{"id":69595,"date":"2026-08-10T05:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/69595\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T05:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:44:12","slug":"in-the-army-again-80-years-after-the-holocaust-germanys-jews-consider-conscription","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/69595\/","title":{"rendered":"In the army, again? 80 years after the Holocaust, Germany’s Jews consider conscription"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a hill overlooking the town of Sonthofen, on the edge of the Bavarian Alps, lies a former school for educating the next generation of the Nazi elite that has been used as a base by Germany\u2019s Bundeswehr, or armed forces, since 1956.\u00a0A few streets away lies a barracks built in 1936 for the Wehrmacht\u2019s mountain troops.<\/p>\n

Today that barracks is home to a Bundeswehr school for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense, and it is there that Lt. Levi \u2014 one of an estimated 300 Jewish soldiers serving in the German military \u2014 is stationed.<\/p>\n

Like many German towns, Sonthofen is inextricably linked to the Holocaust \u2014 which affected Levi\u2019s own family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI obviously cannot ignore the history of this place,\u201d says the 33-year-old biologist, who asked to use a pseudonym due to the secretive nature of his work for the military.<\/p>\n

For Levi, the Bundeswehr is the army of a free and democratic Germany: \u201cThe Bundeswehr does not stand in the tradition of National Socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The former Nazi school, he notes, is now known as the Generaloberst-Beck-Kaserne, named after one of the participants in the July 20, 1944, assassination attempt against Hitler.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a kind of simultaneity you have to be able to live with,\u201d Levi says.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tHitler Youth stand in a classroom during a lecture on political science at Ordensburg Sonthofen in Germany, February 24, 1941. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n

Born in Estonia, Levi came to Germany with his family in the early 1990s as a Jewish refugee. Two of his great-grandfathers had been killed fighting the Nazis as Red Army soldiers.<\/p>\n

Eight decades after Word War II, Levi describes himself as a \u201cJewish German.\u201d And as such, he wants to defend his country and what it stands for.<\/p>\n

For a long time following WWII, the idea of a Jew serving as an officer in the Bundeswehr was considered unthinkable within Germany\u2019s Jewish community. However, with an increasing national push for renewed mandatory conscription and a Jewish community head calling on his constituents to \u201cdo their part\u201d for the country, the idea is no longer verboten.<\/p>\n

The Bundeswehr was founded in 1955 \u2014 only 10 years after the end of WWII, in which the Wehrmacht was instrumental in the murder of 6 million Jews. While the new West German army was part of NATO and committed to democratic values, it did not make a clean break with the past in its personnel: Nearly all of the roughly 15,000 officers in the young Bundeswehr had previously served in the Wehrmacht, and around 300 had been members of the Waffen-SS.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tLt. Levi is one of an estimated 300 Jewish servicemembers in Germany. (Bundeswehr\/ Ines Schr\u00f6der)<\/p>\n

The small Jewish community of the early Federal Republic consisted predominantly of concentration camp survivors and a handful of Jews who had returned from exile. It was barely conceivable at the time that they or their children would ever again serve in a German army \u2014 nor were they required to. Jews persecuted under the Nazis and their descendants were granted an exemption: until the abolition of compulsory military service in 2011, they were excused from the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about a completely different era than today,\u201d says Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.<\/p>\n

Since the end of National Socialism, there have been \u201cprofound changes\u201d in Germany, Schuster says.<\/p>\n

Schuster was born in 1954 in Haifa and moved as a toddler with his parents to the Bavarian town of W\u00fcrzburg, where they had lived before fleeing the Nazis.<\/p>\n

As president of the Central Council, which represents roughly half of the estimated 200,000 Jews in Germany, Schuster is now advocating for a reassessment of the community\u2019s relationship with the Bundeswehr.<\/p>\n

In a November 2025 guest column for J\u00fcdische Allgemeine, Germany\u2019s Jewish weekly, Schuster wrote that the time had come for Jews in Germany to ask themselves the question: \u201cWhere do we stand today, 80 years after Nazi rule?\u201d<\/p>\n

His answer: at the side of a democratic Germany in which Jews are equal citizens, and of its army, which defends those values.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the situation demands it, we Jews as a community must today be ready to do our part,\u201d Schuster wrote.<\/p>\n

A rabbi in Bundeswehr ranks<\/p>\n

A milestone in this rapprochement with the Bundeswehr was the establishment of a military rabbinate in 2021. Rabbi Zsolt Balla became the first Jewish chaplain in a German army in more than 100 years.<\/p>\n

Balla calls his role \u201ca privilege\u201d and sees it as an opportunity to help ensure that Germany \u201cremains on the right side of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFrom left to right: Military bishop Bernhard Felmberg, acting head of the Military Rabbinate Monika Heimburger, military rabbi Zsolt Balla, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Josef Schuster and military dean Joachim Simon pose on stage during the inauguration ceremony of the rooms of the first military rabbinate of the Bundeswehr in Berlin, Germany, on July 4, 2024. (RALF HIRSCHBERGER\/POOL\/AFP)<\/p>\n

Balla came to Germany as a young man in the early 2000s, where he trained as a rabbi. In his native Hungary, about two-thirds of the Jewish population was murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators. His mother survived.<\/p>\n

Today, Jews in Germany have \u201ca good life, with all the opportunities and challenges that entails,\u201d says Balla. \u201cWe must do our part to preserve this society.\u201d<\/p>\n

He too sees a shift in attitude within the Jewish community toward the Bundeswehr. While there is no official count of Jewish soldiers in the German military, Balla\u2019s impression is that their numbers are growing.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tRepresentatives of the Jewish community dedicate a new Torah scroll during the inauguration ceremony of the Bundeswehr\u2019s first military rabbinate in Berlin, Germany, on July 4, 2024. (RALF HIRSCHBERGER\/POOL\/AFP)<\/p>\n

Jews with roots in the former Soviet Union, he says, tend to have a different, more positive view of military service. They make up 90 percent of the community, after some 200,000 arrived in Germany as refugees fleeing the rising antisemitism in the post-Soviet states following the end of the Cold War.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir ancestors often fought in the Red Army,\u201d Balla notes. They also have a particular familial and emotional connection to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

After Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, then-chancellor Olaf Scholz coined the term \u201cZeitenwende,\u201d meaning a historic turning point. After decades of peace, Germany would have to prepare for new threats and rearm. A dramatic increase in the military budget followed.<\/p>\n

The Bundeswehr is set to grow from its current 186,000 active soldiers to more than 260,000. Starting in 2027, all young men will be required to register for a medical assessment to see if they\u2019re fit to serve. Military service itself remains voluntary for now, but according to the government, it could become mandatory again if sufficient recruits cannot otherwise be found.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tRabbi Zsolt Balla speaks at a memorial ceremony on Germany\u2019s memorial day, at the monument to Jewish soldiers killed during World War I, at the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Anna Zhukovets supports the reintroduction of conscription. A Jewish journalist with Ukrainian roots, Zhukovets says she has long considered herself a pacifist, but the war in Ukraine has \u201cradically changed\u201d her outlook. Today she is \u201cfirmly in favor of destigmatizing the Bundeswehr.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhukovets came to Germany in 2002 with her parents. She was born in 1997 in Mariupol, where her family had lived for generations. Her great-grandmother Eugenia Fleischmacher served as a medic in the Red Army and later became chief physician of the maternity clinic in Mariupol, where Zhukovets herself was born. That hospital now lies in ruins. Like most of the city, it was destroyed by the Russian army in March 2022 in the early phase of the war.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAnna Zhukovets and her grandmother in Mariupol, months before the Russian invasion in 2022. (Anna Zhukovets)<\/p>\n

Zhukovets regularly reports for the French-German broadcaster Arte from her birth country and maintains constant contact with Ukrainian soldiers. Their experiences shape her perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia only understands the language of strength,\u201d she charges. She considers it dangerous that many in Germany fail to grasp this. Under Russian occupation, Zhukovets believes, \u201cour freedom, our dignity and our human rights\u201d would be lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrecisely because I am Ukrainian and Jewish, I see a strong, democratic Bundeswehr as the best protection against this threat,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Echoes from the Holocaust-era still resound today<\/p>\n

Not all young Jews in Germany see it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never join the Bundeswehr. I lack a positive identification with this country,\u201d says Daniel, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid being targeted by anti-Israel activists.\u00a0\u201cMy ancestors were persecuted by Germans, and I have personally experienced antisemitism here.\u201d<\/p>\n

After finishing school, Daniel, now in his 30s, went to Israel to volunteer for three years of military service in the Israel Defense Forces \u2014 a stint that is mandatory for native Israelis, but not Jews living abroad. He has since returned to Germany, where he is active in a Jewish student organization.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tGunners of three \u2018Fuchs\u2019 nuclear, biological and chemical detection tanks of the German Army adjust their cannons during a drill of the NBC Defense Corps of the German Army at the General Jaeger barracks in Sonthofen, southern Germany, November 19, 2001. (AP Photo\/Diether Endlicher)<\/p>\n

Daniel says that since the deadly Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and the global rise in antisemitism that followed in its wake, more German Jews are choosing to serve in the IDF. He also believes there remain widespread reservations about the Bundeswehr.<\/p>\n

The force\u2019s break from the Wehrmacht is mere \u201clip service,\u201d Daniel says, pointing to two barracks in Germany named after Erwin Rommel, commander of the Wehrmacht\u2019s German Africa Corps.<\/p>\n

Rommel was accused of complicity in the 1944 July Plot, an assassination attempt against Hitler, and forced to commit suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut before that, his conquests had brought thousands of North African Jews into the hands of the Nazis,\u201d says Daniel. \u201cThe fact that the Bundeswehr holds Rommel up as a tradition-forming figure is a scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tRon Dekel. (Elias Keilhauer)<\/p>\n

Ron Dekel speaks for many young Jewish adults in Germany by virtue of his office. The 23-year-old is president of the German Union of Jewish Students, which represents young Jewish people and students between the ages of 18 and 35.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe war in Ukraine has changed young Jews\u2019 perception of the Bundeswehr,\u201d says Dekel, adding that many have come to accept that Germany must rearm.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Dekel says, the question of whether a Jew should serve in the Bundeswehr remains sensitive. \u201cIn particular, those whose ancestors were murdered by Germans still find it very difficult to imagine even today,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

According to Dekel, every far-right incident in the Bundeswehr also causes Jews to question whether they would be safe there.<\/p>\n

The most recent figures from Germany\u2019s Defense Ministry on right-wing extremism in the army date from 2024, and they showed the problem was growing. Nearly 100 soldiers were discharged that year for far-right activities; in 17 cases it was proven that members of the Bundeswehr had given the Hitler salute. In total, there were 280 suspected cases of right-wing extremism in the armed forces, 30% more than the previous year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what if the AfD were ever in government and appointed the defense minister?\u201d asks Dekel, referring to the far-right populist Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland party, which holds nearly a quarter of the seats in parliament.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tOne of the buildings and yard of the Ordensburg Sonthofen, south Bavaria, Germany, February 24, 1941. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n

It would be unacceptable for Jews to serve in the army under those conditions, he argues. For Dekel, one thing is clear: Germany\u2019s Jewish community has good reason to be wary of the Bundeswehr.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould compulsory service be reintroduced, Jews must have the option of performing civilian alternative service,\u201d Dekel says, emphasizing that there must never be an obligation for Jews to join the Bundeswehr.<\/p>\n

Back in Sonthofen, Levi understands why not all Jews share his view of the German military. He too considers it sensible to maintain the exemption for descendants of those persecuted by the Nazis.<\/p>\n

And, he says, \u201cfar-right incidents in the Bundeswehr are a real problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it is a problem he does not wish to avoid. As an officer, he will one day command other soldiers. He sees that as an opportunity to make a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose this profession so that there will be fewer right-wing extremists in the Bundeswehr,\u201d Levi says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a hill overlooking the town of Sonthofen, on the edge of the Bavarian Alps, lies a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[482,20236,2715,1425,9903,5,51873],"class_list":["post-69595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-afd-alternative-for-germany","tag-antisemitism-in-germany","tag-bundeswehr","tag-german-army","tag-german-jews","tag-germany","tag-second-generation-holocaust-survivors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}