Exhibition: The Kaiser’s Jewish Soldiers: Loyalty, Identity, Betrayal

The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide presents a new exhibition marking the centenary of the beginning of the First World War.

Some 100,000 German Jews donned military uniform and approximately 12,000 soldiers died fighting for the German Army between 1914 and 1918. The Holocaust has cast a long shadow over this moment in history, but for many Jews the experience of the First World War was not defined by antisemitism – which was also prevalent in other countries at the time including Britain – but rather by a profound sense of commitment to the German fatherland.

The Jewish soldiers whose stories are told in this exhibition had remarkable experiences, performing surgery in Gallipoli, working with casualty dogs in the Ardennes, and setting up book stores on the Eastern Front. The exhibition explores the lives and legacies of the Jews who served in the German army through the display of striking photographs, postcards, prints and books.

‘The Kaiser’s Jewish Soldiers: Loyalty, Identity, Betrayal’ runs at The Wiener Library, 29 Russell Square from Tuesday 24 June 2014 to Wednesday 8 October 2014. Admission is free.