Veterans and their families were sent to concentration camps. Jews were not permitted to serve in the German army during WWII, there were racial requirements for military service and Jews were not permitted in either the Wehrmacht or other fighting units. There were a small number of people who would have been defined by the Nazis as Jews (though did not define themselves as Jews) but whose identities were not discovered, or were not even known by the person themselves who served in the Wehrmacht, but not other branches like the SS. These were people the Nazis would have defined by the term "mischlinge" and so were at times treated differently than "full-blooded" Jews.

Jewish WWI veterans, particularly decorated veterans or those with debilitating war injuries, were more likely than other German Jews to be sent to the Terezin (Terezinstadt) concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. It was considered a "model" camp, which meant it was run in some ways more like a ghetto than other concentration camps, it is actually sometimes referred to as the Terezin ghetto. Conditions were horrific, and many thousands died in the camp. But it was also at times used for propaganda purposes, most famously for a visit by the Red Cross. WWI veterans were part of the Nazis propaganda around the camp, using them as a way of saying that they treated certain Jews better, when in reality the truth could not be more different. Terezin was also used to house culturally significant figures such as musicians and artist.

Terezin also became a transit camp in 1942. Though many Jewish prisoners, including WWI veterans, died of starvation, exposure, or disease in Terezin, many more were transported East, mainly to Auschwitz, where the vast majority, particularly of disabled veterans, would be gassed. In Auschwitz today there are the remains of thousands of artificial limbs, canes and crutches, many of which had belonged to German-Jewish veterans of WWI who were murdered by the same nation they had once fought for.