RT Article
T1 Being a Jewish Soldier in the Grande Armée: The Memoirs of Jakob Meyer during the Napoleonic Wars (1808–1813)
JF Zutot
VO 19
IS 1
SP 55
OP 69
A1 Renard, Nils
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1815446838
AB The Memoirs of Jakob Meyer offer a precious account of what Jewish soldiers experienced during the Napoleonic wars. Written in German in 1836–1838, they were translated into French and published, thanks to the work of Ernest Kallmann and Françoise Lyon-Caen (J. Meyer, Jakob Meyer, soldat de Napoléon. Mes aventures de guerre, 1808–1813 [Paris 2009]). The narrative of Meyer’s experience is a unique testimony of the way Jewish soldiers experienced their being Jewish, while indicating the way in which Jews reacted to wars. From his idealistic enlistment in the army, driven by hopes of emancipation, to the disaster of the Russian campaign and retreat, we follow Meyer, who seems to get closer to Jewish communities and his Jewish identity, while the dislocation of the Grande Armée makes these communities’ help increasingly more valuable. This narrative can be interrogated through the anthropological categories of ‘Jewish Warrior’ and ‘War Jew.’
K1 Eastern Europe
K1 Emancipation
K1 enlistment
K1 Napoleonic war
K1 Jewish Identity
DO 10.1163/18750214-bja10006