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How defeat in the First World War solidified antisemitism in Germany

Almost 100,000 Jews wore the German military uniform in the First World War, only to face a horrific fate by the Second

November 8, 2018 11:25
Celebrating Chanukah on the front in 1916

ByTim Grady, bY tIM gRADY

3 min read

When the armistice was signed 100 years ago this week, German Jews, as with most other Germans, could find few reasons to celebrate.

After more than four years of grim fighting, the end was a humiliating defeat in the field and a revolution at home. This was not the outcome that anyone had wanted.

“I almost fell over in shock” at the news, Joseph Levy, an Orthodox Frankfurt cantor, later recalled. For German Jews, there were manifold reasons for such disappointment, but three stick out particularly strongly.

First, people understandably struggled to comprehend the huge scale of physical and material sacrifice. At the time of the armistice, with Germany comprehensively defeated, it was hard to impose any kind of positive narrative.