Jewish Soldiers in the Collective Memory of Central Europe

PD Dr. Olaf Terpitz ist Slawist, Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaftler an der Universität Wien. Er befasst sich komparatistisch mit slawisch-jüdischen Begegnungen, Transfer- und Übersetzungsprozessen.

World War I marks a huge break in Central European Jewish history. Not only had the violent wartime events destroyed Jewish life and especially the living space of Eastern European Jews, but the impacts of war, the geopolitical change and a radicalization of anti-Semitism also led to a crisis of Jewish identity. Furthermore, during the process of national self-discovery and the establishing of new states the societal position of the Jews and their relationship to the state had to be redefined. These partially violent processes, which were always accompanied by anti-Semitism, evoked Jewish and Gentile debates, in which questions about Jewish loyalty to the old and/or new states as well as concepts of Jewish identity under the new political circumstances were negotiated. This volume collects articles dealing with these Jewish and gentile debates about military service and war memory in Central Europe.