The 1916 German military census shattered Zweig’s patriotic confidence in the war

Evidence

Yet it was not long before the devastating blow of the Judenzählung (Jewish census, or more literally, “Jew count,” which sought to monitor Jewish participation), in October of that same year, that Zweig began not only to revise his otherwise positive views of the war, but also to recognize that it pitted Jews against Jews. As Zweig wrote to Buber, describing the personal insult and betrayal he felt: “The Judenzählung was a reflection of unheard sadness for Germany’s sin and our agony… . If there were no anti-Semitism in the army, the unbearable call to duty would almost be easy. However, to be subjected to such despicable and wretched creatures! I now regard myself personally as a captured civilian and a stateless foreigner.” Based on his experiences, he published the semifictional short story “Judenzählung vor Verdun” [The Jewish Census at Verdun]. In it, Zweig tells an ominous tale of dead German-Jewish soldiers who are summoned from their graves to be counted. They line up, announcing their respective identities as Jews: “Mosaischer Konfession” (of the Mosaic faith); “Israelit” (an Israelite); “Deutscher jüdischen Glaubens” (a German of the Jewish faith), “Jude, ja” (indeed, a Jew). — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 420

Categorization

• SHARE: The detail that Zweig’s story summons dead Jewish soldiers from graves to be counted is a striking, specific literary anecdote for a scholar of German-Jewish literature or WWI history.