Żołnierze żydowscy w armii austro-węgierskiej podczas I wojny światowej

Abstract

The military service of Jewish soldiers during World War I caused controversies, with the term“Jew” itself being problematic. In Austria-Hungary, a Jewish nationality was not recognized, andthe only criterium of identification was a declaration of practicing religion (Judaism). This isnot a problem for establishing the number of Jewish privates, but it disrupts the statistics of theofficer corps, where it was common to abandon Judaism. In the Austro-Hungarian Army, Jewshad the ability to acquire higher officer ranks (general), but in practice, this was only applicableto Jews assimilated to German culture. The percentage of Jews among reserve officers was higherthan average due to their high level of education. According to data from 1910, Jews constituted3.1% of all privates in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. World War I took the lives of about25,000 Austro-Hungarian Jews, i.e. about 8.3% of all followers of Judaism mobilized to the army.This was a percentage slightly lower than for Christians, which became fodder to anti-Semitism.Jewish soldiers showed loyalty to the state and did not engage in military rebellions in 1918. After the war, the memory of Jewish soldiers was not cultivated in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy’s successor states. In contrast to Germany, however, they were not accused of acting to undermine the empire’s military potential during World War I.