Description

Vienna: BjF, [1935]. 245 by 180mm (9¾ by 7 inches). Modern cloth boards with copies of the cover attached (original cover intact as page 1); 80 pp. In German (with three full page letters in English—from the National Headquarters Jewish War Veterans of the United States and Jewish Ex-Servicemen’s Legion). With four pages of ads of supportive businesses. Numerous photo-illustrations throughout of awareness marches and in one instance of a Jewish graveyard desecration by Nazis. Very good with coffee stains to the first few pages.

The Bund jüdischer Frontsoldaten (”BjF”), the Federation of Jewish Front-Line Soldiers, was founded in the aftermath of World War I to demonstrate Jewish loyalty to the German and Austrian empires. After World War I, German antisemites claimed that Jews had stabbed Germany and Austria in the back (”Dolchstosslegende” or “Stab-in-the-back Myth”) by avoiding combat and treating the war as a profiteering opportunity. This was a frequently repeated antisemitic trope of the times. The goal of the BjF was to organize Jewish veterans to defend and portray the sacrifice of themselves and their comrades during World War I as a method to combat antisemitism and the rise of Hitler. The organization was banned and dissolved in 1938.

This is a commemorative publication of the BjF celebrating their first three years of existence in Austria. The book is filled with numerous photo-illustrations and copies of letters of support from around the world along with lists of leadership in the organization and recipients of awards.

Important for the study of Jewish efforts to combat antisemitism between the world wars.

OCLC locates 3 copies in the United States: Florida, Hebrew Union and Leo Baeck. Scarce in the trade.

Price: $650

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