JEWISH SOLDIERS

There is no stigma designed to be more hurtful to Jews than the words uttered by anti-Semites that they do not participate in the defense of their country. Jewish soldiers have fought and died in the armies of their countries in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican American War, and American Civil War, Boer war on both sides, Russian-Japanese War, WWI and WWII, Israeli-Arab war, Korean and Vietnamese wars. There are many instances of Jews being made officers of very high rank and awarded medals for bravery.

Simon Wolf, a Jewish activist of the 19th century collected the names of over 7,000 Jewish-Americans who fought on both sides in the American Civil War and published the list in a directory in 1895. Between 1850-1860 there were about 80,000 people of the Jewish faith in the U.S. and it appears just short of 10% served. In every major war that the U.S. fought, Jews were in the army in greater proportions than their percentage of the population. 11,000 American Jewish soldiers, airmen and marines were killed in WWII. General Maurice Rose commanded the U.S. 3rd armoured division and was killed in action.

2,956 British Jewish servicemen and women were killed in World War 2. Brigadier Frederick Kisch was the chief combat engineer of the British 8th army under Montgomery in North Africa (killed in action). 700 or more Palestinian Jews served in the British Commonwealth forces and gave their lives. There was a 5,000 strong Jewish infantry brigade in the British army that fought in Italy.

A higher percentage of Jews fought in WWI for Germany than any other ethnic group. 12,000 died. Yet in 1916 the German High Command ordered a census of the Jews in the army designed to show a lack of patriotism. It showed the opposite, yet in the Nazi era Hitler used it to propagate his “stab in the back” theory, advancing the idea that they lost the war because of the Jews

30,000 Polish Jews were killed in action in 1939 defending Poland against Germany, with many more killed in the free Polish forces in Italy and North Africa

Between 1874 and 1914 there were more Jews in the Russian army than non-Jews in proportion to the general population. For example, in 1907 Jewish soldiers constituted almost 5% of the entire military but 4% of the population of the empire. There were some 300,000 who served in the Russian army during WWI. Despite a vociferous anti alien campaign that blamed Russian military failures on Jews in general and on the Jewish population inhabiting Galicia in particular, Jewish soldiers (as reported by military censors) shared patriotic enthusiasm with their Russian parallels. Regimental commanders stated that Jews “by and large fulfilled their military duty satisfactorily” participated in combat “on par with others”. 200,000 Soviet Jewish servicemen were killed in the Second World War. There were lots of officers of the Jewish faith who served with distinction. The majority were purged by Stalin from the military or posted to Siberia.

Thousands of Jewish soldiers died in the French army as well as the Free Greek, Czech, Free French, Belgian, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand armies. There were even Jewish soldiers in the British Indian army.

American Jews were overrepresented in the Lincoln brigade, the American organized military force that went to Spain to fight Franco and fascism and with the Republicans. The Spanish civil war was one of the great flashpoints of the 1930`s and the Jews went there to die and fight even though Spain had thrown Jews out of their country four centuries earlier.

In the American Civil War there were Jewish troops fighting on both sides but at this time the South was losing. General Lee ,the supreme leader of the south, at the siege of St Petersburg, gave the order that no Jewish troops would be let off for Yom Kippur. They were needed badly as the South`s troops were depleted.

In the second world war in the U.S. army, Jews represented 4.5% of the armed forces yet they were only 2% of the population

The victories of the State of Israel should put to rest the perfidious statements of the anti-Semites about Jewish fighting ability. Will it? Who knows? Anti-Semites never fail to surprise me with their new lies about the Jewish people and now they have the internet to pass those lies.