdische Kriegsgefangene, gegen die die Amerikaner mit Erfolg protestierten.  Die Baracken waren aus Holz und für je 140 Mann bestimmt.  Jetzt waren je 250 in einer Baracke untergebracht und zwei mussten auf einer Matratze schlafen.

In Bad Orb blühte der tollste Tauschhandel.  Für eine herrliche Armbanduhr, die $60 wert war, bekam man zwei Stück Brot und 20 Zigaretten.  Ein erstklassiger Füllfederhalter brachte drei Zigaretten oder ein Drittel Laib Brot.  Ein Päckchen Zigaretten kostete $40.

Stalag 9-A

Ungefähr einen Monat nach der Ankunft in Bad Orb wunden die amerikanischen Kriegsgefangenen in Güterwagen nach Stalag 9-A in Ziegenhain gebracht.  Während der Nachtfahrt herrschte ein schneidender Schneesturm und vielen Soldaten erfroren die Füsse.

In Ziegenhain war die Situation etwas besser, denn die Deutschen hatten das Lager, in dem sich noch rund 20,000 Franzosen, Belgier, Russen und Engländer befanden, gründlicher organisiert.  Ausserdem traf S/Sgt. Bonne dort 120 Palästinenser, darunter sehr viele in Deutschland Geborene, die in Griechenland gefangen genommen wurden und zuerst in einem Lager in Schlesien waren, bis die Deutschen sie von dort vor den Russen “in Sicherheit “ brachten.  Ihr Führer war ein Sgt.  Friedlein, der aus Köln stammte.

Die Verpflegung war ungefähr dieselbe wie in Bad Orb, aber nach einem Monat wurden die täglichen Rationen auf ein Siebentel Laib Brot, ¾ Liter Suppe und 1/4 Liter Tee gekürzt.  Alle Gefangenen verloren an Gewicht und sahen wie Skelette aus; das Krankenhaus war überfüllt.

Einmal wurde Ziegenhain, das nicht als Kriegsgefangenenlager markiert war, von den Amerikaner bombardiert, wobei elf Franzosen getötet und 35 verwundet wurden.  Ein anderes Mal zwangen die Deutschen die Amerikaner, eine bombardierte Eisenbahnstrecke drei Tage und drei Nächte lang zu reparieren.

Die Deutschen versuchten die Amerikaner auch propagandistisch zu beeinflussen und verteilten eine englische Uebersetzung von “Mein Kampf” und viele andere Bücher hauptsächlich antisemitischen Inhalts.

Theater!  Theater!

Inzwischen ging der Krieg gut vorwärts.  Der Rheinübergang hob die Stimmung der Gefangenen und jeder machte Prognosen über die voraussichtliche Dauer des Krieges.  Die Gefangenen erhielten ihre Nachrichten nicht nur durch den amtlichen deutschen Heeresbericht, sondern vor allem von “Kommando-Arbeitern”, jenen Kriegsgefangenen, die zur Arbeit das Lager verliessen und die sie von Zivilisten erfuhren, die das BBC hörten.

Da wurden plötzlich Gerüchte über einen baldigen Abtransport der Gefangenen laut.  Die Deutschen wollten die Gefangenen weiter ins Land schaffen, um ihre Befreiung durch die vorrückenden Alliierten zu verhindern.  Am 27. März war die Front nur mehr 21 Meilen von Ziegenhain entfernt; am nächsten Morgen, um 5 Uhr sollten alle Gefangenen zu einem neuen Bestimmungsort abmarschieren.

Während der ganzen Nacht hielten die Gefangenen Versammlungen ab.  Die phantastischsten Fluchtpläne und Vorschläge, wie man sich im Lager verstecken könnte, wurden gemacht und zum Teil auch ausgeführt.  Der amerikanische Lagerführer gab jedoch den Befehl, alles solange als möglich hinauszuschieben – mit anderen Worten: am nächsten Morgen den Kranken und Schwachen zu spielen.  Das war für die meisten Gefangenen ohnehin leicht genug.

Beim Appell traten die Amerikaner auf dem Fussballplatz an.  Es begann zu regnen.  Die Jungens wurden ohnmächtig, zwölf in einer Sekunde.  Innerhalb einer halben Stunde lagen 3-400 Mann auf dem Boden, stöhnten, ächzten und vollbrachten eine so ausgezeichnete Vorstellung, dass die Deutschen sich entschliessen mussten, den Amerikanern die Rückkehr in ihre Baracken zu erlauben, bis sie für einen Transport mit Lastwagen oder Eisenbahn sorgen konnten.

Die Amerikaner hatten ihr erstes Ziel erreicht: einen Aufschub um 12-15 Stunden.  Während die anderen Gefangenen aus dem Lager abmarschierten, lagen die Amerikaner in ihren Betten und sahen aus, als wären sie bereits gestorben.  Die Deutschen hatten irgend einem Hauptquartier telefoniert; um 2 Uhr kam der Befehl, dass 250 Amerikaner ausmarschieren mussten und die übrigen 1000 im Lager warten konnten.

Die Befreiung

In der Zwischenzeit hatten sich jedoch viele der deutschen Wachen selbst aus dem Staub gemacht und so blieben auch die 250 Amerikaner in Ziegenhain.  Die Amerikaner übernahmen das Lager und waren theoretisch frei.  Es war Sederabend und die Juden unter ihnen veranstalteten einen Dankgottesdienst.

Aber noch waren die Alliierten nicht in Sicht.  S/Sgt. Bonne setzte sich auf ein Fahrrad, fuhr zur Hauptstrasse und wartete, bis die ersten Alliierten kamen.  Es waren amerikanische Tanks, die aber nicht nach Ziegenhain fuhren, sondern geradeaus weiter.  Damit lag Ziegenhain im besetzten Gebiet.

Ziegenhain wurde nun ein deutsches Kriegsgefangenenlager.  Tausend deutsche Soldaten wurden eingeliefert, und die bekamen von den Amerikanern nicht mehr zu essen als diese vorher von den Deutschen erhielten.  Und auch sie mussten eine Nacht im Freien schlafen, genau wie ihre Kameraden es vorher mit den Amerikanern getan hatten.

Die Frauen von Allendorf

In den zwölf Tagen, in denen die bisherigen amerikanischen Kriegsgefangenen auf Ablösung warteten, kamen auch die vielen hundert Frauen, die im Juni 1944 von den Deutschen aus Ungarn nach Allendorf bei Marburg gebracht worden waren, nach Ziegenhain.  (Mit der Veröffentlichung ihrer Namen haben wir im vorigen “Aufbau” begonnen!)  Es waren nur Frauen zwischen 15 und 50 Jahren.  Sie berichteten, dass sie zusammen mit Mädchen unter 15 Jahren und Flauen über 50 Jahren deportiert worden waren, aber bei ihrer Ankunft in Deutschland von den zu jungen und den zu alten getrennt wurden.  Diese wurden als “arbeitsunfähig” bezeichnet und “vernichtet” — verbrannt.  Die Ueberlebenden mussten in einer Munitionsfabrik arbeiten…

Happy End

Am 9, April wurden S/Sgt. Bonne und seine Kameraden nach Le Havre geflogen, wo alle in dem Riesenlager Lucky Strike neu eingekleidet wurden.  Nach einem für alle GI’s obligaten Ausflug nach Paris wurden sie per Schiff nach Amerika zurückgebracht, wo sie einen 60tägigen Urlaub erhielten, nach dem sie neue Aufgaben zugewiesen bekommen — sofern sie nicht 85 Punkte erreichen und entlassen werden.

Für S/Sgt. Bonne, der bis zu seinem Einrücken in die Armee vor zwei Jahren in der Hotelbranche tätig war und der an den Kämpfen in der Normandie, in der Bretagne und in Luxemburg teilnahm, der über 30,000 deutsche Kriegsgefangene interviewte, der zeitweise zu den berühmten “Ghost Riders” von General Patton gehörte und der einmal von einer Landmine verwundet und mit dem Purple Heart ausgezeichnet wurde, war der schwärzeste Traum seines Lebens zu Ende.

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A Prisoner of War in Germany
The Adventures of Sgt. Bonne – by KURT HELLMER

Aufbau
May 18, 1945

Non-compliance with the Geneva Convention by the Germans is today a notorious fact.  For a long time now we have referred to this scandal on this point and compared it with the correct observance of the provisions, as they are carried out by the American authorities.  Unfortunately, today one is now all to prone to be quickly jaded and to refuse to pay attention to news about the violation of the Geneva Convention.  That’s because of the fast pace of our time; events turn over; impressions compete with each other.  The end of the war in Europe seems to have overtaken everything.  What excited people’s minds yesterday has already faded as if it had never happened.

This attitude is not safe.  For if you influence the development that is taking place in the world today; if you contribute to the enormous reconstruction of Europe, and if you want to bring to the Germans what the oppressed of Europe expect from their liberators, namely justice, then you have to give all the new news from Germany the proper weight.  Then, and only then, will it be possible to act righteously.

The experiences of S/Sgt. Walter Bonne, an American soldier born in Nuremberg, who has now returned to New York from German captivity, speak for themselves.  You do not need to comment further.  But one must always point out, point out with which, with what awareness the Germans have broken the Geneva Convention.  It must be emphasized that these are not so-called individual actions of so-called irresponsible Nazis, but disregard of the provisions contained in the Geneva Convention as planned by the German Wehrmacht.  The German army and its general staff cannot be persuaded that the Nazis have led them to this breach.  The General Staff, which now seems to survive the collapse of Nazi Germany, is responsible.  It belongs as much in the line of war criminals as the Nazis, who have passed onto German and foreign civilians.

In a nutshell these are the experiences – from S/Sgt. Bonne and thousands of other American prisoners of war in Germany:

The Capture

It was eight o’clock in the evening on Sunday, December 17, 1944, as S/Sgt. Walter Bonne, along with 60 of his comrades, was captured by the Germans in the basement of a house in the Luxembourg spa town of Clervaux near Bastogne.  Heavy artillery fire had already raged two days; on Sunday morning, the Germans had encircled the Americans in the place.  An escape was not possible: resistance against the numerically superior enemy meaningless.

With grenades in hand, some Germans came down the basement stairs and ordered the Americans to come upstairs.  The Germans did not “confiscate” only their jeeps, but also their fountain pens, cigarettes, sweets, their travel bags, coats, underwear and toiletries.  Then they put the prisoners in a room that was so small that they had to spend the night standing…

Five-Day March

The prisoners had to march on Monday morning.  The whole day, without interruption.  Late in the evening they were quartered in a bowling alley, where they had to spend the night sitting, as there was no room to lie down.

On Tuesday, the prisoners arrived late at night in a small town in the Eiffel.  The Germans had decided to take them the night – in the middle of December! – to spend outdoors.  The group, which had now grown to 1200 prisoners, officers and men, protested.  They opened the church for them and gave them food – for the first time after 72 hours of heavy marching!  Everyone got a third of a loaf of bread, a spoonful of beet jam and nothing to drink, not even water.

The villagers looked quite downcast and some secretly gave the Americans the “V” sign with their fingers.

It had begun to snow and it was getting colder and colder.  It was cold in the church and lying on the stone floor, with no ceiling, no enjoyment.

After another day’s march on Wednesday, the prisoners were again housed in a church.  This time they got a cup of coffee and nothing to eat.  On Thursday, the march continued; late at night, the prisoners were quartered in a train shed so small that the 1,200 men had to sleep standing.  The next day, the fifth day since capture, the Americans reached Gerolstein in the afternoon, where everyone got half a loaf of dry bread.  For drinks they were dependent on streams, wells, snow and ice.

In the Freight Train

In Gerolstein, the prisoners were shipped into a freight train, 50 to 60 men each in a cattle car with straw and horse dung on the ground.  The Germans locked them in and did not rejoin them for the next three nights and four days.  They had to put their needs in their helmets and empty them through the small windows – the same helmets they had to hold water at the stations.

On the trip, the train was bombarded by allied bombers, because it was not marked as for prisoners of war.  An American was crushed during an escape attempt; another injured so badly that he died 16 hours later, on the journey.

Arrival in Bad Orb

On the fourth day at 4 o’clock in the morning, the prisoners received one third of loaf of bread and one box of corned beef for fifteen men.  In the afternoon they arrived in Bad Orb and received the first warm meal: a liter of soup.  From now on their daily “menu” was: for breakfast black tea without sugar or milk, for lunch a liter of beet or vegetable soup with a few grams of dog or horsemeat, and in the evening some bread with margarine and again half a liter of the so-called tea.

The camp was known by many from their spent in Germany youth as “Wegscheide”.  There were special barracks for Jewish prisoners of war, against which the Americans successfully protested.  The barracks were made of wood and intended for each 140 men.  Now 250 were each housed in a barrack and two had to sleep on a mattress.

In Bad Orb the greatest barter flourished.  For a splendid wristwatch that was worth $60, you got two pieces of bread and twenty cigarettes.  A first-class fountain pen brought three cigarettes or a third of loaf of bread.  A packet of cigarettes cost $40.

Stalag 9-A

About a month after arriving in Bad Orb, American prisoners of war were brought in freight cars to Stalag 9-A in Ziegenhain.  During the night driving there was a cutting blizzard and many soldiers froze their feet.

In Ziegenhain the situation was a little better, for the Germans had organized the camp, in which there were still around 20,000 French, Belgians, Russians and English, more thoroughly.  In addition, S/Sgt. Bonne met with 120 Palestinians, including many born in Germany, who were captured in Greece and were first in a camp in Silesia until the Germans brought them from there before the Russians “to safety”.  Their leader was a Sgt. Friedlein, who came from Cologne. [This man was probably Sergeant James Friedland, PAL/10165.]

The food was about the same as in Bad Orb, but after a month, the daily rations were cut to a seventh of loaf of bread, ¾ liter of soup and 1/4 liter of tea.  All prisoners lost weight and looked like skeletons; the hospital was overcrowded.

Once, Ziegenhain, which was not marked as a POW camp, was bombed by the Americans, killing eleven Frenchmen and wounding 35.  On another occasion, the Germans forced the Americans to repair a bombed railway line for three days and three nights.

The Germans also tried to influence the Americans propagandistically and distributed an English translation of “Mein Kampf” and many other books mainly of anti-Semitic content.

Theater!  Theater!

Meanwhile the war went well.  The crossing of the Rhine raised the mood of the prisoners and each made predictions about the probable duration of the war.  The prisoners received their news not only through the official German army report, but above all from “commanders”, those prisoners of war who left the camp for work, and who learned about them from civilians who heard the BBC.

There were suddenly rumors of a speedy removal of the prisoners.  The Germans wanted to bring the prisoners further into the country to prevent their liberation by the advancing Allies.  On March 27, the front was only 21 miles from Ziegenhain; the next morning, at 5 o’clock, all the prisoners were to march off to a new destination.

Throughout the night, the prisoners held meetings.  The most fantastic escape plans and suggestions on how to hide in the camp were made and partly executed.  However, the American camp leader gave the order to postpone everything as long as possible – in other words, to play the sick and weak the next morning.  That was easy enough for most prisoners anyway.

At the roll-call, the Americans appeared on the football field.  It began to rain.  The boys fainted, twelve in a second.  Within half an hour, 3-400 men were lying on the ground groaning, groaning, and accomplished such an excellent performance that the Germans had to decide to allow the Americans to return to their barracks until they could arrange for transport by truck or train.

As the other prisoners marched out of the camp, the Americans lay in their beds looking as if they had already died.  The Germans had phoned some headquarters; at 2 o’clock came the order that 250 Americans had to march out and the remaining 1000 could wait in the camp.

Liberation

In the meantime, however, many of the German guards had made themselves off as dust and so there were 250 Americans in Ziegenhain.  The Americans took over the camp and were theoretically free.  It was Seder evening and the Jews among them organized a thanksgiving service.

But still the Allies were not in sight.  S/Sgt. Bonne sat on a bicycle, drove to the main road and waited until the first Allies came.  They were American tanks, but they did not go to Ziegenhain, but straight on.  So Ziegenhain was located in the occupied territory.

Ziegenhain was now a German prisoner of war camp.  Thousands of German soldiers were taken in and they did not get to eat from the Americans any more than they had received from the Germans before.  And they, too, had to sleep one night in the open, just as their comrades had previously done to the Americans.

The Women of Allendorf

During the twelve days, in which the American prisoners of war were waiting to be removed, hundreds of women who in June 1944 had been brought by the Germans from Hungary to Allendorf near Marburg, arrived in Ziegenhain.  (We started with the publication of their names in the previous “Aufbau”!)  They were only women between 15 and 50 years.  They reported that they had been deported together with girls under the age of fifteen and fifty over 50 years, but were separated from the young and the old on arrival in Germany.  These were called “incapacitated” and “destroyed” – burned.  The survivors had to work in an ammunition factory…

Happy Ending

On April 9, S/Sgt. Bonne and his comrades flew to Le Havre, where everyone was newly dressed in the giant camp Lucky Strike.  After an obligatory trip to Paris for all GIs, they were taken back to America by ship, where they received a 60-day holiday, after which they were given new assignments – unless they reached 85 points and were dismissed.

For S/Sgt. Bonne, who worked in the hotel industry two years ago until joining the army and who participated in the battles in Normandy, Brittany and Luxembourg, who interviewed over 30,000 German prisoners of war, who at one time belonged to the famous “Ghost Riders” of General Patton and was once wounded by a land mine and awarded the Purple Heart, the blackest dream of his life was over.

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The war is (long!) over:  Walter and Genia in 1985. 

References

Walter Bonne, at…

…Biography, at geni.com

…Photos, at geni.com

Kurt Hellmer, at…

Wikipedia

 Serial numbers of WW II US Army enlisted personnel, at…

Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File

Sikorsky S-40 Flying Boat, at…

… Wikipedia

…and…

Pan American Airways – The Flying Clipper Ships

110-112 Central Park South, at…

Apartments.com

Plus, a book!

Prisoners of War – Armies and Other Land Forces of The British Empire, 1939-1945 (“All Lists Corrected Generally Up to 30th March 1945″), J.B. Hayward & Son, in Association with The Imperial War Museum Department of Printed Books, Polstead, Suffolk, England, 1990 (First published in 1945 by His Majesty’s Stationary Office)

The Reconstruction of Memory: Soldiers of Aufbau – Jewish Prisoners of War

[I’ve got lots of “stuff” in the pipeline, both here at TheyWereSoldiers, and at my other blogs, WordsEnvisioned and ThePastPresented In the meantime, here’s a “quick” little post…]

Between 1941 and 1945, the German exile newspaper Aufbau – “Reconstruction” – published ten news items about the experiences of Jewish prisoners of war.  Though the topic of Jewish POWs in German captivity is – probably? – more commonly perceived in terms of the appalling fate of Jewish members of the Soviet armed forces captured on the Eastern Front, aviators of the United States Army Air Force (specifically, the 8th, 9th, 12th, and 15th Air Forces) captured throughout the war, or, soldiers of the United States Army ground forces captured during the Ardennes Offensive, another aspect of this topic is, I think, the subject of far less public awareness:  Over 1,300 Jewish soldiers, most from the Yishuv – primarily men serving in Port Companies of the British Commonwealth armed forces – were captured during the fall of Greece at the end of April, 1941.  Most of these men were interned at Stalag VIII-B (later renumbered Stalag 344) at Lamsdorf, in Silesia, or Stalag 383, at Hohenfels, Bavaria. 

Among Aufbau’s articles about Jewish POWs, six are notable for their focus on soldiers from the Yishuv.  While several of these men attempted to evade capture or escape from German captivity, to the best of my knowledge only a mere handful of these men definitely returned to Allied control.  One such soldier, born in Germany and later residing in Haifa, was a member of Kibbutz “Ashdoth-Ya’akov” (Ashdot Ya’akov) in northern Israel.  His experience was the subject of a three-part series of articles in Aufbau, entitled “Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis” – “I Was a Prisoner of the Nazis,” which was published in October of 1943, while his name appeared in a very (very!) brief news item in the Palestine Post.

The topic of the fate of Jewish prisoners of war in German custody was also a focus of the news coverage in the The Jewish Chronicle, and especially, the South African Jewish Times, the latter given that approximately 300 South African Jewish soldiers were captured during the fall of Tobruk on June 21, 1942. 

An Aufbau article of a very different nature was Sergeant Walter Bonne’s “In Deutschland kriegsgefangen – Die Erlebnisse des Sgt. Bonne” – “Prisoners of war in Germany – The experiences of Sgt. Bonne”, which recounts in straightforward fashion German-born Sergeant Bonne’s capture during the Ardennes Offensive, and, his liberation a few months later.    

You’ll be able to read the full text of these above-mentioned articles – in the original German, with Googlific English translations – in the future.  In the meantime, here’s a list of Aufbau’s articles pertaining to Jewish POWs:

Date Article Title
10/17/41 Jüdische Kriegsgefangene in Griechenland  (“Jewish war prisoners in Greece”)
12/18/42 1200 jüdische-palästinensische Kriegsgefangene in Deutschland  (“1200 Jewish-Palestinian war prisoners in Germany”)
10/15/43 Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis  (“I was a Prisoner of War of the Nazis”)
10/22/43 Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis  (“I was a Prisoner of War of the Nazis”)
10/29/43 Ich war ein Kriegsgefangener der Nazis  (“I was a Prisoner of War of the Nazis”)
2/4/44 Jüdische Soldaten in deutscher Kriegsgefangenenschaft – Das Rote Kreuz wacht – Solidarität der englischen Kameraden  (“Jewish soldiers in a German war prison – The Red Cross watches – solidarity of English comrades”)
2/4/44 Erste Mordanklage gegen französische KZ-Offiziere  (“First murder case against French concentration camp officers”)
5/18/45 In Deutschland kriegsgefangen – Die Erlebnisse des Sgt. Bonne  (“Prisoners of war in Germany – The experiences of Sgt. Bonne”)
5/25/45 Buchenwald und Auschwitz (S/Sgt. Fred Levy)  (“Buchenwald and Auschwitz”)
5/25/45 Amerikanische Kriegsgefangene erobern ein deutsches Dorf (PFC Herbert Frank)  (“American war prisoners conquer a German village”)

The Reconstruction of Memory: Soldiers of Aufbau – Views of the Past

And, yet more news from Aufbau.

Or, should I say more “views” from Aufbau?

Following the theme of my prior posts concerning the World War Two German exile newspaper Aufbau (“Construction”), such as this and this, here – based on my review of the on-line version of the periodical – is a list of the 252 new items published from December of 1939 through March of 1946 that were accompanied by, or much more often solely comprised of, photographs.  The original German text accompanying each image appears as boldface, and is followed by my English-language translation (which was not – ! – published in Aufbau).

As an example, one of the photographs listed below is captioned “Eine Fliegende Festung kehrt beschadigt zuruck (Harris Goldberg) (“A Flying Fortress Returns Damaged – (Harris Goldberg)”).  The man referred to was Sergeant Harris Benjamin Goldberg (10601005) of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, who served as a Wellington air gunner in Number 70 Squadron Royal Air Force (in which he completed 42 missions), and subsequently in the 8th Air Force of the United States Army Air Force, as a B-17 Flying Fortress tail gunner in the 306th and 482nd Bomb Groups (in which he completed a combined total of 21 missions), and finally 384th Bomb Group (in which he flew six missions).

Sergeant Goldberg appears in the image below, published in the September 8, 1944 issue of Aufbau.  Typical of newspaper photographs, the image was printed as a halftone photo.  Thus, it’s kind of fuzzy. 

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Here’s a vastly better version of the same photo, as published in The First of the Many in 1944.    

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Another picture of Sergeant Goldberg and the damaged B-17 is Army Air Force photo B25804AC (A5514).  Though the caption lists the date of the image as July 15, 1943, this damage actually occurred during the 306th Bomb Group’s mission to the Villacoublay Aircraft Repair Depot at Paris, France, on July 14, 1943, the aircraft having been B-17F 42-29959 (the un-nicknamed GY * M) of the 367th Bomb Squadron, piloted by 1 Lt. W.W. Thomas.  As recorded in the crew’s Interrogation Form, “Our dorsal fin (vertical stabilizer) blown half away by 20mm from 190 a few seconds before secondary [target].”  Though the aircraft was also struck by flak in the radio room, fortunately, there were no injuries to any of the bomber’s crew. 

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And so, the list of photos.  A story and more could be written about every one.  

Date Title
12/39 Auf Der Wacht (“On The Watch”)
4/40 Training in Palästina (“Training in Palestine”)
5/40 Für Palästina und England! (“For Palestine and England!”)
5/40 Unbesiegte polnische Fahnen (“Undefeated Polish Flags”)
6/40 Massenmeeting Jabotinsky-Patterson
8/40 Der Segen des Rabbi – Die judischen Soldaten der französischen Armee trafen sich vor ihrer Demobilisierung noch einmal bei einem Gottesdienst und beteten für Frankreich  (“The blessing of the rabbi – The Jewish soldiers of the French army met before their demobilization once again during a service and prayed for France (“The Blessing of the Rabbi”)”)
11/40 Den Nazis mitten ins Herz (“The Nazis in the middle of the heart”)
12/40 Jüdische Scharfschutzen werden in Palästina ausgebildet (“Jewish Snipers are Trained in Palestine”)
12/40 Ahasverus 1940
12/40 Der Rabbiner von Harlem – Rabbi Matthews, der die jüdische Negersynagoge in Harlem leitet und über dessen Predigten wir des öfteren berichtet haben.  (“The Rabbi of Harlem – Rabbi Matthews, who directs the Jewish Negro synagogue in Harlem and whose sermons we have often reported.”)
2/41 In der jüdischen Fliegerschule in New Jersey (“In the Jewish Flying School in New Jersey”)
3/41 Wir reiten…  Wir reiten…  (“We Ride… We Ride…”)
5/41 Wacht am Jordan (“Watch on the Jordan [River]”)
7/41 Zum kampf für Unabhängigkeit und Freiheit – Jüdische Soldaten der palästinenischen Armee auf einem Uebungsmarsch (“On the struggle for Independence and Freedom – Jewish Soldiers of the Palestinian Army on a Practice March”)
8/41 Palästinas Jüden in Waffen (“Palestinian Jews at Arms”)
8/41 Der Geist Von 5701 Wird Der Geist Von 5702 Sein (Photo used in Pierre Van Paassen’s “The Fighting Jew“) (“The Spirit of 5701 Will be The Spirit of 5702”) 
12/41 Jüdische Soldaten marschieren – Wahrend der in Palästina Mitte Oktober abgehaltenen Rekrutierungswoche haben judische Soldaten im Atadion von Tel-Aviv eine Parade abgehalten (“Jewish soldiers marching – During the recruitment week held in Palestine in mid-October, Jewish soldiers held a parade in the Atadion of Tel-Aviv”)
12/41 Colonel M.J. Mendelsohn
12/41 Eine jüdische Sanitats-Kolonne (“A Jewish Medical Column”)
12/41 Sie verteidigen ihre Heimet (“They Defended Their Home”)
12/41 Frauen in Uniform (“Women in Uniform”)
3/42 Jüdische Rekrutinnen des Auxiliary Territorial Service (“Jewish recruits of the Auxiliary Territorial Service”)
5/42 Ein amerikanischer Volksheld – Meyer Levin (“An American National Hero – Meyer Levin”)
5/42 Frauen Im Krieg (“Woman at War”)
5/41 Wacht am Jordan  (“Watch on the Jordan”)
6/42 Aufbruch zur Front: Taglich rucken neue judische Einheiten ins Feld (“On the Way to the Front: New Jewish units Jostle in the Field”)
6/42 Unter der weiss-blauen Fahne auf der Wacht an der palästinenischen Küste – Neun Schiffe der jungen jüdischen Handelsflotte sind im Dienst der britischen Marine (“Under the White-Blue Flag on Guard on the Palestinian Coast – Nine Ships of the young Jewish Merchant Fleet are serving the British Navy”)
6/42 Vor dem Rekrutierugnsburo der Jewish Agency (“Before the Recruiting Bureau of the Jewish Agency”)
6/42 Die Ernte (“The Harvest”)
7/42 Private Louis Schleifer
8/42 Die WAACS in Erez Israel heissen PATS (“The WAACS [Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps] in the Land of Israel are called PATS” [Palestine Auxiliary Territorial Service])
8/42 Helden unserer Zeit – Es bekamen die hochsten amerikanirshen Orden (Caplan, Friedman, Frumkin, Isquith, Kramer, Levin, Mark, Schleifer, York) (“Heroes of Our Time – They Received the Highest American Medals”)
8/42 Im Schatten des Migdal David – Judsiche Soldaten des palästinenischen Buffs-Regiment trainieren zum Kampf gegen Rommel.  Von 584,000 Juden in Palästina dienen 47,000 Männer und Frauen in der Landesverteidigung.  (“In the shadow of the Tower of David – Jewish soldiers of the Palestinian Buffs Regiment train to fight Rommel.  Of 584,000 Jews in Palestine, 47,000 men and women serve in the defense of the country.”)
9/42 Jüdisch-palästinensische Soldaten in New York (Bonah, Leichter, Puttermilk, Schwarz) (“Jewish-Palestinian Soldiers in New York”)
11/42 Zwei Momente vom “Meyer Levin Day” in Brooklyn (“Two Moments From “Meyer Levin Day” in Brooklyn”)
11/42 Flugabwehr-Geschutz im Kampf (“Anti-Aircraft Defense in Combat”)
11/42 Jüdische Freiwillige vom Buff-Regiment im Angriff (“Jewish Volunteers from the Buff Regiment in the Attack”)
11/42 Jüdische Soldaten aller Nationen in der alten Synagoge von Jerusalem vor dem Gottesdienst (“Jewish Soldiers of all Nations in the Old Synagogue of Jerusalem before Worship”)
11/42 Palästinensische Schützen: Blaue Bohnen für Rommel (“Palestinian Gunners: Blue Beans [?] for Rommel”)
11/42 So wurde für den Kampf trainiert: Ueberwindung von Hindernissen in voller Marschausrüstung (“Thus was Trained for the Battle: Overcoming Obstacles in Full March Equipment”)
11/42 Er sol die Hungrigen speisen (“He Should Feed the Hungry”)
12/42 Ehrung eines judischen Helden (Samuel B. Frankel) (“Tribute to a Jewish Hero”)
12/42 First Lieutenant Roy Bright
12/42 Ein Freund des judischen Volkes (Pierre von Paassen) (“A Friend of the Jewish People (Pierre von Paassen)”)
12/42 Refugee unterrichtet “Judo” (“Refugees Teach “Judo””)
1/43 Die jüdische Frau marschiert – Mitglieder der PATS bei einer Demonstration durch die Strassen Tel Avivs (“The Jewish Woman Marches – Members of the PATS during a Demonstration through the Streets of Tel Aviv”)
2/43 Sprechende Mauern – “WE ASK FOR A JEWISH ARMY” (“Talking Walls – “We Ask for a Jewish Army””)
2/43 Corp. Peter O. Binswanger
2/43 98 Stars – 98 Immigrant Soldiers
3/43 P-40 “Loyalty” (“P-40 [Warhawk Fighter Plane] “Loyalty””)
3/43 P-40 “Loyalty” (“P-40 [Warhawk Fighter Plane] “Loyalty””)
3/43 In Hoc Signo Vinces – P-40 “Loyalty” (“In This Sign You Will Conquer – P-40 [Warhawk Fighter Plane] “Loyalty””)
4/43 Russland ehrt einen judischen General (Lev Dovator postal stamp) (“Russia Honors a Jewish General”)
4/43 Der fruhere osterreichische Boxmeister Bobby Spuner bei den Pionieren (“The Former Austrian Boxing Champion Bobby Spuner Among the Pioneers”)
4/43 Erstes Training am Maschinengewehr (“First Training on the Machine-Gun”)
5/43 A Girl in the Army (Della Lorig)
5/43 An Artist in the Army (Eric Rosenblith)
5/43 Twins in the Army (Heinz and Erich Vorsanger)
5/43 Ein Oelgemalde des judischen Helden Meyer Levin (“An Oil Painting of the Jewish Hero Meyer Levin”)
6/43 Ein Jüdischer Indianertempel – Unter dem hölzernen Magen David dieses Temples in Mexico: der Rabbiner dieser Indianer jüdischen Glaubens und (links) E.E. Kisch, der ihn “entdeckt” hat  (“A Jewish Indian temple – Under the wooden Star of David of this temple in Mexico: The rabbi of these Indians of Jewish faith and (left) E.E. Kish, who “discovered” it”)
6/43 Hakenkreuz und Palme sind die Insignia des Afrikakorps (Herman Noschkes) (“Swastika and Palm are the Insignia of the Afrika Corps (Herman Noschkes)”)
6/43 Im Gefecht verwundet (“Wounded in Battle”)
7/43 Petty Officer Harry Heyman und seine Frau Martha (“Petty Officer Harry Heyman and his wife Martha”)
8/43 Private John Goetz
8/43 Jüdischer Matrosen-Gottesdienst – “Irgendwo in den Vereinigten Staaten” wohnen Matrosen der U.S. Navy einem jüdischen Gottesdienst bei.  Jedem der Dienstweige der amerikanischen Wermacht sind jüdische, katholische und protestantische Geistliche zugeteilt, die für die religiösen Bedürfnisse der Soldaten sorgen.  (“Jewish Seamans’ Service – “Somewhere in the United States” seamen of the U.S. Navy at a Jewish service. To each of the servants of the American power are assigned Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant clerics who care for the religious needs of the soldiers.”)
8/43 Im Dienst des Landes – Theodore Katz (“In the Service of the Country – Theodore Katz”)
9/43 Goldstrom, Hirschmann, Leib, Leiser, Loven, Pfifferling, Wollenberg
9/43 Palästinensische Matrosen, die als Freiwillige in der englischen Navy dienen, tanzen in ihrer Freizeit eine Horrah (Photo via National Labor Committee for Palestine) (“Palestinian Sailors, who serve as Volunteers in the English Navy, dance a hora in Their Spare Time
10/43 Dein Blut hilft ihnen! (“Your Blood Helps Them”)
11/43 Rosch Hoschanah-Feld-Gottesdienst im sudlichen Pazifik (Signal Corps Photo) (“Rosh Hashanah Field Religious Service in the Southern Pacific”)
11/43 Der Tod für die Freiheit (Pvt. Ernest Lilienstein) (“Death for Freedom (Pvt. Ernest Lilienstein)”)
12/43 Loyalty in Action
12/43 Der letzte Brief des Private Herz (“The Last Letter of Private Herz”)
12/43 Wie George Wolf fiel – Leben und Ende eines deutschjüdischen Kriegsfreiwilligen, der für die Freiheit starb (“As George Wolf Fell – The life and End of a German-Jewish War Volunteer who Died for Freedom”)
12/43 Die jüdische Frau kämpft mit – In einer Minenfabrik in Palästina helfen die Frauen bei der Herstellung und Füllung von Landminen (“The Jewish Woman Fights With – In a Mine Factory in Palestine, Women Help with the Production and Filling of Land-Mines”)
12/43 2,500 jüdische Matrosen der U.S. Navy feierten Chanukka in der Naval Training Station, Sampson, N.Y. (“2,500 Jewish Sailors of the U.S. Navy celebrated Hanukkah in the Naval Training Station, Sampson, N.Y.”)
1/44 Werner Cahn gefallen (“Werner Cahn, Fallen”)
1/44 Jüdische WAAF in Palästina – Ein Mitglied der WAAF mit der hebräischen Achselklappe “Erez Israel” (Photo: British Combine) (“Jewish WAAF in Palestine – A member of the WAAF with the Hebrew Epaulet “Erez Israel” (Photo: British Combine)”)
1/44 Sein letzter Urlaub – Ludwig Lesser in treuer Pflichterfüllung im Camp gestorben (“His Last Leave – Ludwig Lesser Died in a Loyal Service at Camp”)
2/44 Richard Fromm
2/44 In Italien gefallen – Otto W. Steinberg (“Fallen in Italy – Otto W. Steinberg”)
2/44 Vor Cassino verwundet (Peter Rosenberg) (“Wounded Before Cassino”)
3/44 Pvt. Henry Heymann
3/44 Alle Vier Sohne in der Armee (Fred, Gunther, Henry, and Kurt Marcus) (“All Four Sons in the Army”)
3/44 Der 69jahrige RAF-Wing Commander, Lionel Cohen (“The 69-year-old RAF Wing Commander, Lionel Cohen”)
3/44 Die 19j. jugoslawische Guerillakämpferin Vera Krizman (aus Laibach gehört zu den Streitkräften den Generals Tito, die am Isonzo gegen die Nazis kämpfen. – Vera Krizman hat 19 Nazi-Soldaten abgeschossen.) (Photo: Signal Corps Photo from OWI [Office of War Information])  (“The 19 year old Yugoslav guerrilla warrior Vera Krizman from Ljubljana belongs to the armed forces of General Tito, who are fighting against the Nazis on the Isonzo – Vera Krizman shot down 19 Nazi soldiers.)  (Photo: Signal Corps Photo from OWI [Office of War Information])”)
4/44 Sgt. Ernest Leopold Palm
5/4 Zweimal Sgt. Richard Stern – in der kaiserlichen deutschen Armee in Ersten Weltkrieg und als amerikanischer Soldat in Zweiten Weltkrieg  (“Sgt. Richard Stern Twice – In the Imperial German Army in the First World War and as an American Soldier in World War II”)
5/44 In Burma gefallen – Pvt. Heinz A. Sander (“Fallen in Burma – Pvt. Heinz A. Sander”)
5/44 Corp. Harold Monash
5/44 Pvt. Eric M. Heilbronn
5/44 Pvt. Ernest Strauss
5/44 Die erste RAF-Synagoge (“The First R.A.F. Synagogue”)
5/44 Einer von Vielen – Guenther L. Schleimer – Held von Anzio Beachhead (“One of Many – Guenther L. Schleimer – Hero of the Anzio Beachhead”)
6/44 Lt. Abraham Condiotti
6/44 Der Konig und die Konigin von England (Martin Engel) (“The King and Queen of England”)
6/44 Pvt. Eric Hirschmann
7/44 Ein Sohn des judisches Volkes (Ivan D. Chernyakhovsky) (“A Son of the Jewish People”)
7/44 Für ihre neue Heimat gefallen (Bruno Loeb; William B. Flesch) (“Fallen for Their New Home”)
7/44 Ein Nazi aus meiner Wohnung! – Breslauer U.S. Soldat trifft Breslauer Nazi Soldaten (Howard Fischer) (“A Nazi from My Apartment! – Breslauer U.S. Soldier meets Breslauer Nazi Soldiers (Howard Fischer)”)
7/44 Mit dem Purple Heart ausgezeichnet (Kurt Abraham; Julius Dukas) (“Excellent with the Purple Heart”)
8/44 Der Gruss an das Land der Freiheit – Die Flüchtlinge sehen Amerika  (“The Greeting to the Land of Freedom – The Refugees see America”)
8/44 Cpl Robert Maerz der am D-Day in Frankreich gefallen ist (“Cpl. Robert Maerz, who died on D-Day in France”)
8/44 Fur die neue Heimat gefallen (PFC Martin Muller) (“Fallen for the New Homeland”)
8/44 Fur die neue Heimat gefallen (Pvt. Harry Gunther) (“Fallen for the New Homeland”)
8/44 Pvt. Renate Benisch
8/44 PFC Peter Rosenberg, der am Rapido Fluss bei Cassino verwundet wurde (“PFC Peter Rosenberg, who was wounded at the Rapido River near Cassino”)
8/44 Kurt Lesser, Technician 3rd Grade
8/44 Ernst Mandowsky
8/44 Master Sergeant Charles Stoll und Corporal Liebenstein, die gemeinsam mit ihren Lieutenant 32 Nazis gefangen genommen haben (“Master Sergeant Charles Stoll and Corporal Liebenstein, who Captured 32 Nazis together with Their Lieutenant”)
8/44 Pvt. Emanuel Reder
8/44 Von Cassino heimgekehrt (Hermann Rosenberg) (“Coming Home from Cassino (Herman Rosenberg)”)
9/44 Der Kriegstod Egon Bruenells (“The Military Death of Egon Bruenell”)
9/44 Edward J. Frosh
9/44 Pvt. Arthur Ullendorf
9/44 Fliegeroffizier Arthur I Goldman (“Flying Officer Arthur I. Goldman”)
9/44 PFC Ernest Pessel
9/8/44 Eine Fliegende Festung kehrt beschadigt zuruck (Harris Goldberg) (“A Flying Fortress Returns Damaged – (Harris Goldberg)”)
9/44 Rosch Haschonah an der alliierten Schlachtfront (“Rosh Hashanah on the Allied Battlefront”)
9/44 Heniz Thannhauser
9/44 Pvt. Josef E. Kahn
9/44 Pvt. Kurt Reinheimer
9/44 Captain I. Fissanovich
9/44 U.S. Fliegerleutnant Jakob Gotthold (“U.S. Flight Lieutenant Jakob Gotthold”)
10/44 PFC Alfred Hirsch
10/44 Nachrichten von unseren Boys (Driver Walter Bingham, Bill Leib, Cpl. Walter Fleischmann (“News From Our Boys”)
10/44 Corporal Joseph Catton
10/44 Die American Legion bietet den JWV für den Kampf gegen intoleranz ihre Hilfe an  (“The American Legion offers the JWV their help in the Fight against Intolerance”)
10/44 Pro Libertate – Pvt. Bertold Adler (“For Freedom – Pvt. Bertold Adler”)
10/44 Pro Libertate – Pvt. Gerhard Buehler (“For Freedom – Pvt. Gergard Buehler”)
10/44 PFC Julius Jonas
11/44 PFC Henry L. Hanauer
11/44 Pvt. Paul H. Hertz
11/44 Die Jüdische Brigade Marschiert – Die erste, innerhalb der britischen Armee gebildete jüdische Brigade, bei einer Parade (Photo: British Combine)  (“The Jewish Brigade Marches – The First Jewish Brigade formed within the British Army, at a Parade (Photo: British Combine)”)
12/44 Cpl. Eric Nathan
12/44 S/Sgt. Kurt Popper
12/44 Anneliese Ostrogorski
12/44 Pvt. Fred M. Harlam – Als 4-F fur die Freiheit gefallen (“Private Fred M. Harlam – A 4-F Fallen for Freedom”)
1/45 Sgt. Paul Mayer
1/45 Zwei Refugee-Soldaten helfen bei der Eroberung von Metz (Strauss, Tillinger) (“Two Refugee Soldiers Assist in the Conquest of Metz”) (Strauss, Tillinger)
1/45 PFC Henry Menkes
1/45 S/Sgt. Bernard Gaertner
1/45 Sgt. Alfred Nightingale
2/45 Corp. T/5 John Weill
2/45 PFC Alfred Behr
2/45 Pvt. Freddie Linton
2/45 T/Sgt. John Loewenthal
2/45 PFC Ferdinand Epstein
2/45 PFC Gerhard Heymann
2/45 S/Sgt. Alfred Rosenthal
2/45 Gen. Ivan D. Chernyakovsky
2/45 Sgt. Alexander H. Hirsch
2/45 Die beiden nordlichsten Leser des “Aufbau” (Goldschmidt, Altschul, Choret (Zimak)) (“The two Northernmost Readers of “Aufbau””)
2/45 Sgt. Eric Reilinger
3/45 First Sgt. Alfred Eisenmann
3/45 PFC Arthur Heinz Gottschalk
3/45 PFC Richard L. Norman
3/45 PFC Steve L. Schoenwalter
3/45 Pvt. Hans Meissner
3/45 Brigadier Ernest Frank Benjamin inspiziert eine neue Einheit der alljüdischen Brigade (“Brigadier Ernest Frank Benjamin inspected a New Unit of the all-Jewish Brigade”)
3/45 Drei Freunde in Palastina – Herz, Popper, Salm (“Three Friends in Palestine”)
3/45 99 Nazis gefangen genommen (PFC Alphonse Jacobs) (“99 Nazis Captured”)
3/45 Refugeesoldaten werden ausgezeichnet (Pvt. Walter S. Beckhard, Sgt. Hans Levi) (“Refugees are Awarded”)
3/45 Sie lebten drei jahre untergrund (Leo Keller – Josef and Johanna Keller) (“They Lived Three Years Underground”)
3/45 Wiedersehen in Rom (Henry B. Nussbaum) (“Sightseeing in Rome”)
3/45 2nd Lt. Alfred Kupferschmidt
3/45 PFC Frank Kurzinger
3/45 Pvt. Ernest Schiffres
3/45 Die erste fahrbare Synagogen-Ambulanz an der Westfront  (“The First Mobile Synagogue Ambulance on the Western Front”)
3/45 Sgt. Eric Goldsmith
4/45 Ein Aufruf, der alle angeht: 10,000 Jungens brauchen uns – ‘Aufbau’ und ‘Our Boys Club’ starten eine Sonder-Aktion für die ‘Jüdische Brigade’  (“A call to Everyone: 10,000 boys need us – ‘Aufbau’ and ‘Our Boys Club’ are starting a special action for the ‘Jewish Brigade'”)
4/45 Gestern Sklaven der Nazis (“Yesterday Slaves of the Nazis”)
4/45 Heute Soldaten der Freiheit (“Today Soldiers of Freedom”)
4/45 Sie warten auf Dich – Ein paar von den Jungens der Jüdischen brigade, die sich freuen werden, Pakete aus Amerika zu bekommen und zu wissen, dass man an sie und ihre Kameraden denkt, die zum ersten Mal seit den Tagen der Makkabäer wieder seblständig unter dem Davidstern kämpfen.  (“They are waiting for you – A couple of the boys of the Jewish brigade who will be happy to get packages from America and to know that they and their comrades are being thought of, who for the first time since the days of the Maccabees, fight under the Star of David.”)
4/45 Eisenstaedt, Lubow, Mosback
4/45 Sergeant Rudi Graf (New York)
4/45 Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose verleiht dem M/Sgt. Sidney Lee (Levi aus Koln) den Bronze Star (“Major General Maurice Rose gives Master Sergeant Sidney Lee (Levi from Koln) the Bronze Star”)
4/45 Die Kämpfe des Flugzeuges “Loyalty” – 57 Kampfmissionen in drei Monaten  (“The battles of the [fighter] plane “Loyalty” – 57 combat missions in three months”)
4/45 Jüdische Brigade im Kampf (“Jewish Brigade at War”)
4/45 Gerald (Jerry) Beigel
5/45 PFC Harry Kaufman
5/45 Pvt. Fred Finsterwald
5/45 Norman Lourie – der offizielle britische Kriegskorespondent bei der Jüdischen Brigade in Italien (“Norman Lourie – The Official British Military Correspondent of the Jewish Brigade in Italy”)
5/45 Der Held von Okinawa (Leo Rosskamm) (“The Hero of Okinawa”)
5/45 PFC Curtis Field
5/45 PFC Eric Wertheim
5/45 PFC Leo Kent (Kendziora)
5/45 S/Sgt. Erich I. Goldschmidt
5/45 S/Sgt. Stephen Sigmund Mosbacher
5/45 2nd Lt. Philip Zinner (New York) wurde von dem kürzlich gefallenen Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose mit den Bronze Star ausgezeichnet  (“2nd Lt. Philip Zinner (New York), chosen by the recently fallen Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose, was awarded the Bronze Star”)
5/45 They Died Together – Why Can’t They Live Together?
5/45 Pvt. Adolf Rosenzweig
5/45 Pvt. Arnold A. Masse
5/45 Friedmann, Loewenstein
6/45 S/Sgt. Martin H. Neuhaus
6/45 Pilot Perry and Loyalty – Kampf und Ende des von der Immigration gestifteten Warhawk P-40 (“Pilot Perry and Loyalty – Battle and end of the Immigration-Donated P-40 Warhawk”)
6/45 Manfred Selig
6/45 PFC Arthur Einstein
6/45 Erster in Oslo (Sgt. Eric Stern) (“First in Oslo (Sgt. Eric Stern)”)
6/45 Einladung an alle Leser des “Aufbau” (notice) – Die Abenteuer der Loyalty  (“Invitation to all readers of “Aufbau” (notice) – The Adventures of Loyalty”)
6/45 Begegnung mit dem Kinderarzt (PFC Ernest Kirchheimer) (“Encounter with a Pediatrician”)
6/45 Cpl. Luwig Elsas (with Sapper Martin Elsas, brother)
6/45 PFC Fred Winterfeld
7/45 PFC Gerhard Samuel
7/45 Eine mobile Synagoge (“A Mobile Synagogue”)
7/45 PFC Simon Landman und Paul Baruch in Nurnberg
7/45 Der Held der “Loyalty” wird gefeiert – “Loyalty und sein Pilot” – Captain Henry B. Perry stellt sich vor  (“The hero of “Loyalty” is celebrated – “Loyalty and its Pilot” – Captain Henry B. Perry introduces himself”)
7/45 Die neue Synagogue von Nauheim (“The New Synagogue of Nauheim”)
7/45 Rolf Baumgarten
7/45 Our Girls in British Auxiliary Territorial Service (Bensch, Cohn, Dobson, Lorig, Rosenbaum, Taylor)
7/45 Ein historiches Photo (Wolf Wartenberg) (“A Historic Photo (Wolf Wartenberg)”)
7/45 Die Bronz Star Brigade (bottom – Baer, Bernheim, Cohn, Landauer, Lewy, Slade [Schlesinger], Sliesser)  (“The Bronze Star Brigade”)
7/45 Die Bronz Star Brigade (middle – Heimbach, Roth, Stein)  (“The Bronze Star Brigade”)
7/45 Die Bronz Star Brigade (top – Feldman, Krieger, Winter)  (“The Bronze Star Brigade”)
7/45 Ein Blick in eine Kantine fur judische Soldaten (“A Look at the Canteen for Jewish Soldiers”)
7/45 John Wolpe
7/45 Mit dem Silver Star ausgezeichnet – Sgt. Werner J. Heumann (Marine Corps) une sein Bruder Leopold (Navy) (“Awarded the Silver Star – Sgt. Werner J. Heumann (Marine Corps) and his brother Leopold (Navy)”)
7/45 Col. Homer P. Ford heftet Capt. Gerald Brotman den Bronze Star an (“Colonel Homer P. Ford attaches the Bronze Star to Capt. Gerald Brotman”)
7/45 Sergeant Kurt Weiss
7/45 Lt. Raymond Zussman
8/45 Er Finger Herrn Ley (PFC Peter Rosenfelder)  (“He Fingers Ley”)
8/45 Drei Bronze Star-Träger (Groeger, Hirsch, Rosenthal)  (“Three Bronze-Star Holders”)
8/45 Zehn Glückliche, die Auschwitz entronnen sind (PFC Herbert Saalfeld)  (“Ten happy ones, who have escaped from Auschwitz”)
8/45 Pvt. Henry Lonner
8/45 PFC Gilbert Wolff
8/45 Mit dem Silver Star ausgezeichnet (First Lieutenant Oscar Drake)  (“Awarded the Silver Star”)
8/45 Heirat in Italien – T/4 Julius Weissman und Rosa Augusta Kampler (“Marriage in Italy – T/4 Julius Weissman and Rosa Augusta Kampler”)
8/45 Die Bronz Star Brigade (middle) – Katz
8/45 Die Bronz Star Brigade (top) – Haberman, Jacobs, Lindauer, Maier
9/45 Now It Can Be Told (Peter Schweifert)
9/45 Der Ansager vom Münchener Rundfunk (Norbert Gruenfeld)  (“The Announcer of Munich Radio”)
9/45 In Berlin angekommen (S/Sgt. Lew Sonn)  (“Arrived in Berlin”)
9/45 Odyssee einer Thorarolle (Cpl. Bernard Price)  (“Odyssey of a Thorarolle”)
9/45 Die Bronz Star Brigade (middle – Katz)  (“The Bronze Star Brigade”)
9/45 Die Bronz Star Brigade (top – Haberman, Jacobs, Lindauer, Maier)  (“The Bronze Star Brigade”)
9/45 PFC George E. Rosing
9/45 Naziwaffen als Lehrgegenstand (Hans O. Mauksch)  (“Nazi weapons as a subject of instruction”)
10/45 Als Spion in Tirol – Die Abenteuer des Sgt. Alfred Mayer (“As a Spy in Tirol – The Adventures of Sgt. Alfred Mayer”)
10/45 T/3 Hugo A. Schaefer
10/45 Mit dem Silver Star ausgezeichnet – S/Sgt. Arthur H. Rosenfeld (“Awarded the Silver Star – S/Sgt. Arthur H. Rosenfeld”)
10/45 Abenteuer in Paris (S/Sgt. Walter D. Marx) (“Adventure in Paris”)
10/45 Begrussung in Chicago (“Welcome to Chicago”)
10/45 Unser Mitarbeiter Pvt. Hans Lichtwitz von der Jüdischen Brigade – Das Bild zeigt Pvt. Lichtwitz bei einem Besuch im Displaced Persons-Lager in Obergammerau [Foto: Sgt. I.W. Eaton]  (“Our employee Pvt. Hans Lichtwitz from the Jewish Brigade – The picture shows Pvt. Lichtwitz during a visit to the Displaced Persons Camp in Obergammerau”)
11/45 PFC Manfred Butler
11/45 Prv. Ernst Rosenstein
11/45 Sgt. Julius Cohn
11/45 Der Ortsgruppenleiter von Haigerloch fährt Jeep  (“The Ortsgruppenleiter of Haigerloch is driven on a Jeep”)
11/45 Gericht in Berlin (Cpl. Albert Gompertz)  (“Court in Berlin”)
11/45 Zum 1st Lieutenant befördert  (Frederick Herman)  (“Promoted to 1st Lieutenant”)
11/45 Zwei Bruder in der Armee (1 Lt. Gerhard Czerner, T/5 Alfred Czerner) (“Two Brothers in the Army”)
12/45 Fur sie hat die Stunde der Heimkehr geschlagen (“The Hour of Homecoming Has Struck For Them”)
3/46 Jahrestags-Gedenkfeier am Grabs des von den Deutschen hinterlistig erschossenen Major-General Maurice Rose (“Anniversary Commemoration at the Grave of Major General Maurice Rose, who was Treacherously Shot by the Germans”)

 

The Reconstruction of Memory: Soldiers of Aufbau – Jewish Military Casualties in WW II

More history, from Aufbau.

In previous posts, I listed articles and other items published during WW II in the New York-based German Exile newspaper Aufbau, pertaining to the struggle for the creation of an independent Jewish military force, and, the wartime experiences of Jewish soldiers from – prior to Israel’s re-establishment in May of 1948 – the Yishuv.  This post follows the same theme:  It’s a list of the 132-odd items published in Aufbau pertaining to Jewish soldiers killed in action or on active service, encompassing the time-frame from the war’s commencement in September of 1939, through March of 1946.  The tabulation of these news items being based on my own evaluation, text in boldface represents the article title as it actually appeared in Aufbau, these items including an English-language translation which didn’t (!) appear in the newspaper.

The list commences with an article about Pilot Officer Harold Rosofsky (40022) from Guateng, Johannesburg, South Africa, a Wellington bomber pilot of No. 9 Squadron Royal Air Force killed in a training mission on September 8, 1939 (specifically, in Wellington I L4320 WS * ZB), and ends with (in historical retrospect, somewhat ironically) mention of Major General Maurice Rose, killed in action on March 30, 1945. 

Overall, I do have information about the majority of the men listed below – for example, Justin Seitenbach, Ernest L. Palm (Yehuda Bar Naftali HaLevi), Werner Katz, Eric G. Newhouse, Peter Schweifert, and others, while I already have a post (currently under revision) about William Hays Davidow, and this “up-and-running” post which mentions Heinz Thannhauserbut …  

This list will suffice, for now.  

Date Title
10/1/39 Roll of Honor – Pilot Rosofsky tot (“Roll of Honor – Pilot Rosofsky dead”)
10/1/39 Roll of Honor – Polens einziger judischer General gefallen (“Roll of Honor – Poland’s only Jewish general fallen”)
10/24/41 Die erste Verlustliste – The First Casualty List (“The first loss list – The first casualty list”)
7/10/42 Private Louis Schleifer
2/5/43 Eine Ehrenliste
2/5/43 In Memoriam – Peter Binswanger
2/26/43 Pollitz, Refugee From Nazis, Dies in Pacific Action
2/26/43 Meyer Levin – Amerikaner – Jüde – Kämpfer – Ein Besuch bei den Eltern des gefallenen Helden (“Meyer Levin – American – Jew – Fighter – A visit with the fallen hero’s parents”)
4/23/43 Brigadier Frederick H. Kisch gefallen – Der Chefingenieur der 8 britischen Armee (“Brigadier Frederick H. Kisch – The Chief Engineer of the 8th British Army”)
6/4/43 Ein Immigrant starb fur Amerika – Justin Seitenbach von seinem letzten Flug nicht zuruckgekehrt – Ein goldener Stern fur Washington Heights (“An immigrant died for America – Justin Seitenbach did not return from his last flight – A golden star for Washington Heights”)
6/11/43 Jews in Uniform – Obituary (Davidow, William H., Capt.)
8/20/43 Der Untergang der 138 (“The sinking of the 138”)
8/27/43 H.E. Bauer (Bauernfreund)
8/27/43 Im Dienst des Landes – Theodore Katz (“In the service of the country – Theodore Katz”)
9/17/43 Der Heldentod der 138 – Jüdische Kriegsveteranen im Mittelmeer ertrunken (“The heroic death of 138 – Jewish war veterans drowned in the Mediterranean”)
11/12/43 Der Tod fur die Freiheit (“Death for freedom”) [Ernest Lilienstein]
12/10/43 Der letzte Brief des Private Herz (“The last letter of Private Herz”)
1/7/44 Werner Cahn gefallen (“Werner Cahn is fallen”)
2/11/44 In Italien gefallen – Otto W. Steinberg (“Fallen in Italy – Otto W. Steinberg”)
2/18/44 Vor Cassino verwundet (“Wounded at Cassino”) [Peter Rosenberg]
3/10/44 Corp. Werner Katz, der Held von Burma – Der letzte Brief des Gefallenen – Unsere Boys kampfen in der vordersten Linien (“Corp. Werner Katz, the Hero of Burma – The Last Letter of the Fallen – Our boys fight in the front lines”)
3/17/44 Corp. Werner Katz lebt (“Cpl. Werner Katz is alive”)
3/24/44 Lt. Charles D. Pack gestorben (“Lt. Charles D. Pack has died”)
3/24/44 Sgt. Palm todlich verungluck (“Sgt. Palm fatally injured”)
4/21/44 Zum zweiten Male Verwundet (“Wounded for the second time”) [Ralph Beigel]
4/28/44 44 judische-Schriftsteller gefallen oder vermisst (“44 Jewish writers fallen or missing”)
4/28/44 Sgt. Ernest Leopold Palm
5/5/44 In Burma gefallen (“Fallen in Burma”) [Pvt. Heinz A. Sander]
5/12/44 Die Toten ehren die Lebenden (“The dead honor the living”) [Wolfgang Rosenberg]
5/12/44 Pvt. Eric M. Heilbronn
5/12/44 Pvt. Ernest Strauss
5/26/44 Einer von Vielen – Guenther L. Schleimer – Held von Anzio Beachhead (“One of the many – Guenther L. Schleimer – Hero of the Anzio Beachhead”)
6/30/44 Pvt. Eric Hirschmann
7/21/44 Fur ihre neue Heimat gefallen (“Fallen for their new home”)  [Bruno Loeb; William B. Flesch]
7/28/44 In Memoriam – Cpl. Robert Maerz
7/28/44 Mit dem Purple Heart ausgezeichnet (“Awarded the Purple Heart”) [Kurt Abraham; Julius Dukas]
8/11/44 Cpl. Robert Maerz der am D-Day in Frankreich gefallen ist (“Cpl. Robert Maerz who died on D-Day in France”)
8/18/44 Fur die neue Heimat gefallen (“Fallen for the new homeland” [PFC Martin Muller]
8/18/44 Fur die neue Heimat gefallen  (“Fallen for the new homeland”) [Pvt. Harry Gunther]
8/25/44 Paul Holos gefallen  (“Paul Holos is Fallen]
8/25/44 PFC Peter Rosenberg, der am Rapido Fluss bei Cassino verwundet wurde (“PFC Peter Rosenberg, wounded at the Rapido River near Cassino”)
8/25/44 Kurt Lesser, Technician 3rd Grade
9/1/44 Der Kriegstod Egon Bruenells (“The war death of Egon Bruenell”)
9/1/44 Edward J. Frosh
9/1/44 Pvt. Arthur Ullendorf
9/1/44 Auf Patrouille in Burma – Die Abenteuer eines Todgesagten von Staff Sergeant Werner Katz (“On Patrol in Burma – The Adventures of a Dead Man, by Staff Sergeant Werner Katz”)
9/8/44 PFC Ernest Pessel
9/15/44 F.H. Koretz gefallen (“F.H. Koretz fallen”)
9/15/44 Heniz Thannhauser
9/15/44 Pvt. Josef E. Kahn
9/15/44 Pvt. Kurt Reinheimer
9/15/44 The Story of Sgt. Eric G. Newhouse
10/6/44 PFC Alfred Hirsch
10/20/44 Pro Libertate – Pvt. Bertold Adler (“For freedom – Pvt. Bertold Adler”)
10/20/44 Pro Libertate – Pvt. Gerhard Buehler (“For freedom – Pvt. Gerhard Buehler”)
10/27/44 PFC Julius Jonas
10/27/44 Jochanan Tartakower
11/10/44 Ehrentafel fur unsere Gefallenen (“Table of honor for our fallen”)
11/17/44 PFC Henry L. Hanauer
11/17/44 Pvt. Paul H. Hertz
11/17/44 S/Sgt. Kurt Popper
11/24/44 Ehrentafel fur unsere Gefallenen (“Table of honor for our fallen”)
12/1/44 Cpl. Eric Nathan
12/1/44 S/Sgt. Kurt Popper
12/8/44 Anneliese Ostrogorski
12/22/44 They Died for Their Country – This is the first list of “Aufbau” readers who, having immigrated to this country since 1933, made the supreme sacrifice for their new homeland and liberty.
12/29/44 Pvt. Fred M.  Harlam – Als 4-F fur die Freiheit gefallen (“Pvt. Fred M. Harlam – As a 4-F fallen for freedom”)
1/12/45 Sgt. Paul Mayer
1/19/45 Pvt. Eric Ziegelstein
1/19/45 Ensign Samuel Marsh, Jr.
1/26/45 PFC Henry Menkes
1/26/45 Pvt. Gero Piper
1/26/45 Pvt. Joseph Rudas
1/26/45 S/Sgt. Bernard Gaertner
1/26/45 Sgt. Alfred Nightingale
2/2/45 Corp. T/5 John Weill
2/2/45 PFC Alfred Behr
2/2/45 Pvt. Freddie Linton
2/2/45 T/Sgt. John Loewenthal
2/2/45 PFC Ferdinand Epstein
2/9/45 PFC Gerhard Heymann
2/9/45 He Knew Why He Died (David and George – 12/7/44)
2/16/45 S/Sgt. Alfred Rosenthal
2/23/45 Gen. Ivan D. Chernyakovsky
2/23/45 Sgt. Alexander H. Hirsch
2/23/45 Beim Macquis gefallen (“Fallen as a Maquis”) [Egon Berlin]
2/23/45 Major Mirkin gefallen (“Major Mirkin has fallen”)
3/2/45 Beim Macquis gefallen (“Fallen as a Maquis”) [Erwin Brueckman]
3/2/45 Ebenfalls beim Macquis gefallen (“Also Fallen as Maquis”)  [Ernest Blaukopf, Paula Draxler, Dr. Alfred Eidinger, Albert Hirsch, Harry Fleischmann, Heinrich Fritz, Karl Glatzhofer, Jula Guesner, Felix Kreisler, Gustav Kurz, Josef Meisel, Dr. Georg Rosen, Hugo Schoenagl, Bruno Weingast]
3/9/45 First Sgt. Alfred Eisenmann
3/9/45 PFC Arthur Heinz Gottschalk
3/16/45 PFC Richard L. Norman
3/16/45 PFC Steve L. Schoenwalter
3/16/45 S/Sgt. Louis Leiter
3/30/45 2nd Lt. Alfred Kupferschmidt
3/30/45 PFC Frank Kurzinger
3/30/45 Pvt. Ernest Schiffres
4/6/45 Major General Maurice Rose
4/13/45 Eisenstaedt, Lubow, Mosback
4/27/45 Gerald (Jerry) Beigel
5/4/45 PFC Harry Kaufman
5/4/45 Pvt. Fred Finsterwald
5/11/45 Corp. Heinz Maas
5/11/45 Max Levy
5/11/45 PFC Curtis Field
5/11/45 T/5 Bernard Wattenberg
5/11/45 Aus deutscher Gefangenschaft befreit (“Freed from German captivity”) [PFC Herbert Frank]
5/11/45 Lichtwitz, Richard (death notice – mentions Hans Lichtwitz)
5/18/45 PFC Eric Wertheim
5/18/45 PFC Leo Kent (Kendziora)
5/18/45 S/Sgt. Erich I. Goldschmidt
5/18/45 S/Sgt. Stephen Sigmund Mosbacher
5/25/45 Pvt. Adolf Rosenzweig
5/25/45 Pvt. Arnold A. Masse
6/1/45 S/Sgt. Martin H. Neuhaus
6/15/45 Manfred Selig
6/15/45 PFC Arthur Einstein
6/29/45 Cpl. Luwig Elsas (with Sapper Martin Elsas, brother)
6/29/45 PFC Fred Winterfeld
7/6/45 PFC Gerhard Samuel
7/13/45 Rolf Baumgarten
8/10/45 Pvt. Henry Lonner
8/24/45 PFC Gilbert Wolff
9/7/45 Now It Can Be Told (Peter Schweifert)
9/21/45 PFC George E. Rosing
10/19/45 T/3 Hugo A. Schaefer
11/9/45 PFC Manfred Butler
11/9/45 Prv. Ernst Rosenstein
11/9/45 Sgt. Julius Cohn
11/9/45 Im Dienst des Maquis gefallen (“Fallen in the service of the Maquis”) [Max Kahn]
1/25/46 Verlustziffer der amerikanischen Juden in diesem Kriege (“Loss figure of the American Jews in this war”)
3/29/46 Jahrestags-Gedenkfeier am Grabe des von den Deutschen hinterlistig erschossenen Major-General Maurice Rose (“Anniversary commemoration ceremony at the grave of Major-General Maurice Rose, who was treacherously shot by the Germans”)

Chernyakhovskiy