“Again” was the word of the day for Charlotte Knobloch on this early Sunday afternoon at the New Israelite Cemetery on Garchinger Strasse. There is an inner connection between the fallen Jewish soldiers of the First World War and “today,” said the President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria (IKG), on Remembrance Day when commemorating the Jewish soldiers who died between 1914 and 1918. That’s why she also includes the victims and hostages of the “terrible pogrom that Hamas carried out on October 7th” in our shared remembrance.
In the presence of numerous representatives from the Free State, city and community, the Jewish soldiers from Munich and the surrounding area who died in the First World War were commemorated with a military ceremony this year. In their honor there is a memorial in the spacious area of the cemetery, where the prominent guests laid wreaths.
Knobloch remembered the 100,000 Jewish soldiers who went to war like their non-Jewish peers, and of whom 12,000 never returned. Those who returned “had to find their way in a world that was no longer the same”: their “service to the fatherland” was denied, and the departure into the democratic modernity of the so-called Golden Twenties was a deceptive one: “The new Social freedoms and the unique artistic diversity were accompanied by an unstoppable strengthening of the national enemies of everything that was democratic – and Jewish. The open, aggressive hatred of Jews promised and brought success.”
Today we see ourselves as a natural part of society in this country, which developed into a strong, stable democracy after 1945 – this was the dream of our Jewish ancestors. But “this year it’s difficult for me to put it that way,” said Knobloch. Anti-Semitism has not only never gone away, but has increased noticeably in recent years and has increasingly unsettled the Jewish community.
Since October 7th there has been a “again”. Again, “frenzied hatred of Jews struck, the likes of which we have not seen since the Holocaust.” Again, Jewish families today have to mourn fallen soldiers. “Once again, as a result of this pogrom, hatred of Jews has returned to our society and our streets with a force and a willingness to use violence, and has robbed Jewish people in this country of the very feeling that they naturally belong.”
“There is no Christian, Muslim, Jewish blood, only human.”
The other speakers also strongly condemned Hamas’ attack on the Israeli people and the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Germany. According to State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU), who spoke on behalf of Prime Minister Markus Söder, those who approve of these acts of terror, “we say very clearly to them: Anyone who questions the existence of Israel will not find a home with us.” This day of mourning is about remembering the fallen Jewish soldiers, “but also about sending a strong signal against the current wave of anti-Semitism” in Bavaria too.
Herrmann took the opportunity to recall that the National Socialists did everything they could to erase the memory of the Jewish soldiers by systematically erasing them from the lists of the fallen. From 1914 to 1918, almost 10,000 of them served in the Bavarian army. 1,500 Jewish soldiers from Munich took part in the war. According to Herrmann, 180 have fallen.
CSU city councilor Michael Dzeba, who came to represent Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD), described this day of mourning as “no longer a day of remembrance, but a day of current concern”. Concern for the Israeli soldiers who fought for their country, for the victims and families of the attacks, and for the entire Israeli people.
For the Bundeswehr, Brigadier General Thomas Hambach advocated focusing on “what we have in common, not what divides us.” The commander of the Bavarian State Command, which coordinates the Bundeswehr’s relief operations in the event of terrorist attacks, among other things, and is in close contact with the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, quoted 102-year-old Margot Friedländer. She was the only one in her family to survive the Holocaust: “There is no Christian, Muslim, Jewish blood, only human blood. Be human! That’s what I have to say.”