An entirely different situation arose with the“War of Liberation” fought by Prussia(1813—18 14). More than five hundred Jews volunteered for military service.” Many distinguished themselves. Enthusiastic Jewish soldiers participated also and in the wars of liberation and unification soon fought in Italy and Hungary . Some Jews distinguished themselves as leaders and their service was fully recognized. This completely voluntary military service presented a a new phenomenon. In 1866 eleven hundred Jewish soldiers fought in the Prussian army and fourteen thousand in the Franco Prussian War of 1870. The Austrian army enrolled an even larger number of Jews with thirty thousand by 1870, among them were two hundred officers.
Rabbis petitioned their respective German governments for furloughs during the High Holidays and other accommodations in the mid-nineteenth centurywith some success.” Jews served in the military units of various German states and gained commissions as officers in Bavaria , but not in Prussia.’ That the struggle for this right became a cause celebre demonstrated the height of military fervor in the Jewish community. No real change came about till World War [ and even then anti-Semitism limited such commissions. The War Ministry did, however, make other practical concessions for Jewish soldiers by providing ritual wine and flour for matzot during World War I.
When Germany and her allies lost the war, anti-Semitic charges of Jewish soldiers malingering sought to make Jewish soldiers scape-goats for the German defeat. The ninety-six thousand Jews veterans among whom thirty-thousand had been decorated for valor organized themselves and bitterly denounced these accusations. They did not give up and published a volume commemorating more than twelve thousand German Jews who had lost their lives in World War I even at the beginning of the Nazi period.”