I am an Israeli who is descended of German Jews. One of my great grandfathers was born in Strasbourg, though to him it was Straßburg, in what was then the German Empire and what is now France, in 1899. He certainly considered himself German, in 1915 he joined up to fight and he was wounded at the 2nd Battle of Champagne and after the war he moved to Frankfurt am Main. My grandfather and his two surviving brothers came to Israel in 1947 to fight in the war of independence but my great grandfather intended to stay in Germany and he only came to Israel in 1952 after my great grandmother passed away and so everyone he loved in his country was dead. I never knew him, but my grandfather says that he continued to speak German, see himself as German, read German literature etc which was extremely taboo in our country at the time; and really until very recently. It seems that German identification was not simply something that he had, because his father who was born 1869 when his home (originally the village of Guebwiller, near Colmar) was part of France, was named Friedrich, not Frédéric as you would expect from a Frenchman. Is my family an anomaly, were most Alsatian Jews preferential to France, or did they see themselves as Germans?
What really gave my interest about this was an old recorded lecture that I saw, presented by French historian Henri Guillemin, about the Dreyfus affair. Of course, the fact that Dreyfus was a Jew was part of the reason his loyalty was brought into question, but I wondered if part of it wasn’t that he was an Alsatian Jew, and that many of his compatriots preferred Germany to France, which made him even more susceptible to the accusation of espionage for the Kaiser.
Alsace-Lorraine had a long history of going back and forth between Germany and France. The territory belonged to France until 1871, then it became Germany until 1918. Then it went back to France, and then back to Germany in 1940, and then back to France in 1945 where it remains today. There were about 20,000 Jews in Alsace-Lorraine, the largest community was in Strasbourg. Prior to 1871, the Jews in Alsace-Lorriane were very engaged in the French lifestyle.
In 1871, many Jews in the area began to immigrate back to France as they were not welcoming of the German culture. However, a lot stayed and they started to embrace German culture. Many Jews from the east began to settle in Alsace-Lorraine and that strengthened the Jewish community there. A lot of Jews moved to the city too, which strengthened the communities there, but communities in smaller villages were dying. But overall, German culture was not so welcomed there, and many people protested it. It wasn't until 1911 that those in the region became more accepting of German culture.
The 'Germanization of the region was not easy as adults who spoke French their whole life would not suddenly learned German. They focused on the school system and began to have the entire school curriculum in German. By focusing on the children, the Germans felt that the region could be Germanized in a generation. This was easier in Alsace, than Lorraine, which was far more influenced by France than Germany. The people of Alsace had their own dialect which was heavily influenced by German. There was also a lot of propoganda to influence those of the region as well as restrictions of French culture to increase German culture.
In 1919, when the region was returned to France, the country tried to put the influnce of French culture back there again. However, France faced the same issue Germany did in 1871. Nearly fifty years had passed and those who remembered previous French rule, they were getting old by that point. The younger generations grew up speaking German and fought for Germany in wars, including WWI. A sense of German belonging existed in the region, even though it was French again. France tried to reincorporare the region again, however many of the people wanted to be under German rule.
The interwar period brought about many challenges. Germany considered the region apart of Germany and strived to reincorporate them. There was propoganda and a growing movement to return the region in Germany. This was a period of rapid change as well. Between the Great Depression and heavy influence in Germany, the Jews of the region were starting to fear.
The Munich Conference led to the start of rioting against Jews in the region. Many Germans there wanted to be annexed back to Germany. The significance of the Munich Conference was a part of Czechoslovakia going to Germany due to the German populations in Moravia and Bohemia. The people of Alsace-Lorraine wanted to rejoin the German empire. Nazi influence was growing among non-Jews. After the Munich Conference, in September 1938, Jewish shops in the area were attacked. The spread of propoganda was growing by Nazi party influencers. The area was also a major entry way for Jews fleeing Germany planning to enter France or other countries. Approximately 14,000 Jews of Alsace-Lorraine fled the region when the Nazis invaded in May 1940. The Jews fled further into France settling all over whether in the North, the South, Paris, etc. The region was declared free of Jews in the summer of 1943 and 2,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
Would they have thought of themselves as Frenchmen trapped in Germany or Germans trapped in France?
So overall, in the beginning, many of the Jews still had close ties to France and many moved to France. But those who remained were influenced by German culture. Many Jews from the area were influenced by arrivals from the east which strengthened their communities. They likely started to feel a connection to Germany, especially the younger Jews who grew up surrounded by German language and culture. When the region went back to France, they felt more German. They wanted to be apart of Germany again until anti-semitism went on the rise and the Jews felt threatened. Before 1871, they felt French. Nearly fifty years of German rule would lead to many developing a German identity and feel that is where they belong. That is why they felt the opposite when France ruled the region again. Nazi Germany, however, persecuted the Jews and that obviously hurt the Jews who felt German. But at the end of the day, they still felt German, as it was what they had known their whole life.
Your great grandfather grew up surrounded by German culture, he spoke the language, he even fought for them. He was proud of his German culture. Your family was not an anomoly or anything. They grew up when the area was German territory. They were not alone in feeling how they did.
Sources:
Alsace (Jewish Virtual Library)
Alsace-Lorraine. Shoah Resource Center yadvashem.org
Eiler, K. L. (1979). A Conflict of Cultures: Alsace-Lorraine, 1871-1918. Butler University Library.
Triby, I. (2012). Manifestations of Cultural Change: Alsatian Identity between 1871 and the Interwar Period. Three Case Studies.