Questions and answers

​Everything you wanted to know about Jewish combatants in foreign armies

The following are questions and answers relating to the collection. You may find in the archive a comprehensive documentation to any question.

Question:​

Were there any Jews who excelled in the American Civil War?

Answer:

180,000 Jews lived in the USA in 1860. According to war historians, 8,000 Jews fought in the Union's armies, 2,000 in the Confederate armies. The Jews served loyally, albeit prejudices and hatred toward them. Six Jews of the Union armies were decorated with the highest American badge of honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Question:

When Jews were first integrated in National armies?

Answer:

Generally, in Europe the process began with the revolutionary changes toward the establishment of a civil society and equality of civil rights. Some of the Jews reacted positively to the emancipation efforts, integrating into the civil society. Joseph II, the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, bestowed civil rights on the Jews in 1782. Eight years later, Jews were declared qualified for army service. In France, following the French Revolution of 1789 and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the Jews were declared qualified for army service. In Holland, in 1808, under Napoleon's rule, the Jews were granted equality of rights, and were obliged to serve in the army. In Prussia, the Jews were declared qualified for army service in 1812. The British Empire did not commission Jewish officers until 1828; however, some Jews were suppliers and contractors of the army in the 18th century. In Tsarist Russia, Jews were exempt from military service (for a ransom) until 1827. In 1827, Tsar Nicolay I decided to draft Jews for 25 years of military service. Some Italian Jews served in Napoleon's armies. In Italy, the 1848 Constitution granted the Jews equality of rights – 260 Jews volunteered to serve in the Piedmontese army (First Italian War of Independence). Equality of rights was granted to the Jews in Switzerland in 1866, including military service duty.

​Question:

What role was played by Jewish soldiers in World War I? Did Jews fight for one or both sides of the conflict? How many Jews participated in the war?

Answer:

1.35 Million Jews fought on both sides of the conflict in World War I. Some of the few Jews living then in Palestine fought in the Ottoman army and in the British Army which occupied Palestine by the end of the war.

Question:

In which armies did most Jews serve in World War I?

Answer:

500,000 Jews served in the Russian army, 320,000 in the Austro-Hungarian army, 250,000 Jews served in the American army, 100,000 in the German army, 55,000 in the French army, and 50,000 in the British Empire armies. More than 170,000 Jews fell in battle, 100,000 of them in the Tsar army.

Question:

What was the meaning of Ottomanization?

Answer:

The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in World War I, canceling (8/9/1914) the Capitulation Regime which granted special rights and consular protection to subjects of Austro-Hungary, Britain, France, and Russia. Thus more than half of the Jews living then in Palestine became enemy subjects designated for expulsion (some of them left, others were expelled). Against these backgrounds, and in order to save the Jewish settlement, an Ottomanization movement arose among some Jews in Palestine, urgently becoming Ottoman subjects, including all duties (service in the Ottoman army as well). As many as 15 – 18 thousand Jews became Ottoman Citizens, another 18,000, mostly Russian subjects were expelled or left of their own will (to Alexandria in Egypt).

Question:

Did most teachers and students of the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium rejected the reactionary Ottoman regime at the outbreak of World War I?

Answer:

Most teachers and students of the Gymnasium were pro Ottomanization, from Jewish and national considerations. Most graduates of the Gymnasium and other high schools enlisted in the Ottoman army. In the spring of 1916, more than hundred high school graduates were enlisted in a reserve officer's course in Constantinople, and after graduation were posted to the fronts as junior officers. Some of them deserted, others continued to serve until the defeat of the Ottoman army.  

Question:

Did Palestinian Jews fight on the British side, against the Ottomans?

Answer:

Yes, some of the Jewish refugees if Egypt began already in February 1915 to establish the Zion Mule Corps within the British army. Units of the Corps took part in the first Battle of Gallipoli (to the displeasure of the Turks). Toward the end of the war, 1918, Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor succeeded in their efforts to establish Jewish battalions within the British army, composed of Jewish volunteers from Britain, Palestine, and the USA (Battalions 38, 39, 40)

Question:

Who was John Monash?

Answer:

Sir John Monash was a Lieutenant-General in the Australian army. He commanded the 4th Brigade of the Imperial Australian Corps in the Battle of Gallipoli (1915), and in 1916 was promoted to command the Australian third division in the Western Front with a rank of Major-General. In 1918 he was appointed to command the Australian Expeditionary Force in Europe with the rank of Lieutenant-General.

Question:

Name some the Jewish founders of the Red Army

Answer:

Lev Davidovich Bronstein - Leon Trotsky; Jacob Sverdlov; M. S. Oritzki (assassinated in 1918); Jacob M. Fishman (later General-Mayor, head of naval warfare, arrested as an enemy of the people); M.G Levin.

Question:

What was the scope of the international assistance to the republican anti-fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War, how many of them were Jews, and were there Palestinian Jews among them?

Answer:

40,000 volunteers (the International Brigades) fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939). They arrived from Europe (including the USSR), the USA, and other countries. Most were leftists and communists. More than 15,000 of them were listed as Jews, 400 from Mandatory Palestine, including 145 citizens of Mandatory Palestine. Mostly these were members of the Communist Party (PKP), immigrants from Eastern Europe with leftist views.

Question:

Did Hitler award crosses of honor to Jews who fought for Germany in the First World War? If so, when and why?

Answer:

In 1934, a year after his rise to power in Germany, Hitler was forced by President Von Hindenburg to award hundreds of crosses of honor to Jews who excelled as combatants of the German army in the First World War. Thus admitting that that Nazi propaganda about the cowardice of Jews was false. The The Israel Defense Forces and Defense Establishment Archives stores dozens of certificates and decorations of honor awarded by the "Fuhrer and Reichskanzler."

Question:

How many Jews served in the Polish army at the time of the German invasion on September 1, 1939 (the beginning of World War II).

Answer:

The polish order of battle vis-à-vis the German invaders was 1,000,000 soldiers, regular and reserves, out of which 100,000 were Jews (10%, their exact percentage of Poland's population). 30,000 Jews fell in battle, were taken prisoners or declared missing in action in the battles until Poland's capitulation (11,000 of which in defending Warsaw).

Question:

How many Jews served in various armies in World War II, which army included their largest number?

Answer:

1.5 million Jews served in the Allied Armies and in the various resistance movements. The largest number, 550,000 in the American army, 500,000 Jews served in the Red Army, 200,000 in various Polish armies. Over 90,000 served in the British army, including volunteers from Mandatory Palestine. 42,000 Jews were members of resistance movements and the Partisans.

Question:

How many Jewish generals served in the Red Army, how many were awarded the "Hero of the Soviet Union" decoration?

Answer:

The The Israel Defense Forces and Defense Establishment Archives holds 305 biographies of Jewish Generals who served in the Red Army in World War II (some of them were promoted after the war), and a list of 168 senior officers of Jewish origins, who were executed prior to the war during the Stalinist purges. 150 Jews were awarded the highest Soviet badge – "Hero of the Soviet Union."

Question:

What was the contribution of Mandatory Palestine's Jews to the Allied Forces war effort?

Answer:

Out of the 500,000 Jewish population of the Yishuv 30,000 thousand volunteered to serve in the British forces in the Middle East and North Africa, including women. 1,400 of which became German prisoners of war. Following intense political efforts, the Jewish Brigade was established in 1944. The Brigade fought in Italy, and its units reached the Nazi concentration camps in Austria and Germany, thereby to meet the Jewish survivors and send them to Israel. 37 parachutists were recruited in Mandatory Palestine, who operated behind the enemy lines in a combined effort of the British Intelligence and the Zionist Movements, to link with European Jews and assist in their rescue.  

Question:

How many Jews were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor due to their service in World War II? Who were the most senior Jewish Officers in the US army in the war?

 Answer:

The Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to Sergeant Isadore S. Jachman, and to Lieutenant Raymond Zussman. The highest ranking Jewish officers were Major General Maurice Rose, and Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (1900 – 1986). 

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