German Jewish military personnel of World War I

After the establishment of the Empire in 1871, Jews in the Prussian Army did not receive the anticipated equal rights; they were barred from government positions and officer ranks, while other German states like Hamburg and the Kingdom of Bavaria were more liberal.

[1] The anti-semitic Judenzählung of 1916 disgusted many German Jewish soldiers, being aimed at falsely proving that Jews were trying to avoid military service.

[8] The Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten was formed in 1919 with the aim of helping veterans as well as promoting the sacrifice of the German Jewish community during the conflict.

After the rise of the Nazis to power in 1933, Jewish veterans were initially protected against dismissal from government jobs after an intervention on their behalf by German President Paul von Hindenburg, but this changed in 1935 after his death.

The veterans who remained in Germany, also initially released after arrests during the Kristallnacht, received no special treatment after this, being deported to concentration camps and murdered like other Jewish German citizens.

[citation needed] The Nazis attempted to eradicate all evidence of Jewish soldiers fighting for Germany in World War I.

Tombstone of Zalmen Berger (d. 1915), a Jewish soldier who fell while serving in the German army during World War I, Jarosław , Poland.
Feldrabbiner Aaron Tänzer during World War I, with the ribbon of the Iron Cross and a Star of David , 1917
Fritz Beckhardt in his Siemens-Schuckert D.III fighter of Jasta 26; the reversed swastika insignia was a good luck symbol.
Poster in memory of 12,000 German Jewish Soldiers who died in World War I (1920)
Jewish war veterans entering synagogue for service to honor the war dead; Munich 1935