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'There was a cart for the dead, a cart for the living'

Morris Buznic volunteered to fight for the British Army when a Jewish battalion was formed in 1917. This is his story.

November 8, 2018 11:53
Morris Buznic (right) and a friend prepare for war.

ByKeren David, keren david

4 min read

The band played Onward Christian Soldiers as the soldiers marched, carrying bayonet-fixed rifles, from the Guildhall — where they had been feted at a special banquet — to the London docks. Each soldier had been given the Freedom of the City of London.

This was Morris Buznic’s introduction to army life in 1917 as volunteer for the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, part of the Jewish fighting force of the First World War.

Morris was my grandfather, and the stories of his war service come from my father. I’ve filled in some gaps using a book, We Are Coming Unafraid by Michael and Shlomit Keren, which tells the wider story of the Jewish soldiers who fought for the British against the Germans and the Ottoman Empire in the later stages of the First World War.

That they were there is mainly down to the Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who lobbied the British government from 1915 to create a Jewish legion. When they did, it consisted of soldiers from Palestine, Canada, Argentina and the US, as well as those living in Britain, who largely formed the 38th battalion. The Guildhall banquet came after basic training in Plymouth, and before the troops were dispatched to the Middle East.