Beyond Inclusion and Exclusion: Jewish Experiences of the First World War in Central Europe

During the First World War, the Jewish population of Central Europe was politically, socially, and experientially diverse, to an extent that resists containment within a simple historical narrative. While antisemitism and Jewish disillusionment have dominated many previous studies of the topic, this collection aims to recapture the multifariousness of Central European Jewish life in the experiences of soldiers and civilians alike during the First World War. Here, scholars from multiple disciplines explore rare sources and employ innovative methods to illuminate four interconnected themes: minorities and the meaning of military service, Jewish-Gentile relations, cultural legacies of the war, and memory politics.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments Introduction Jason Crouthamel, Michael Geheran, Tim Grady, and Julia Barbara Köhne PART I: AT THE MARGINS: MINORITIES AND THE MILITARY Chapter 1. Hopes and Disappointments: German and French Jews during the Wars of 1870/71 and 1914–1918 Christine G. Krüger Chapter 2. Habsburg Jews and the Imperial Army before and during the First World War Tamara Scheer Chapter 3. The ‘Stepchildren’ of the Kaiserreich: Alsatians in the German Army during the First World War Devlin M. Scofield PART II: RELATIONS: CONTESTED IDENTITIES DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR Chapter 4. Rethinking Jewish Front Experiences Michael Geheran Chapter 5. "Being German" and "Being Jewish" during the First World War: An Ambivalent Transnational Relationship? Sarah Panter Chapter 6. In the Shadow of Antisemitism: Jewish Women and the German Home Front during the First World War Andrea A. Sinn Chapter 7. The Social Engagement of Jewish Women in Berlin during the First World War Sabine Hank Chapter 8. “My Comrades Are for the Most Part On My Side”: Comradeship Between Non-Jewish and German Jewish Front Soldiers in the First World War Jason Crouthamel PART III: REPRESENTATION: THE CULTURE OF WAR Chapter 9. Blind Spots and Jewish Heroines: Refashioning the Galician War Experience in 1920s Hollywood and Berlin Philipp Stiasny Chapter 10. Agnon on the Home Front in In Mr Lublin’s Store: Hebrew Fiction of the First World War Glenda Abramson PART IV: CONTESTED MEMORIES: WORKING THROUGH THE LEGACIES OF WAR Chapter 11. Paper Psyches: On the Psychography of the Front Soldier According to Paul Plaut Julia Barbara Köhne Chapter 12. Narrative Negotiations: Interpreting the Cultural Position of Jews in National(social)ist War Narratives from 1914 to 1945 Florian Brückner Afterword: German Jewry and the First World War: Beyond Polemic and Apologetic Derek Jonathan Penslar Index

About the Author :
Jason Crouthamel is an Associate Professor of History at Grand Valley State University. His publications include An Intimate History of the Front: Masculinity, Sexuality and German Soldiers in the First World War (2014), The Great War and German Memory: Society, Politics and Psychological Trauma (2009) and two collections coedited with Peter Leese: Psychological Trauma and the Legacies of the First World War and Traumatic Memories of the Second World War and After (both 2016).

Review :
“All in all, the collection succeeds in its primary aim, to present fresh and innovative perspectives on (mainly) German Jewish wartime experiences and introduce newly discovered sources and analytical tools that highlight their diversity, in the editors’ words, ‘along gender, political, geographic, social, and subjective lines’. Perhaps even more importantly, as Derek Penslar puts it in his thoughtful afterword, it represents an important contribution towards a ‘unified field of modern German and Jewish history’.” • Journal of Austrian Studies “By exploring diverse narratives in various forms, including literature and film, these twelve excellent essays add nuance and complexity to the mainstream narrative of the Jewish Great War experience. The primary goal of this collection is to go beyond the Judenzählung of 1916, the ‘Jewish count’ of war contribution, and to challenge the belief that anti-Semitism was the main ordeal dealt with among central European Jews.” • First World War Studies “The editors are to be commended for going beyond traditional historical concerns to include literature, film and even psychology…[This volume]is an important collection of essays which mostly deal with German Jews in the First World War. It … does a masterful job at reminding us that German Jews were indeed part of the German nation, however defined, before the Nazis.” • Social History “This interdisciplinary collection of essays is a penetrating and deeply researched analysis of how the horrors of World War I shaped, in contradictory and surprising ways, Jewish life. It is an impressive achievement that will stand alongside some of the best scholarship in the field.” • Eugene M. Avrutin, University of Illinois “Beyond Inclusion and Exclusion is truly at the forefront of research in the field. It approaches its subject in an original, sophisticated and intellectually riveting manner. Coherent and convincing throughout, the book manages to surprise and engage, all the while expanding our understanding of what it meant to be a Jew during World War I.” • Ilse Josepha Lazaroms, Central European University “This extraordinary volume advances the historiography of German-speaking Jews in World War I to a higher level, pushing past the now dated debates about Jewish war service and assimilation that dominated the field for decades. A rich compilation of cutting-edge research, Beyond Inclusion and Exclusion demonstrates the diversity and heterogeneity of Jewish war experiences and postwar memories. Its authors interrogate Jewish difference through a range of compelling, interdisciplinary approaches and comparative frameworks, unearthing new material and reexamining familiar sources from fresh perspectives. An indispensable collection for readers interested in trauma and its linkages with war, gender, Jewishness, and media and for scholars of Jewish history, German studies, and war and society in the twentieth century.” • Paul Lerner, University of Southern California