Traveling Jewish Soldiers

One of the most unusual places for publication of Jewish art, Skizzen aus Litauen, Weissrussland und Kurland (1916), is dedicated to the infantry of General Erich Ludendorf. The experience of war and destruction paradoxically also served German Jewish soldiers to "discover" Eastern European Jews.

Working for the press office of the German Army Supreme Command for the East, the German writer Herbert Eulenberg and German Jewish artist Hermann Struck created a wide canvas of Lithuanian farmers as well as Latvian and Polish women and men. They detailed in broad strokes the Jews of Eastern Europe.

Struck's images illustrate, within the appearance of an individual, the fate of Jews in the Diaspora. Image and text pay homage to Amsterdam and the art of Rembrandt, whom Struck had encountered when traveling to Amsterdam. The books's illustrations draw attention to encounter, traveling, and exploration as important facets of Jewish cultures and creativity.

Section author-contributor
Author name
Nils Roemer
Author institution
University of Texas (Dallas)
Author fellowship
Ruth Meltzer Fellowship
Which exhibit?
Jews & Journeys
Page: Featured item
Title of collection item
Skizzen aus Litauen, Weissrussland und Kurland / von Hermann Struck und Herbert Eulenberg
Leaf/page/opening info
Unpaginated, but see p. 47, plate 23
Date info
Berlin: G. Stilke, 1916
Version/translation/format/more date info
Illustrated by Hermann Struck, 1876-1944
Image
Sketch of an older man opposite paragraph with the header, "Kopf eines alten juden"
Credit
Library at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Author of collection item
Herbert Eulenberg, 1876-1949
Single page or opening?
single page
Short name for this entry
Jewish Soldiers

Title to display

Traveling Jewish Soldiers

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