Fighting Back: British Jewry's Military Contribution in the Second World War

This book is a response to the oft-perpetrated myths of Anglo-Jewry's lack of fighting spirit and its failure to participate in the Second World War. Anglo-Jewry has never formed more than about one half of one per cent of the population, yet the figures show that their contribution to the armed forces has always been out of proportion to their numbers. "Fighting Back" provides an insight into the Anglo-Jewish contribution to the Allied victories over the Nazi and Japanese threats. It also highlights the role of the Jews in the Spanish Civil War and the Korean War.Its wide-ranging approach to the contributions that Jews made looks at, among other things: the Paratroopers at the Battle of Arnhem; the much neglected and almost forgotten Auxiliary Services of Civil Defence; the Jews at Bletchley Park; and, the Jewish Palestinian volunteers from Israel. This last contribution has sadly been erased from the memory of those who are keepers of the British war remembrance memorials, and is never included in British tributes to the Commonwealth/Empire forces who served, even though many other ethnic groups are well represented.Anglo-Jewry, together with Jews from Israel, may thus be deeply and justly proud of this history of fighting back, fighting for democracy and peace. This book and the forthcoming companion volume by Henry Morris and Martin Sugarman, will stand as permanent testimony to the truth.

About the Author :
Martin Sugarman was born and educated in Hackney, he received his BA Hons in Geography and Cert Ed. from Bristol University and taught for 22 years in Bristol and East London schools. He wrote on Holocaust history for Secondary School pupils for both the Auschwitz and Anne Frank Exhibitions in London, was active in the Soviet Jewry campaign in the 1970s, and saw service in the Artillery, Israeli Army. He is the Archivist of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX) Military Museum in London. He has written extensively on Jewish Military History and has had many articles published in the UK, USA and Israel in various historical journals, and on the internet.

Review :
In a war where ordinary people became extraordinary and the exceptional seemed commonplace, the unique circumstances and remarkable character of Britain's Jews nevertheless merit them additional honor....Sugarman's volume admirably fills a gap in both Jewish (particularly Anglo-Jewish) history and in the scholarship of World War II.""- NYMAS Review