Nadene Goldfoot
The First World War (July 28, 1914- November 11, 1918) was not inevitable or accidental, but began as a result of human actions and decisions. Over 65 million men volunteered or were conscripted to fight in mass citizen armies.. The First World War was a cataclysm that blew apart the world order, wrecked the first great age of globalization, destroyed or mortally wounded nearly all of the giant empires that governed most of the earth’s population. "World War I destroyed four empires - German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Romanov - and touched off colonial revolts in the Middle East and Vietnam."
It left unstable, illegitimate or even criminal regimes which provoked further wars and instability. 100 years later violence in the Middle East and the Ukraine, and deep divisions across the Balkans, have important roots in what happened during and just after the conflict.
Well, that's one way to look at it. It didn't stop WWII that started in Europe in 1939 with Germany entering Poland before the USA joined the battle..
Prince Albert succeeded his mother as King Edward VII. Through King Edward VII, Queen Elizabeth is Victoria’s great-great-granddaughter. (Victoria’s son was Edward VII, Edward VII’s son was George V, George V's son was Elizabeth’s father George VI). Elizabeth’s husband Prince Philip is also a great-great-grandchild of Victoria and Albert through other royal lines. So---Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
As far as we Jews look at WWI, it came at a time when Jews were chattel needing to be freed like other people. England, who held the 30 year mandate on Palestine, saw Queen Victoria (1819-1901), who was 3/4 German ancestry, as Queen of England. Their 9 children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe" and spreading haemophilia in European royalty. Queen Victoria’s descendants can be found in the royal families of Germany, Russia, Greece, Romania, Sweden, Norway and Spain, according to online BBC history magazine, History Extra. History Extra also reports that three of Victoria’s grandchildren were key players in World War I: Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, Alexandra Romanov of Russia and George V of Britain. Apparently, Kaiser Wilhelm once said WWI may not have happened if his grandmother Victoria had been alive, “as she simply would not have allowed her relatives to go to war with one another." Victoria’s legacy didn’t just affect political and military history. She was also the first known royal carrier of Hemophilia – which now is commonly associated with European royal bloodlines. Victoria’s son Leopold died at age 30 from an injury that triggered a hemorrhage, which was caused by the disease. Hemophilia was seen in a few of the Queen’s grandchildren and, most notably, in her great-grandson, Alexei Romanov.
Following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazi state (also referred to as the Third Reich) quickly became a regime in which citizens had no guaranteed basic rights. How could they have visited Germany at a time like this? England then limited Jews entrance to Palestine-and they were charged in the mandate to be helping Jews to create a Jewish state. Instead, they helped the Arabs enter. The Germans were not chasing down Arabs. They had the whole Mesopotamia to live in, especially their original home.
She was succeeded by her son Edward VII of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha that they changed to Windsor. Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, visited Nazi Germany in October 1937. Edward had abdicated the British throne in December 1936, and his brother George VI had become king. Edward had been given the title Duke of Windsor and married Wallis Simpson in June 1937.
Austria's first Jewish settlers probably came from the Romans in the South though the first written document was from 906 CE placing Jewish and Christian merchants on the same footing. Jews were persecuted then by the Christians which drove number of Jews to Austria and in 1204 was found a document about a synagogue in Vienna. In 1238, the emperor Frederick II granted a charter to the Jews of Vienna, taking them under his protection.
In 1244, Duke Frederick the Quarrelsome, gave the Jews a new charter which served as a model elsewhere. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, serious persecutions culminated in 1420 when there was a charge of ritual murder and all the Jews of Austria were either burned, expelled, or forcibly baptized, but they did not all disappear. Those alive found themselves subject to further restrictions and local expulsions until 1670. Then the expulsion was decreed through the influence of the Spanish-born Empress Margaret Theresa who was most hostile to Jews. The Edict of Toleration of 1782 was by her successor, Joseph II which enforced emancipation and hurried assimilation. Jews received full rights only in The Nazi annexation leading to an unprecedented persecution. 80,000 emigrated in 1938 to 1940, but 100,000 were slaughtered. Why 12,000 Jews remained in Austria in 1990 is beyond me. 11,000 of them lived in Vienna.
Hungary has a Jewish grave that dates from the 2nd century CE. Jewish communities were in existence in the 9th century. In the 13th century, the decrees of the Lateran Council segregated Jews from their neighbors. Below: Jewish badge that belonged to Yola (Rivka) Lazarovics from Bonyhád, Hungary
As early as 1942, the Germans demanded that Jews in Hungary wear the yellow star but the new Prime Minister, Miklós Kállay, a conservative politician opposed to the Nazis and to "the Final Solution", refused. However, on 19 March 1944 when Hungary was occupied by the Germans, Kállay's government was dissolved and anti-Jewish laws were enacted, one of which was the requirement to wear the yellow star.
The yellow stars that are preserved in the Artifacts Collection are made of yellow cloth cut in the shape of a Star of David with no outline and no writing.
They also had to wear a badge, probably a star of David. During the reign of Bela IV from 1235 to 1270, many Jews settled in Hungary as his property (slaves ?) . They were allowed neighbors and had good relations with them. Their first expulsion was in 1360, which was revoked in 1364 allowing many Jewish immigrants entrance from neighboring countries. 1365 brought the judge of the Jews to collect taxes from the Jews with the last Jews chosen in 1440. The 15th and 16th centuries brought cases of ritual murder--the newest way to attack Jews, to declare that they were all murderers. These claims were that they ate the blood of Christians, so you know Jews didn't do it as we don't eat any blood from cows, sheep, etc, at all. For us, blood is taboo. Germans might eat blood sausages, but not us. Luckily for us, Christians picked the most illogical thing to accuse Jews of doing.
Jews from Moravia and Poland came in the first half of the 18th century to Hungary. Polish Jews brought the Talmud to study. Joseph II (1780-1790) brought schools and leased land to Jews, allowed Jews to work in all trades and professions and live in the royal cities. He abolished the Jewish badge but Jews were expected to take on German surnames. When he died, all this was then nullified. In 1944, the Nazis overran Hungary, imposed ghettos, concentration camps, and deportations to extermination centers. Of Hungary's 725,000 Jews, 400,000 were murdered. Some 20,000 fled after the 1956 revolution. 80,000 Jews were living in Hungary in 1990 that are registered.
Austria-Hungary: Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and was dissolved shortly after its defeat in the First World War.
Some countries that were powerful no longer exist.
Prussia is one. It was a former German state where Jews lived before Prussia existed and in 1648 were still living in limited areas. These were extended in 1671 by Frederick William,; the Grand Elector (1649-1688). The Court Jews along with mint masters and army purveyors made up the aristocracy of the community. Frederick I (1688-1713) regarded Jews mainly as a source of revenue; encouraging additional settlement but also imposing increased protection-dues and even appointed a board to supervise Jewish affairs in 1703 which was a bad sign.
1. Princess Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise, Queen Victoria's daughter
The princess married Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, who became the emperor of Germany. Their son was Kaiser Wilhelm of WWI notoriety. Their daughter Sophie became Queen of Greece. Wasn't she the mother of Prince Phillip?After 1871, the history of Prussian Jewry is bound up with that of the rest of Germany, culminating in the disaster of 1933-1945's World War II.
Germany: By 321 CE, Emperor Constantine issued regulations which showed an organized Jewish community with rabbis and elders in Cologne, Germany. In 8th and 9th centuries, the Carolingian royal house adopted a pro-Jewish policy and encouraged the settlement of Jews in its dominions to develop trade. There were Augasburg, Metz, in 10th century-Worms, Mainz, Masgdeburg, Ratisbon, etc. with the densest Jewish population in the Rhineland of Mainz, Speyer, Worms, Cologne, etc. But, by 1096, the Crusaders massacred the Jews throughout the Rhineland. 1298 saw massacres inspired by the knight, Rendeleisch; and another by 1336 Armleder; then 1348 and 1349 saw the Black Death blamed on the Jews. Over 350 towns with Jews suffered with 200 communities being wiped out.
1933 brought in Adolf Hitler. Jews were excluded from political, military and academic appointments. The downfall of the German Empire in 1918's end of the war they lost and the establishment of the Republic led to anti-Semitism of the most extreme type which was the motivational -force of the Nazi movement under Hitler. Concentration camps were organized resulting in a large-scale emigration from the country, if you were lucky. My uncle, Werner Oster at age 21 couldn't get out till May 1939, almost the last chance to leave, only he couldn't get his parents or young sister out. He was young and very strong-an athlete.
1935 brought the Nuremberg Laws to Jews. Much happened, and then on November 9th and 10th in 1938,riots took place with the Night of the Broken Glass occurred. Almost all synagogues, wholesale arrests and the imposition of a confiscatory levy ended the possibility of maintaining an organized Jewish life.
His family thought he'd be able to get them out, but the door closed right after he left.
Romanov Empire (Russian Empire) is a place where Jews have lived since classical times, such as Crimea, Caucasus, Khazars, Lithuania, Turkestan, Ukraine, etc. In 986 CE, Duke Vladimir converted to Christianity and Jews participated in a disputation. By the 12th century, a Jewish gate is mentioned in records at Kiev. The Jewish Quarter was looted in 1113. 1563 saw 300 Jews drowned, a Polotsk and Vitebsk who refused to accept baptism. 1667 saw Jews expelled from Eastern Ukraine upon its annexation to Russia. Expulsion orders were issued in 1727, 1738, 1742. By 1753, 35,000 Jews were driven out of Russia.
Then in 1762, Catherine the Great II permitted all aliens to live in Russia except Jews.
Poland was partitioned in 1772 1793 and 1795, the great Jewish masses of White Russia, the Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland became Russian subjects, making the great majority of the world's Jews under the reactionary rule of the Czars. By 1786, they were restricted to towns, laying the foundation for THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT (Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, White Russia, Ukraine, Bessarabia, Crimea-25 provinces of Czarist Russia). The Pale restricted Jews in the villages (1807-1808) and wasn't lifted until 1915. About 600 oppressive enactments regarding the Jews were published during the reign of Nicholas I who regarded them as an injurious element. In 1827, military service was brutally imposed on young Jewish boys as Contonists. Jewish mothers tried to disfigure their sons in some small way to keep them out of the army as they'd be put on the front lines. 14 year olds were taken away. Jewish books were censored in 1936 and back in 1844 Alexander II tried to Russify the Jews by education and the gradual relaxation of restriction, while the judicial law of 1864 contained no anti-Jewish discrimination. They had 65,000 Russian Jews involved in agriculture for the first time of their lives. They were merchants. .
Then the bottom fell out of the plan when Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. Jews were the chief victims. Pogroms in 1880 took place, hurrying along the plans for aliyah to Palestine in 1881 to start taking place. The May Laws were then written on May 3, 1882, showing that Jews were a foreign element to be kept out of village populations. Jews could not live or acquire property except in towns in the Pale of Settlement. The laws caused recurrent local expulsions, intolerable overcrowding and the blocking of economic opportunities. Jews were expelled from Moscow and a Numerus Clausus was introduced into high schools and secondary schools so Jews turned increasingly to Zionism, Socialism with the Bund founded in 1897 along with the revolutionary movement.
The Pale of Settlement with Poland became the world's great center of talmudic study. Odessa became the focus of the Hebrew literary revival and the place of origin of many people in Zionist and contemporary Jewish history. When WWI took place, 5,600,000 Jews lived in the empire of the Czars with almost 2 million in Poland. 300,000 Jews served in the army.
The Soviet government did not recognize the Jews as a nationality. They discouraged Hebrew and persecuted Zionism. The annexation early in WWII of western White Russia, Western Vothynia, Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina, Bessarabia, Lithuania and Latvia led to the mass-deportation of Jews, especially the intelligentsia, from these regions.
Nazis invaded Russia by 1941 and aimed at exterminating the Jewish population; thus of the 500,000 Jews in White Russia, only half escaped to the interior and up to 200,000 were slaughtered.
The population of Jews in Russia in the 1970s, some 250,000 Jews left. At first, most (150,000) went to Israel but from the mid-1970s the main destination was the USA. I made aliyah in 1980 and was in a class of 40 students, mostly Russians. I wrote a book about it, (Letters From Israel)-on amazon.com.
The official 1989 census put the Jewish population at 1,449,167 but could be higher. Diplomatic relations with Israel were re-established in 1991, shortly before the liquidation of the USSR. Right now, Russia is laying claim to 3 churches in Israel.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Austria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine
https://echoesandreflections.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/03-03-05_StudentHandout_NaziGermanyandAnti-JewishPolicy_edited-1.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanov_Empire_(micronation)
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=12&smtid=1#:~:text=World%20War%20I%20destroyed%20four,the%20Middle%20East%20and%20Vietnam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_tour_of_Germany_by_the_Duke_and_Duchess_of_Windsor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_the_British_Mandate_for_Palestine
https://www.historyhit.com/was-world-war-one-inevitable/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary
https://www.wgbh.org/specials/2019/01/11/what-happened-to-queen-victorias-nine-children
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