{"id":4122,"date":"2016-10-03T08:25:31","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T12:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/?p=4122"},"modified":"2016-10-03T08:25:31","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T12:25:31","slug":"martin-salomonski-the-jewish-new-year-on-the-western-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/2016\/10\/03\/martin-salomonski-the-jewish-new-year-on-the-western-front\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Salomonski: The Jewish New Year on the Western Front"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Somewhere around 100,000 German Jews served in the German Army during World War I, with about 18,000 awarded\u00a0the Iron Cross. During the war, German Jews requested the appointment\u00a0of field rabbis to serve as military chaplains for\u00a0the Jewish soldiers and personnel at the frontline. This request was granted\u00a0by the Kaiser, growing from 6 rabbis to 30 during the height of the war. Martin Salomonski,\u00a0a rabbi from Frankfurt, enlisted and served as a chaplain from 1916-1918, receiving\u00a0an Iron Cross medal in 1917. In September of 1916, he embarked on the\u00a0bold and ambitious task of organizing New Year’s meals for 1,600 Jewish soldiers on the front, amidst\u00a0the bloody and devastating battle of the Somme. He procured four field kitchens,\u00a0three cooks, a theater, and a piano to accommodate the celebration.\u00a0In 1918, he published a short pamphlet of his\u00a0war experience, including tending to the spiritual needs of soldiers, sharing\u00a0his own poetry, and giving detailed descriptions of the conditions and suffering\u00a0that took place during his service.<\/p>\n

“In such hours, which are not spared anyone in the field, one learns to pray. One is enfolded in humble devotion and spiritual purification, and is not far away from Goodness or from God.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“The loss of limbs is a lesser evil than blindness, facial disfiguration, and permanent loss of speech. \u00a0And then there are the smaller irritants that make defenseless patients despair: oppressive summer heat and its companion plague of flies. Very few effective remedies exist against the latter, which in many cases make the last hours of the dying even more miserable.”<\/em><\/p>\n

-Salomonski (translated)<\/em><\/p>\n

After the war, he continued to serve as a rabbi in Berlin, becoming deeply involved in the acceptance of the Jewish community. Salomonski was also dedicated to the\u00a0German nation, remaining\u00a0optimistic\u00a0in spite of the rise\u00a0of the Nazi party. While some of his fellow chaplains who served in WWI fled,\u00a0Salomonski remained\u00a0in Germany,\u00a0committed to the Jewish\u00a0community. Tragically, he was eventually deported to Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz where he was murdered in October of 1944.<\/p>\n

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Photo of the 1600 Jewish soldiers celebrating the New Year<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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The kitchen operation<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\"Getting

Getting the meal<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

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Description:<\/dt>\n
Salomonski, Martin. J\u00fcdische Seelsorge an der Westfront. Berlin : L. Lamm, 1918.<\/span><\/dd>\n
Persistent Link:<\/dt>\n
http:\/\/nrs.harvard.edu\/urn-3:FHCL:2958209<\/a><\/dd>\n
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Repository:<\/dt>\n
Widener Library<\/dd>\n
Institution:<\/dt>\n
Harvard University<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somewhere around 100,000 German Jews served in the German Army during World War I, with about 18,000 awarded\u00a0the Iron Cross. During the war, German Jews requested the appointment\u00a0of field rabbis to serve as military chaplains for\u00a0the Jewish soldiers and personnel at the frontline. This request was granted\u00a0by the Kaiser, growing from 6 rabbis to 30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2559,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4122"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4155,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122\/revisions\/4155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}