Photographs and diaries kept by German-Jewish soldiers in the German Army in WWI that depict the Eastern front in stunning and graphic detail.
Bernhard Bardach, Elderly Jewish Man, ca. 1917 (Bardach WWI Album 2)
For many assimilated German and Austrian Jews, serving on the Eastern Front during WWI was their first encounter with the Yiddish-speaking rural populations of “Ostjuden.” The Viennese physician Bernhard Bardach documented his experience of the war, and his encounters with Ostjuden and other exotic populations through extensive photographs and journals.
Egon Fromm Family Collection WWI
Many German and Austrian Jews served patriotically during WWI, and photographs in LBI collections often depict Jewish soldiers celebrating holidays, such as the Hanukkah gathering on the right.
Bernhard Bardach, Two Cossacks, ca. 1917 (Bardach WWI Album 1)
In addition to his many photographs of eastern European Jewish Communities, Bardach turned a quasi-ethnographic lens on other communities, exemplified by this picture of "two cossacks."
Jewish Religious Services in the Austrian Military
Bernhard Bardach, Jewish Villagers, ca. 1917 (Bardach WWI Album 1)
Bernhard Bardach, Jewish Beggar, ca. 1917 (Bardach WWI Album 1)
Bernhard Bardach, Collected Austrian Corpses following the Attack at Jawirskahoehe, March 4, 1915
Hospital During WWI from the Albums of Rosa Loewald
Rosa Loewald, also known as Rosel or Rose, was born to Alma and Josef Landshut in Neumark, Westpreussen (now Nowy Targ, Poland), and served as a nurse in the first World War.
Nurses, Doctors, and Patient, from the WWI albums of Rosa Landhut
Many of Rose Landhut's photographs from World War I depict doctors, nurses, and wounded soldiers posing together.
