Abstract

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.

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).

Tim Grady is a Reader in Modern History at the University of Chester. He is also the author of The German-Jewish Soldiers of the First World War in History and Memory (2011), A Deadly Legacy: German Jews and the Great War (2017), and co-editor, with Hannah Ewence, of Minorities and the First World War: From War to Peace (2017).

“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

Michael Geheran is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the United States Military Academy. He is a graduate of Norwich University, Harvard University, and Clark University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2016. He is currently working on a book based on his doctoral research, which examines the experiences of German-Jewish World War I veterans during the Holocaust.

Julia Barbara Köhne is a Visiting Assistant Professor of the History of Culture at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin.  She is the author of Geniekult in Geisteswissenschaften und Literaturen um 1900 und seine filmischen Adaptionen (2014), Kriegshysteriker. Strategische Bilder und mediale Techniken militärpsychiatrischen Wissens, 1914–1920 (2009), and co-editor, with Ulrike Heikaus, of Krieg! Juden zwischen den Fronten 1914–1918 (2014).