Guideline of the Reich Union of Jewish Front Veterans
Guideline of the Reich Union of Jewish Veterans (RjF) by Dr. Leo Loewenstein
Source : Wille und Weg des Deutschen Judentums , Berlin 1935, pp. 7-11
To outline in one sentence the mission of the Reich Union of Jewish Front Veterans, one may say: the RjF wishes for our young Jewish generation to be integrated in a manner that is worthy both of Germany and of ourselves, into what has become through the centuries our ancestral German homeland, the homeland for which we have fought and for which we will always fight. Since it was founded on 8 February 1919, and until today, the RjF carried out no duty without having in mind the furthering of this goal [...] Prior to 1933, the RjF was not conspicuous in the public arena. This is due to a large extent to the Union's emphatic and statutory decision to refrain from any involvement in party-politics. Throughout these years, the Union's leadership ... defined its role as defending the military honour of Jewish soldiers, primarily by insisting on Jewish participation in war, but also by fostering good comradeship and a military spirit among its members and by bringing up the youth in the fighting spirit. It took a further step of working for the vocational restructuring of German Jewry, especially through active agricultural settlement. The first of these tasks was furthered by a detailed list of names of the Jewish soldiers who fell for the German Wehrmacht during the World War. Compilation of the list took five years (1927-1932) of work by an entire staff [...] According to any statistical assessment, there were altogether 100,000 Jews enlisted in the military, among whom 2,000 had been promoted to the rank of Officer, and 12,000 of whom died on the field of honour. To date, these figures have not been refuted [...]
The Reich Union of Jewish Front Veterans did the utmost in carrying out the other two points of the program - creation of a comradeship among its members and physical and spiritual training of Jewish youth for the purpose of guaranteeing an able-bodied defence-force for the German homeland. It encountered a strong responsiveness among Jewish youth. Unfortunately it must also be said that once the RjF summoned them to soldierly, disciplined labour service and to military training, wide circles of this youth were to be found. In fact, during these years there existed in the Jewish side those same opposing and conflicting views that were prevalent among the general German population. The leadership of the Union repeatedly stressed during these years that in the long run such a situation will be impossible in and for Germany, that one would eventually have to contend with its changes, and that this long-awaited period will serve the interests of the Union. The developments in Germany proved that the guidelines upheld by the Union leadership since the very beginning were correct. Doubtlessly, today we can only see it as fortunate that the Union leadership did not allow itself to be diverted from this line, either through temptations or through pressure and intrigue. Consequently, the Union was prepared to confront this development.
This was all the more important since the new National Socialist State imposed on the Union new tasks and new responsibilities. Without the firm position held by the Union during the previous years, such a law as that of 7 April 1933 - which saved the livelihoods of a few thousand Jews and of combatants and non-combatants who already held professions before the war - such a law would have been almost unthinkable. [Reference is to the fact that Jewish Front Veterans and those who served in the German civil service prior to 1914 were exempted from the April 1933 law, which forced all other Jewish civil servants to relinquish their positions. The exemption was obtained through the intervention of German President von Hindenburg, in response to a plea by the RjF]. The bringing about of this law required the exertion of an enormous amount of work by the Union. The Union has also been assigned another important job by the state, namely taking charge of the non-Aryan victims of the war. This job alone requires a special separate apparatus to cover the entire Reich [...] The clearest outward expression of the Union's activity on behalf of the younger generation is our affiliated Sports Union, which boasts approximately 14,000 members, most of whom come from our younger generation - a generation that has knowingly put itself under the guidance and education of the old combatants.
Another living proof of the effectiveness of the Union in the moral strengthening of the youth is the process of moving away from the intellectual professions, which are far too dominant among us German Jews. This is a process, which the Union has been advancing for years. We have been doing this through large-scale agricultural settlement, which is functioning in an outstanding manner technically and economically - even according to relevant authorities. Half of the settlers are veterans, and most of the rest are of the younger generation. Through this settlement we have proven to a wide range of people that the direct transplantation of people out of the intellectual professions of the big cities and into the outstandingly effective cultivation of the rural lands, is indeed possible. A word, then, must be said about the limitations of the RjF's work among German Jewry. This limit is easily and sharply apparent with regard to Zionism. Ever since the national and National-Socialist turnabout, the RjF can no longer stand by its Jewish-political neutrality, and there is only one unequivocal position open for us: We must clearly insist on Germany as our one and only homeland, for which we have fought and for which we are always fighting and always will fight.... At the same time, however, we appreciate the great value of the work being carried out in Palestine. We know that thousands of German Jews have found refuge there. Zionism has earned itself much merit by the part it has played in this. Yet all this does not hinder us from insisting that for those Jews who have remained in their German homeland and who are intent on staying in this German homeland, in which our ancestors have resided for a longer period of time than they ever lived in any independent state in Palestine - for these Jews, Palestine and the Jewish-national ideas upon which it is built have no political significance [...]
Reservations have also arisen within the German-Jewish camp itself. [...] The RJF represents the view that intellect alone, especially for the younger generation, may prove to be not a blessing, but a serious detriment that may lead them astray, especially if a military education is not there as a foundation, as outlined above. While this danger does not threaten the Zionist youth in Palestine thanks to the educational impact of the building process taking place there, it must be pointed out that for the youth remaining in the German homeland, the situation is quite different. It is not enough for us [as it is for the C.V.] to stress and perhaps even to enforce our rights and duties to our German homeland. There must at the same time be a corresponding educational system for our younger generation, which stresses military training that will strongly influence their spiritual makeup. Such an education of our younger generation will also serve as a guarantee, that the all-too-strong tendency towards the intellectual professions will become more even. It will also make it impossible for such characters to emerge on the political and cultural scene as those, which we have unfortunately allowed in the years following the war - to the shame of Germany and of German Jewry. It is, therefore, an important goal of the RjF - a goal that is greatly impeded under present circumstances - to fight for the maintenance of our rights and duties in the ancestral German homeland. This will allow us German Jews to give our best to our German homeland.
