Joseph Malyar. Jews-Generals and Admirals in the XXth Century.

“Osinelly”, Jerusalem-Carmiel, 2009.

 

   65 years ago, in September 1944 the Jewish Brigade was formed. It consisted of Jewish volunteers from Palestine and other countries and was included into the British Armed Forces. The Brigade fought Germans in Italy and later was moved to Holland. More than 50 soldiers and officers of the Brigade got military decorations. The Brigade’s commander was a Canadian Jew, General E.Benjamin. His biography along with biographies of other Jews-Generals and Admirals who served during the First and Second World Wars , Arab-Israeli Wars and “local” wars in the XXth Century are given in J.Malyar’s book. The writer is an officer in reserve, a holder of a PhD degree in history who published several books in Russia, Kazakhstan and Israel on modern Jewish history.

   From Introduction to the book undr review we learned that there were 290 Jews-high commanders in the Soviet Army during the Second World War. Among them were 278 Generals including 9 General-Colonels, 48 General-Lieutenants, and 220 General-Majors. Four Generals (J.Keizer, Y.Gorodensky, L.Skvirsky, and Y.Danishevsky) were the army commanders, four Generals (I.Babich, I.Rubin, Y.Shteinman, and Z.Rogozni) commanded corpses. 13 Jews-Generals headed rifle divisions and 3 Jews-Generals commanded cavalry divisions. About 20 Jews-Generals served in the High Commander Headquarter, the Soviet Army General Stuff, the Navy and Air Force Stuffs. They closely participated in development and implementation of the main strategic operations of the Soviet Army during the war. More than 50 Jews-Generals headed industrial, construction and transportation agencies and ministries which provided various Soviet Army’s needs. One of them was the General-Colonel Boris Vannikov, the Minister of Ammunition.

   During the Second World War about 600 000 Jews served in the USA Army including 26 Generals and Admirals. Interesting statistics on Jews served in armies of many other countries during the First and Second World Wars are also given in Introduction to the book.

   In the main body of the book under review there are 101 biographies of the high ranked Jews who served in the Armed Forces of Russia, Great Britain, France, Italy, German, Poland, Yugoslavia and other countries. Not surprisingly, Russia is on the top of this list due to its huge Jewish population at the beginning of WWII and this country’s significant role in the war. Biographies of 54 Jewish generals from Russia (the former USSR) are given. Many of them were victims of political persecutions before the war and the state anti-Semitic policy after the war. After retirement they ceased almost all activities and became the ordinary pensioners.

   Following Russia is Israel with its 30 generals. It is interesting that many of them had Russian roots. The same although to the less extent, could be said on Jewish-American high officers (D.Sarnoff, M.Rose, M.Krulevich, L.Markus, H.Ricover and others). Another characteristic feature of Israeli Generals is that almost all of them started military service from low positions and then, due to their talents, reached highest posts in the Israeli Army at the age of 30-40 years.

   Another feature of Israeli Generals is that many of them had not only extensive military training but got the University degrees in various technical and humanitarian disciplines. After retirement a lot of them entered politics and became members of the Knesset and the Government, Prime Ministers; the General E.Weitzman became the seventh President of the State of Israel. Many of the retired Israeli Generals got high positions in the State economy.

   Each biography presented is a 2-3 page exciting short story telling about the unusual and full of dramatic events life of the specific General or Admiral. The book is read with great interest and inspires pride for people  who gave to the world not only the great scientists, thinkers and artists, but also outstanding military commanders; for people who made the significant impact into the victory over Nazism and who are fighting for independence and survival since creation of the State of Israel.

        

E.Zaltsberg,

Toronto