Continue of Core of Jewish People Part IV

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                                                                            

                                                 Before World War I:

  The assassination of Tsar Alexander II on March 13, 1881, in St. Petersburg, by a member of the revolutionary group "People's Will," triggered significant political and social changes in Russia. The event led to a shift towards more autocratic rule under his successor, Alexander III, and a period of increased repression. The assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 sparked a period of intense persecution of Jews in Russia, including violent attacks known as pogroms. Alexander II was seen as tolerant towards Jews. During his reign, special taxes on Jews were eliminated and those who graduated from secondary school were permitted to live outside the Pale of Settlement, and became eligible for state employment. Large numbers of educated Jews moved as soon as possible to Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other major cities.^] Alexander III, who succeeded his father after his assassination, reversed this trend.The importance of Hesya Helfman's role in the assassination was secondary, providing a flat for the conspirators. After the assassination, the role of Jews in the act was often emphasized or exaggerated. Another conspirator, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, was also rumoured to be Jewish. Narodnaya Volya had many Jewish members, with about a third of all its female members being Jewish.In the aftermath of the assassination, the May Laws were passed. The assassination also inspired retaliatory attacks on Jewish communities. During these pogroms, thousands of Jewish homes were destroyed; many families were reduced to poverty and large numbers of men, women and children were injured or killed in 166 towns in the south-western provinces of the Empire.

                                                     

1890: Gustav Ermann, a Jewish soldier in the German Kaiser's army, born in  in Saarbrücken

  From Marxism to McDonald's 120 years of Russian photography

The cantonists were Jewish boys in the Russian Empire who were forcibly taken to camps (“cantons”) where they were trained to become soldiers in the Tsar's army between 1827 and the end of the 1850s.  Families tried their hardest to evade these places that can kill their sons on the FRONT LINES.       

                                   WORLD WAR I                         

British and German wounded, Bernafay Wood, 19 July 1916. Photo by Ernest Brooks.

 World War I:  The war on the eastern front between Russia and the Central Powers (Germany and Austria) was conducted on territories that were home to almost four million Jews. In the autumn of 1914 and the winter of 1915, Russian forces occupied Austrian Galicia, and in the spring and summer of 1915, Germany and Austria conquered Congress Poland (the duchy annexed by Russia according to the treaties of 1815), Volhynia, Lithua­nia, and western Belorussia.

Jewish boys were put on the front lines and most certainly would be first to be shot.  Mothers tried to cut off fingers to make their sons uncapable of serving.               

Germany entered World War I on August 1, 1914 when the country declared war on Russia. 11 million German soldiers were mobilized, 100,000 of whom were Jewish. A number of these Jewish soldiers were honored for their service with the Iron Cross. In addition, many German Jews supported the war effort at home along with their neighbors. This service and dedication were soon disregarded, but World War I efforts are an essential part of the German Jewish story.

• Exposure to Anti-Semitism: Jews encountered discrimination within the armies, as evidenced by a "Jewish census" conducted in the German army in 1916, ostensibly to counteract rumors of draft dodging, according to the Leo Baeck Institute.
• Impact of War on Jewish Communities: The war had a devastating impact on Jewish communities, especially in Eastern Europe.
• Questioning Loyalty and Assimilation: Anti-Semitism and the war experience led some German Jews to question their identification with Germany as their "fatherland" and whether assimilation was a desirable goal. 

Under Russian rule, the Jews were suspected of collaboration with the enemy, and 600,000 of them were banished from the front by the czarist army, a traumatic experience and an economic catastrophe that was still felt long after the war. To aid their displaced and impoverished brethren, Jews around the world established welfare organizations on a scale previously unknown.    The war ended in November 1918.    

• Eastern Europe: An estimated quarter million Jews died in battle in Eastern Europe during World War I. Over a million became refugees due to accusations of collaborating with the Germans, which forced them to relocate inland in Russia.
• German Jewry: Over 12,000 Jews died fighting for the German forces.
• Russian Army: Approximately 100,000 Jews who served in the Russian army were killed on the front lines. 
  

These figures likely represent only a partial picture of the Jewish suffering during the war. This suffering included deaths from battle, disease, displacement, and the breakdown of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. 

Plenty of anti-Semitism went on at this time in the USA.  In the 1920s, Jewish immigration to the United States was significantly impacted by restrictive legislation like the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, which drastically reduced overall immigration numbers and established national origin quotas. This act, along with earlier legislation, aimed to limit the influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including many Jewish people fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. Despite the restrictions, significant numbers of Jewish immigrants had already arrived in the preceding decades, establishing large  communities, particularly in New York City.    

                                          Germans in their Army Uniforms

               1917 and End of World War I

At the end of World War I, the Allied Powers convened the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919 to establish peace terms with the defeated Central Powers. 

• Eastern Europe: An estimated quarter million Jews died in battle in Eastern Europe during World War I. Over a million became refugees due to accusations of collaborating with the Germans, which forced them to relocate inland in Russia.
• German Jewry: Over 12,000 Jews died fighting for the German forces.
• Russian Army: Approximately 100,000 Jews who served in the Russian army were killed on the front lines. 

These figures likely represent only a partial picture of the Jewish suffering during the war. This suffering included deaths from battle, disease, displacement, and the breakdown of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.                                                          

  Weizmann (left) in tie, white shirt;  with Prince Faisal, later Faisal I of Iraq in Syria, 1918.  They also followed up in Paris 1920, Faisal who became King of Iraq and also Syria, and Weizmann, Jewish scientist who invented an additive to make English bombs stronger...helped to win WWI with this...

Collapse of the Ottoman Empire and British Occupation

• The Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers during World War I and was defeated.
• Britain occupied Palestine by late 1917.
• The Ottoman Empire's collapse created a power vacuum in the Middle East, divided among the victorious European powers, particularly Britain and France. 

Conflicting Promises and the Balfour Declaration

• Britain made conflicting promises about the region's future during the war.
• The Hussein-McMahon Correspondence (1915-1916): Britain suggested supporting an independent Arab state, including Palestine, in exchange for Arab support.
• The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916): Britain and France secretly planned to divide Ottoman territories into spheres of influence, with most of Palestine intended to be internationalized or under partial British control.
• The Balfour Declaration (1917): Britain publicly supported "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," while also stating that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities". 

The British Mandate for Palestine

• The League of Nations entrusted Britain with a mandate to govern Palestine (initially including Transjordan) after the war.
• The mandate explicitly called for implementing the Balfour Declaration.
• The San Remo Resolution and the Mandate's Legal Basis
  • The San Remo Conference in 1920 formalized the allocation of mandates for former Ottoman territories.
  • The San Remo Resolution gave international legal and political legitimacy to the mandates, including the British Mandate for Palestine.
  • It incorporated the Balfour Declaration into the Mandate's terms, recognizing the aim of establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine while including provisions for protecting the rights of non-Jewish communities. 
  Failure to Establish an Independent Arab Palestine
  • The Mandate was intended to be a transitional phase until Palestine achieved full independence.
  • However, the complex promises and the rise of competing nationalisms (Arab and Jewish) made establishing an independent Arab Palestine impossible under the British mandate.
  • Arab leaders largely opposed the Mandate and the Balfour Declaration, leading to increased conflict and a failure to reach a peaceful resolution during the British administration. 
  The end of World War I and the subsequent decisions by the Allied powers, particularly Britain's conflicting promises and the Mandate system, set the stage for the conflicts that continue to define the Israeli-Palestinian issue. 
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       Hitler with Arab Husseini, leader, who wanted Jews wiped out...
  
        Husseini and the Nazi Gang  plotting against the Jews
•                              WORLD WAR II
• World War II started with Germans marching into Poland, a country with the largest Jewish population, and taking it over on September 1, 1939.  
• Six (6) Million Jews were slaughtered in WWII.  
• During this period (1922-1948), the British oversaw increased Jewish immigration, fueled by persecution in Europe and the Holocaust in World War II.
• This led to escalating tensions and violence between Arab and Jewish populations, culminating in the 1947-1949 Palestine War. 
  
  Golda Meier on May 14,  1948, Declaration of the state of Israel at the United Nations, and 5 minutes later being attacked by the Arab Nations.  
• Edited 8/11/2025 9:20am 
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