Eastern Promises: Jewish Germans in the German Administration of Eastern Europe During the Great War

Abstract

This chapter traces the Jewish participation in the administration of German-occupied Eastern and Central Europe and explores the role played by Jewish soldiers as active participants in the German military, rather than as objects of the military’s actions. As such it contributes to the growing historiography on the relationship between, and the experiences of, Jews and non-Jews, both German and otherwise, in Eastern Europe during the period of the First World War. Taking the promises of liberation and emancipation offered by the German government as a starting point, the chapter explores in depth the experience of three Jewish individuals and their non-Jewish counterparts serving in the German army and administration in the East who attempted to implement these promises