Fighting Back: British Jewry’s Military Contribution in the Second World War

This book is a response to the oft-perpetrated myths of Anglo-Jewry’s lack of fighting spirit and its failure to participate in the Second World War. Anglo-Jewry has never formed more than about one half of one per cent of the population, yet the figures show that their contribution to the armed forces has always been out of proportion to their numbers. Fighting Back provides an insight into the Anglo-Jewish contribution to the Allied victories over the Nazi and Japanese threats. It also highlights the role of the Jews in the Spanish Civil War and the Korean War.Its wide-ranging approach to the contributions that Jews made looks at, among other things: the Paratroopers at the Battle of Arnhem; the much neglected and almost forgotten Auxiliary Services of Civil Defence; the Jews at Bletchley Park; and, the Jewish Palestinian volunteers from Israel. This last contribution has sadly been erased from the memory of those who are keepers of the British war remembrance memorials, and is never included in British tributes to the Commonwealth/Empire forces who served, even though many other ethnic groups are well represented.Anglo-Jewry, together with Jews from Israel, may thus be deeply and justly proud of this history of fighting back, fighting for democracy and peace. This book and the forthcoming companion volume by Henry Morris and Martin Sugarman, will stand as permanent testimony to the truth.