GREATWAR-L Archives

Archiver > GREATWAR > 2001-06 > 0991692926


From: Eve McLaughlin <>
Subject: Re: [WW1] Help please - Soldiers who Died in the Great War
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 23:15:26 +0100
In-Reply-To: <005801c0ec1f$b6a6cd20$4c337ad5@pshazgqf>



>Eve - sorry - I may have extended speculation here unnecessarily - Sue's
>problems with Robert Hildersley almost certainly result from a foul-up in
>the SDITGW & CWGC records, together with some minor errors in her reporting
>of the original medal record details - I have in fact given her (off list)
>the GRO death certificate reference for the man she is looking for, and
>hopefully Sue will therefore be able to unravel the situation from that
>point onwards, when she returns to the PRO.

That is useful, so she should be able to proceed.
>
>You raise another point though - German and Jewish names in the British Army
>during WW1. In fact "German", or German-Jewish / Anglo-Jewish names are far
>from rare in the service medal indexes and however you classify the origin
>of the Jewish contingent they contributed substantially to the British war
>effort. Changing one's family name, as with the royal family, was obviously
>not universally popular.

It was on the whole the poorer Jews and those who were trading (with
windows to get broken) who rushed to change their names. The rich -
Sassoons, Oppenheims etc, were above the necessity. But 1914 represents
a black hole for a lot of people tracing their families. One fairly well
to do man named Gerstheim, suddenly became Gresham, an excellent choice
for a stockbroker.

>
>If you visit German WW1 period military cemeteries in northwest Europe the
>Jewish contribution to the German Army is also obvious - the Star of David
>is abundant in cemeteries where the Germans used a visually identifiable
>grave marker, and in cemeteries where name-only markers were used "Jewish"
>surnames are again found in abundance. One of the things which has long
>intrigued me about this is that I have never seen any reference or records
>reporting damage being caused to these Star of David grave markers during
>the German occupation during the 2nd War.

That is really interesting - I did wonder about that (never
investigated). But presumably soldiers would be more appreciative of
the efforts of long dead soldiers, and less afflicted by political
nonsense.


--
Eve McLaughlin

Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians
Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

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