Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
The "Jewish Census" of 1916 ...
In view of the horrendous losses of the German army in the first two years of the First World War, there are increasing hateful rumors in the German public that "the Jews" are all "slackers" and are sitting in safety at home or on the stage, while "German men" fight and die for them.
Whereby it is deliberately "overlooked" that the Germans of the Jewish faith are citizens like everyone else ...!
These inflammatory slogans are strongly reinforced by anti-Semitic clubs and associations - and the officers' corps, which in its large majority are also anti-Semitic, eagerly seconded - up to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who counted prominent Jewish citizens among his circle of friends (e.g. the banker Gershon Bleichröder and the major shipping company Albert Ballin), but repeatedly attracted attention due to anti-Semitic abuses.
There is a quotation from a letter from the emperor to his American friend Pouitney Bigelow, in which - decades before the Holocaust - it says:
"The press, the Jews and mosquitoes are a plague from which humanity has to free itself one way or another - I believe the best would be gas."
Oberst Max Bauer...
... the liaison of the German "Oberste Heeresleitung" to the Reich Government and the Pan-German Association wrote: There is "rightly ... a tremendous rage" against the Jews. Because while in some of Berlin's streets he "felt like he was in Jerusalem", he hardly saw a Jew at the front. Almost everyone is outraged about their low level of attraction, but nothing is improved, "... because it is impossible to approach the Jews, that is to say, the capital that is once again in control of the press and parliament."
This anti-Jewish sentiment thus takes the form of a regular campaign and culminates on June 17, 1916 in an official request from the right-wing (today we would call it "populist"!) "Deutsche Volkische Party", Ferdinand Werner (a later Nazi and government president). ..
... to the Reich Government: Werner demands to know
"1. How many shops and business people have the army supplies been withdrawn? What are these
companies called and business people and where do they live?
2. How many people of Jewish tribe are at the front? How much in the stage? How much in the
Garrison administrations, general offices, etc.?
3. How many Jews were complained about or were designated as indispensable? "
The commanding general of the Stettin Army Corps, Hermann von Vietinghoff, trumpeted into the same horn on July 16, 1916 ...
... and "reports" to the German Minister of War "complaints" that many Jews who are conscripted and fit for war would be exempted from military service and "avoid this under all possible pretexts".
This promotes anti-Semitic public unrest. In order to avoid this disturbance of the truce, the ministry must force the "above-named people" to undertake armed service and excessive complaints from Jews for the administrative offices.
Instead of kicking the fine gentlemen in the backside as an answer, the government and the Supreme Army Command duck!
On October 11, 1916, the Prussian War Minister Adolf Wild von Hohenborn ...
... issues the following edict:
“The war ministry continues to receive complaints from the population that a disproportionately large number of conscripts of the Israelite faith are exempt from military service or are avoiding it under all possible pretexts. According to these reports, a large number of Jews in military service are said to have understood how to find employment outside the front line, i.e. in the stage and home area and in official and clerk positions.
In order to review these complaints and, if necessary, to be able to counter them, the War Ministry sincerely requests that you provide evidence according to the attached sample 1 and 2. "
Later it comes out: Essential formulations of the decree are copied verbatim from a right-wing extremist propaganda pamphlet of the "Reichshammerbund" ...
... one of the many "populist" associations of the extreme right!
Attached are two questionnaires, which all troop units should fill out to their general commands and send them back to the War Ministry by December 1, 1916. The first asked about the proportion of Jews among the conscripts, the second about postponements, withdrawals, and transfers of Jews to the stage.
You really shouldn't have "counted" it, because you already knew all this - the religious creed was already in the pay book of every single soldier and was already noted at the mustering of every new recruit, as here in that of the "Israelite" machine gunner Sally Meyer ( Photo left) who served on the Western Front ...:
The "religion" of the Prussian soldier Mayer from Andernach am Rhein is neatly noted under number 3 of his "Soldbuch" (= soldier's ID), as under number 4 his civil profession "Metzger" (= "butcher") and the names of his parents ...:
The "census of Jews" in the German army begins on November 1st, 1916.
When the result is established, it is so embarrassing for the anti-Semites that the figures are not published as originally planned, but remain under lock and key until the end of the war!
17.3 percent, as many German Jews as non-Jews, were drafted into military service in 1916, although only 15.6 percent of the Jews were conscripted for reasons of age and occupation.
Men of the Jewish faith were OVER- and not UNDER-represented in the German army!
The reason for this: Many Germans of Jewish faith saw their participation in the war as an opportunity to publicly demonstrate their love for the country - and therefore volunteered to do military service - which their interest groups expressly called for...:
77 percent of them had taken part in frontline operations. In this way, they provided almost as many front-line soldiers as the non-Jews!
The non-publication of the results of the "Jewish census", which would have refuted the anti-Semitic agitators on the right, was quickly reinterpreted by the "populists" for their political purposes: targeted rumors were spread that the numbers were the "shirking" of Jewish citizens impressively confirm that the government suppressed publication for fear of unrest.
Of the 500,000 Jewish Germans in the Reich in 1914, 98,000 served in the German army, 85,000 fought at the front, 21,000 were promoted to sergeants or officers during the First World War for "bravery in front of the enemy", and over 35,000 received medals or other decorations, including 30,000 medals of bravery.
12,000 of perished.
The figures of the "Jewish census" were not fully known until 1922.
Of course, they did not change anything about the hatred of Jews by the emperor, the officers' corps, the extreme right (and "populists") ...
And many former Jewish fighters at the front had to experience 25 years later that the "Iron Cross" offered no protection from deportation, concentration camps and gas chambers ...
In view of the horrendous losses of the German army in the first two years of the First World War, there are increasing hateful rumors in the German public that "the Jews" are all "slackers" and are sitting in safety at home or on the stage, while "German men" fight and die for them.
Whereby it is deliberately "overlooked" that the Germans of the Jewish faith are citizens like everyone else ...!
These inflammatory slogans are strongly reinforced by anti-Semitic clubs and associations - and the officers' corps, which in its large majority are also anti-Semitic, eagerly seconded - up to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who counted prominent Jewish citizens among his circle of friends (e.g. the banker Gershon Bleichröder and the major shipping company Albert Ballin), but repeatedly attracted attention due to anti-Semitic abuses.
There is a quotation from a letter from the emperor to his American friend Pouitney Bigelow, in which - decades before the Holocaust - it says:
"The press, the Jews and mosquitoes are a plague from which humanity has to free itself one way or another - I believe the best would be gas."
Oberst Max Bauer...
... the liaison of the German "Oberste Heeresleitung" to the Reich Government and the Pan-German Association wrote: There is "rightly ... a tremendous rage" against the Jews. Because while in some of Berlin's streets he "felt like he was in Jerusalem", he hardly saw a Jew at the front. Almost everyone is outraged about their low level of attraction, but nothing is improved, "... because it is impossible to approach the Jews, that is to say, the capital that is once again in control of the press and parliament."
This anti-Jewish sentiment thus takes the form of a regular campaign and culminates on June 17, 1916 in an official request from the right-wing (today we would call it "populist"!) "Deutsche Volkische Party", Ferdinand Werner (a later Nazi and government president). ..
... to the Reich Government: Werner demands to know
"1. How many shops and business people have the army supplies been withdrawn? What are these
companies called and business people and where do they live?
2. How many people of Jewish tribe are at the front? How much in the stage? How much in the
Garrison administrations, general offices, etc.?
3. How many Jews were complained about or were designated as indispensable? "
The commanding general of the Stettin Army Corps, Hermann von Vietinghoff, trumpeted into the same horn on July 16, 1916 ...
... and "reports" to the German Minister of War "complaints" that many Jews who are conscripted and fit for war would be exempted from military service and "avoid this under all possible pretexts".
This promotes anti-Semitic public unrest. In order to avoid this disturbance of the truce, the ministry must force the "above-named people" to undertake armed service and excessive complaints from Jews for the administrative offices.
Instead of kicking the fine gentlemen in the backside as an answer, the government and the Supreme Army Command duck!
On October 11, 1916, the Prussian War Minister Adolf Wild von Hohenborn ...
... issues the following edict:
“The war ministry continues to receive complaints from the population that a disproportionately large number of conscripts of the Israelite faith are exempt from military service or are avoiding it under all possible pretexts. According to these reports, a large number of Jews in military service are said to have understood how to find employment outside the front line, i.e. in the stage and home area and in official and clerk positions.
In order to review these complaints and, if necessary, to be able to counter them, the War Ministry sincerely requests that you provide evidence according to the attached sample 1 and 2. "
Later it comes out: Essential formulations of the decree are copied verbatim from a right-wing extremist propaganda pamphlet of the "Reichshammerbund" ...
... one of the many "populist" associations of the extreme right!
Attached are two questionnaires, which all troop units should fill out to their general commands and send them back to the War Ministry by December 1, 1916. The first asked about the proportion of Jews among the conscripts, the second about postponements, withdrawals, and transfers of Jews to the stage.
You really shouldn't have "counted" it, because you already knew all this - the religious creed was already in the pay book of every single soldier and was already noted at the mustering of every new recruit, as here in that of the "Israelite" machine gunner Sally Meyer ( Photo left) who served on the Western Front ...:
The "religion" of the Prussian soldier Mayer from Andernach am Rhein is neatly noted under number 3 of his "Soldbuch" (= soldier's ID), as under number 4 his civil profession "Metzger" (= "butcher") and the names of his parents ...:
The "census of Jews" in the German army begins on November 1st, 1916.
When the result is established, it is so embarrassing for the anti-Semites that the figures are not published as originally planned, but remain under lock and key until the end of the war!
17.3 percent, as many German Jews as non-Jews, were drafted into military service in 1916, although only 15.6 percent of the Jews were conscripted for reasons of age and occupation.
Men of the Jewish faith were OVER- and not UNDER-represented in the German army!
The reason for this: Many Germans of Jewish faith saw their participation in the war as an opportunity to publicly demonstrate their love for the country - and therefore volunteered to do military service - which their interest groups expressly called for...:
77 percent of them had taken part in frontline operations. In this way, they provided almost as many front-line soldiers as the non-Jews!
The non-publication of the results of the "Jewish census", which would have refuted the anti-Semitic agitators on the right, was quickly reinterpreted by the "populists" for their political purposes: targeted rumors were spread that the numbers were the "shirking" of Jewish citizens impressively confirm that the government suppressed publication for fear of unrest.
Of the 500,000 Jewish Germans in the Reich in 1914, 98,000 served in the German army, 85,000 fought at the front, 21,000 were promoted to sergeants or officers during the First World War for "bravery in front of the enemy", and over 35,000 received medals or other decorations, including 30,000 medals of bravery.
12,000 of perished.
The figures of the "Jewish census" were not fully known until 1922.
Of course, they did not change anything about the hatred of Jews by the emperor, the officers' corps, the extreme right (and "populists") ...
And many former Jewish fighters at the front had to experience 25 years later that the "Iron Cross" offered no protection from deportation, concentration camps and gas chambers ...
