World War I broke out on July 28, 1914 and ended more than four years later, on November 11, 1918, with Germany’s signing of the ceasefire agreement. Called the “Great War” at the time, it was the most brutal and violent conflict the world had ever known. Some 70 million troops from about 40 countries took part in the fighting, which was primarily concentrated in Europe. Its repercussions reverberated around the world. The scale of the losses was unprecedented: some 20 million soldiers and civilians were killed, tens of millions were injured and left homeless, as homes and infrastructure were destroyed and severe economic hardship ensued. The war had a tremendous impact on humanity, with a great influence on political, ideological, national, cultural and technological aspects of modern life.
The war began following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. He was shot by a Serbian citizen while in Sarajevo. The Austro-Hungarian government blamed Serbia and declared war. Within a short time, almost all European countries had joined the war that flared up between two main political blocs - the “Central Powers': Austro-Hungary, Germany, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria - were aligned against the “Allied Powers”, including Russia, Britain, France and others. In 1917, the United States joined the Allied Powers.
The War that Changed the Face of the World
The war’s main front was in Western Europe, with most of the fighting occurring in Belgium and France. Another significant front was in Eastern Europe. The Allied countries fought against the Ottomans on the Middle East front. By the end of the war, the map of the world was transformed: the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved into Austria and the Balkan States; the Ottoman Empire disintegrated and became the Turkish Republic; areas in the Middle East that had been Ottoman territory came under the mandatory rule of Great Britain and France; and the borders of Imperial Germany contracted to become the Weimar Republic. The First World War was a laboratory in which decisive and historic changes were introduced into the battlefield. At the beginning of the war, armies relied heavily on mounted cavalry, bayonet charges and mail pigeons. By the war’s end, the battlefield had shifted to advanced methods of communication, as well as sophisticated arms and weaponry such as aircraft, tanks, submarines, and chemical agents. As battleground technology advanced, so did medical technology to treat the wounded.
The National Library of Israel preserves thousands of items relating to the First World War, including photographs, documents, diaries, books, research papers, posters and press clippings. The historical materials, including many rare items, offer a great deal of knowledge about the course of the war, the severe losses, the physical and emotional struggle on the home front, and information about what took place on the front lines of the Land of Israel and the consequences of the war. Many of the items shed light on the war’s Jewish angle, particularly the contribution of Jewish soldiers and the difficulties they faced, as well as the experiences of Jewish communities and Jewish units.
World War I was fought on many fronts, the main ones being Western Europe (primarily France and Belgium) and Eastern Europe, between the Baltic and the Black Sea. A long and bloody war of attrition was waged from trenches dug along lines of defense stretching hundreds of miles. The hopes of each side for a quick, decisive campaign were dashed and many paid with their lives.
With the conquest of the Sinai Peninsula in 1916, the British began what would result in the Ottoman withdrawal from Palestine, and over the next two years, they completed the conquest of the Land of Israel, Lebanon and western Syria. Bitter battles and heavy losses accompanied the campaign. The war years were very difficult for the JewishYishuv (settlement) in Israel, which suffered economic and political hardships imposed by the Ottomans, food and medicine shortages as well as bombardment by British and French ships. The leaders of theYishuv and other Jews were expelled from the country, and later thousands of Jews, forced from their homes in Jaffa and Tel Aviv, were left to roam the land in search of food and shelter. The Jewish public was divided on whether to support one of the warring parties or to maintain neutrality. In November 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, which instilled hope in theYishuv, and was considered a breakthrough in international recognition of the Zionist idea. The British gained control of Palestine in summer 1917, with Jerusalem falling later that year.
During the war years, countless photos were taken documenting places and events in the Land of Israel and the Middle East. Many of the photos were taken by officers and soldiers from the armies that fought in the arena. It is possible that the climate, landscapes and local population, so different from their countries of origin—mainly Britain and Germany—motivated them to excessively document and photograph what they saw. Today, many of these albums are accessible on our website, providing a fascinating glimpse into the sights of the Land of Israel and its inhabitants during the war years.
About 1.5 million Jewish soldiers took part in the fighting on the various fronts, as citizens of the countries in which they lived. It is estimated that about 150,000 were killed in the war. In many cases, Jewish fighters found themselves fighting on opposite sides of the battlefield. However, despite carrying their share of the war effort, in many countries Jews suffered from harassment and antisemitic claims that the Jews were responsible for the war, were traitors or had shirked their duty and did not enlist. The persecution of Jews continued after the war in various countries, and as a result, with the war’s end, the wave of Jewish immigration from Europe to the United States, which began in the late 19th century, intensified.
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Jewish soldiers served in the British army in the framework of the Jewish Legion. Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor were among the initiators of the Legion, with the aim of it one day becoming an independent military force of the JewishYishuv. At the beginning of the war, a mule corps charged with logistical duties was formed, made up of Jews who had been exiled from Israel to Egypt. Not satisfied with this, Jabotinsky worked vigorously to establish combat battalions. Indeed, by the end of the war, three Hebrew battalions had been established with 5,000 Jewish volunteers from different countries, including David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Trumpeldor and Jabotinsky. Although the units were disbanded after the war, the fighting spirit and military experience they gained contributed to the activities of the Haganah, and later the IDF.
