German Jewish Soldiers

On 69 information boards, the exhibition 'German Jewish Soldiers' deals with the fate of Jewish soldiers in Germany from the beginning of Jewish emancipation in the early 19th century to the world wars. It focuses on the interrelation between integration and/or marginalization on the one hand and the military and/or military service on the other. In 1996 this exhibition was redesigned in co-operation with the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin and the Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum in Potsdam and opened in the Brandenburg Parliament in Potsdam on 2 December 1996. Ever since, it has been touring through the Federal Republic and has provoked great interest. If today the memory of Jewish life in Germany is evoked, the genocide under NS rule inevitably becomes a focal topic. Genocide was preceded by defamation. Part of this campaign of the persecutors was to deny the fact that Jewish soldiers had served in the armed forces. Those Jews aspiring to integration considered military service as part of their conception of themselves. The exhibition takes the story up to anti-Jewish persecutions. From the late 18th century, the question of Jewish emancipation was discussed hand in hand with the issue of military service for German Jews.

Once granted equal rights of citizenship, Jews were expected to shoulder the burdens of military service in the same way as the non-Jewish population. Finally the aspired legal assimilation in status coincided with the foundation of the German Reich in 1871 by which the military acquired a leading social standing. While the Jewish population continued to serve in the armed forces, anti-Semitism and militarism jointly gained momentum. In the wake of World War I, the 'primary catastrophe of the 20th century', this interrelation gained ground massively. It contributed to the seizure of power of the National Socialists. To prevent persecution, reference to the patriotic military service of the German Jews (l00,000 had served in World War I) was of no avail. The last image of the exhibition depicts the access ramp to the Auschwitz death camp. A scholarly book with numerous illustrations in German, entitled German Jewish Soldiers. From the Emancipation Era to the Time of the World Wars. An Exhibition of the Military History Research Institute in Co-operation with the Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum in Potsdam and the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin was published to accompany the exhibition. It is on sale in book stores (at ca. ? 15, Verlag E.S. Mittler u. Sohn, 1996, 209 pages)

Please contact Captain Michael Berger, phone +49 331 9714 562, for additional information.