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Judaism

A celebration to end all celebrations

A century ago, Jews joined the crowds cheering the end of the First World War - but like the rest of Britain, the community had paid a terrible price

September 6, 2018 14:44
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ByColin Shindler, Colin Shindler

4 min read

At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the First World War came to an end. Among the vast number of casualties, it had cost the lives of 3,500 British Jews and 12,000 German Jews. It had uprooted millions, demolished great empires and destroyed the ordered worlds of so many.

By Rosh Hashanah 1918, there was finally a turning of the tide on the battlefield after four long years of military stalemate. Tens of thousands of German troops had been captured and there was much defeatist talk in the air in Berlin.

As Yom Kippur started, American forces succeeded in pushing back retreating German armies in the St Mihiel salient in France. Psychologically it broke the will of the already despondent Central Powers, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, to continue the struggle. A JC editorial spoke of “the military disaster that has taken hold of the German heart”.

Austrian forces in Italy mutinied while two Bulgarian regiments refused to fight. In Palestine, General Allenby attacked the Turks in Afula, Megiddo and Nazareth. In Germany, revolutionaries took to the streets inspired by the Bolshevik revolution a year before. On November 1, 1918, the Kaiser told his detractors that he would not “dream of abandoning the throne because of a few hundred Jews and 1,000 workers”. Just over a week later, he had fled into exile in Holland.