Issue ID: 09

October 2016

Croatian-Slavonian Jews in the First World War

ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to present various levels of the Croatian-Slavonian Jews’ experience of the First World War. To begin with, although several war memorials are known to have been preserved, the scope of Jewish casualties remains unknown, having been a controversial theme within the former Yugoslav framework. However, recent research has reconstructed the patriotic and social care activities of Jewish societies for the period of 1914–1918; this research additionally charts the life paths of various notable individuals, both Zionist and assimilationist. Furthermore, although various sources attest to an increase in the negative perception of Jews as a result of the war, which in turn contributed to the mass looting of 1918–1919, one can reach no simple conclusions about the character of this changed perception. Similarly, although Zionist representatives publicly vested great hopes in the emancipatory potential of the new Yugoslav state, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had for all intents and purposes shown itself to be not so deficient after all.

issue 09 / October 2016 by Filip Hamersak and Ljiljana Dobrovsak

The Remembrance of World War One and the Austrian Federation of Jewish War Veterans

ABSTRACT
This paper discusses discourses and commemorative activities of the Austrian “Federation of Jewish War Veterans” (Bund jüdischer Frontsoldaten/BJF). It is based on the analysis of the journal “Jewish Front” (Jüdische Front) as well as on archival sources. A remarkable increase in anti-Semitic activities as well as acts of violence committed by the National Socialists led former Jewish soldiers of the Austrian army to found the BJF in 1932. The aim of the BJF was to defend Austrian Jewry against anti-Semitic accusations as well as to strengthen their Jewish self-consciousness by focusing on the remembrance of Jewish military service during the Great War and on an idealized and exaggerated war experience. To reach their objectives, the BJF was organized hierarchically and militarily. The members wore uniforms, and the BJF organized military inspections, spread propaganda via the journal “Jewish Front” and initiated the erection of Jewish war memorials in several Austrian cities. Due to the fact that the BJF wanted to unify Austrian Jewry under its leadership, it claimed to be above all party lines and propagandized a common Austrian Jewish identity.

issue 09 / October 2016 by Gerald Lamprecht