Life Under Fire: The Doctor Who Photographed the Destruction of World War I

Felix A. Theilhaber served as a doctor during the Great War and took photos of the damage and destruction caused by the German bombings.

The National Library of Israel | 01.03.17

Germany the Jews and Israel Gesher L’Europa

Image from the Felix Theilhaber Collection at the National Library of Israel

The outbreak of World War I in August of 1914 brought with it the drafting of hundreds of thousands of young men for service in the German army. The draft called up any young man who qualified, including the Jewish citizens of Germany, a majority of whom assumed their military duties with the same excitement as the rest of the population. Jewish physicians of the appropriate age were also drafted for service in the medical corps. They worked as military doctors in the many hospitals that were established to keep up with the ever-growing number of wounded soldiers who required care and treatment following the difficult battles of the Great War.

Felix A. Theilhaber (1887-1956) was a young Jewish doctor who had studied medicine in Berlin and Munich. As a student Theilhaber began taking an interest in Zionism and even considered the possibility of emigrating to the Land of Israel. However, the outbreak of the war prevented him from doing so. Instead, he answered the call to duty and served his country as a physician in a number of military hospitals. Felix was stationed mainly in Poland, but it appears he also served on the Western Front in Belgium. Prior to his service in the German military, he had served in a similar role in the Turkish Army in the Balkans.

During World War I, Felix experienced the full brutal intensity of all-out war. This was a result of the sheer number of injured soldiers who came under his care, though an additional aspect of the cruelties of war became apparent to him through the proliferation of anti-Semitic accusations within the German Army. Driven by his deep conviction that Jews were equal citizens of Germany, Theilhaber wrote a book about the experiences of Jewish combat pilots in the newly-formed German Air Force.

The cover of “Jüdische Flieger im Weltkrieg” by Felix A. Theilhaber.

Theilhaber thought that the contribution of Jews to such an elite unit would provide a convincing argument as to the devotion of Jewish fighters to Germany. In his effort to collect data, Theilhaber sought out pilots and fighters who had manned warplanes during the years 1914-1918. The pilots corresponded with Felix through letters in which they wrote about their experiences at war, including photographs to illustrate their stories. One letter was sent by Fritz Beckhardt, who was not only an outstanding combat pilot but had also been awarded the German Army’s highest honor, the House Order of Hohenzollern. Coincidentally, Beckhardt had served in the same squadron as Hermann Goering who went on to become a leading Nazi and Commander of the Luftwaffe during World War II. The squadron insignia was the swastika, and Beckhardt’s plane was decorated with this symbol. This photograph appears on the cover of Felix Theilhaber’s book about Jewish fighter pilots which was published in two editions during the 1920s.

As a personal reminder of the war days, Theilhaber collected photographs, some of which he may have even taken himself. These pictures document daily life at the military hospitals where he worked, but Felix also selected landscapes from the Eastern Front in Poland and Russia, and from the Western Front in Belgium. The pictures from the city of Leuven document the great destruction caused by the German artillery bombardments which were later condemned by many international agencies as disproportional use of force against a country that had declared neutrality.

This album of selected photographs had been in the possession of Felix Theilhaber’s son, Mr. Adin Theilhaber-Talbar, who donated his father’s estate to the National Library in 2013-2014, a number of months before he passed away.

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Felix Theilhaber also authored medical textbooks and demographic studies. His research focused on Germany’s Jewish population and even anticipated its demise due to the low birth rate, intermarriage, and assimilation. The solution that Theilhaber espoused was the establishment of a Jewish State.

Like many others, Felix did not emigrate to the Land of Israel until 1935 after losing his medical license in Germany due to his Jewish heritage. After arriving in the Land of Israel, Theilhaber, along with other doctors of German origin, established the Maccabi Sick Fund (which to this day is one of Israel’s largest HMOs) and promoted awareness regarding the importance of physical activity.

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Advertisement for Purchase of War Bonds, 1918

Almost all of the large countries involved in the war appealed to their citizens to help achieve victory by donating their private money through the purchase of the bonds.

Stefan Litt | 27.02.17

Germany the Jews and Israel World War I

First page of a booklet for the purchase of war bonds (ARC. 4* 1776 03 9)

Every war requires tremendous resources. Vast funds are needed to finance the weapons and military equipment, soldiers’ salaries and food, and the various other costs that arise in wartime. Armed conflicts alter the economies of all the nations involved: in order to prepare the national economy for this exceptional situation, the state needs money from loans and bonds, including funds for the purpose of changing the profile of the national economy for the benefit of the war objectives.

In the history of the 20th century, governments were always full of hope that they would be victorious, and thereby be able to return the debts at the end of the war. Defeated countries were expected to pay reparations to the victors, and the money would be allocated to covering the latter’s debts. However, there are losers in every war, and in the case of defeat, it was impossible to repay the banks and individuals who had purchased war bonds. To the contrary, in such a situation, it was necessary to borrow additional funds, i.e. to incur new debts in order to satisfy the demands of the winning side.

During periods of war, propaganda has always played a central role, both in maintaining unity on the home front, but also for garnering civilian support from soldiers on the battlefield. Needless to say, the eventuality of defeat did not come up in the public declarations, and naturally, not in the various materials printed in wartime: placards, pamphlets, etc. Public discussion of such a possibility posed the risk of interfering with civilians’ willingness to harness themselves to the war effort, for example, leading in turn to a drastic reduction in the purchase of war bonds. Therefore, advertisements for the purchase of war bonds usually played on the sentiments of the civilians and their fears of the cruel enemy. Fear is a known sales pitch during war.

World War I was the heyday of war bonds and associated advertisements. Almost all of the large countries involved in the war appealed to their citizens to help achieve victory by donating their private money through the purchase of the bonds.

The German Empire issued war bonds nine different times, in order to fund the tremendous war expenses. Selling these bonds yielded almost 100 billion marks for the war treasury of the German army – some 85 percent of the overall cost.

Approximately every half year during the war, the German government launched a new campaign to raise money from the public. The last was in September 1918, just two months prior to the end of the fighting. The interest rate was set at 5% (more than in ordinary savings plans). It was possible to trade in war bonds, which in principle had a chance of high yield in the event of a German military victory.

However, history took its own course, and Germany was vanquished in 1918. This is how the terrible economic catastrophe occurred: the state was incapable of paying its debts. Moreover, it was forced to commit to paying enormous reparations to the Allied Powers through the Treaty of Versailles agreements. In addition, following the explosive hyperinflation from 1922 to the end of 1923, all of the bonds lost their value. The result was that the state was released of its obligation to its citizens, while the latter irreversibly lost their private capital, which they had invested to finance the German army. This development caused despair among the citizens of Germany, who had been educated to place their belief in the authorities. The authorities, however, had collapsed, leading to defeat in war, and ultimately, an unfathomably large-scale dissolution of private capital.

The placard displayed here was published apparently in 1918, but to date, we do not know with certainty if it was released together with the eighth or ninth (and last) issue. The central motif was the threat to Germany and its forces posed by a new type of weaponry: the British tank. The Mark I tank model entered into intensive use during the last year of the war, and confounded both the German High Command and the soldiers in the trenches. The placard presented here belongs to the collection of Arthur Czellitzer, a Berlin ophthalmologist who collected placards and political and propaganda fliers in Berlin for a period of ten years. Dr. Czellitzer deposited the collection in the Jerusalem library in 1936. Czellitzer met a bitter end: he was murdered in the Holocaust in 1943.

Albert Ballin, the HAPAG Shipping Company, and the Immigrants to America

In 1886, a young man named Albert Ballin (1857-1918) of Jewish origins joined the company. Ballin had inherited from his father an emigration agency that operated in Hamburg. The agency helped European emigrants obtain tickets for sailing from the various European ports to America.

Stefan Litt | 26.02.17

Germany Germany the Jews and Israel World War I מלחמת העולם הראשונה

HAPAG steamship named after Ballin, 1923

In 1847 in the city of Hamburg, a new shipping company named HAPAG was founded.

One of the names the company was known by was the “Hamburg-America Line”. This name explains the objective of the company, which operated between Germany and American ports, and aimed its activity at a defined target population, the many emigrants who were en route from Europe to America. In the mid-19th century, emigration to the United States and other American countries was the solution for many people who did not manage to find their place in Europe for both financial and political reasons.

Initially, the HAPAG company operated sailboats, but over the years, it also purchased shipping vessels that were modern relative to the times: steamships. The company was moderately successful, but had to grapple with tough competition from other shipping companies from Germany, England, Belgium and Holland, all of which specialized in the emigration market. Only at a later stage did the company begin dealing in freight shipping to a significant degree.

In 1886, a young man named Albert Ballin (1857-1918) of Jewish origins joined the company. Ballin had inherited from his father an emigration agency that operated in Hamburg. The agency helped European emigrants obtain tickets for sailing from the various European ports to America. Ballin’s addition to the company was a most important move for HAPAG. From the beginning of his tenure there, Ballin was in charge of the topic of passengers. He fulfilled his role with such great success that already two years later, he was appointed to the board of directors, and from 1899, he served as CEO of the company.

Under his influence, the company ordered large, high-speed ships that offered emigrants many spaces at convenient prices, on a large number of decks. The response of the emigrants was so overwhelming that in 1900, on one of the islands in the Elbe River (which flows through Hamburg) a “city of emigrants” was established, where travelers could wait in good conditions and in a clean environment until setting sail for America. This success, joined by burgeoning success in the realm of cargo shipping, led to the company’s ongoing growth, so that on the eve of WWI, it was the largest shipping company in the world, with 175 ships and more than 20,000 employees. Competition with other companies led to orders for newer and larger ships, and on a number of occasions, the company was the largest shipping operator in the world (until other companies purchased larger ships). In 1914, HAPAG purchased three giant steamships, each of which had a capacity of 4,000 passengers. Two of them entered into regular service between Hamburg and New York, but the construction of the third was aborted, and due to the outbreak of the war, it never set sail under the company flag. The company’s slogan was “The world is our field” (Unser Feld ist die Welt). Between the years 1850-1935, some 5,000,000 people emigrated from Hamburg, and among them, many Eastern European Jews. A large number of them made the journey with HAPAG.

Albert Ballin served as CEO of the company for 19 years. Its growth during these years was thanks to his efforts, but also due to the support he received from the German political elite. The last Kaiser, Wilhelm II, was very excited by the realm of shipping, particularly large ships, which also took shape in the construction of many warships during that period.

Despite his Jewish origins, Ballin, who never converted to Christianity, was highly admired by Kaiser Wilhelm II, and became one of his unofficial Jewish advisors (together with Emil and Walter Rathenau, James Simon and others). Albert Ballin defined himself as a loyal German citizen in every way, and left a strong imprint on German politics. Evidence of this appears in the letter displayed here, written by Ballin in 1916 to an acquaintance in Vienna, Dr. Georg Halpern, one of the Zionist leaders of the period. In the letter, Ballin takes a stand on political developments in Poland an on World War I. The fact that Ballin corresponded with a Zionist leader is surprising from a number of aspects, including in light of the end met by HAPAG’s CEO, who took his own life on November 9, 1918, on the day of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s abdication. The collapse of the Reich, together with the defeat of Germany in the war, broke Albert Ballin and caused a demoralizing crisis in his system of values. The suicide spared him from witnessing the dismantling of the company’s fleet, when Germany was forced to pay reparations to the Allies. And yet, the company continued to exist, and rehabilitated itself in the days of the Weimar Republic. After the end of WWII, almost all of its ships were again confiscated, but the HAPAG company gain rebounded, and it continues to be in operation to this day.

Albert Ballin letter to Dr. Georg Halpern in Vienna, 1916

The First Person to Photograph the Land of Israel from the Air

Fritz Groll was a German officer sent to Ottoman Palestine at the height of World War I in order to assist Ottoman forces. Along the way, he photographed the country’s landscapes, cities and sites, from the ground and the air

Amit Naor | 26.02.17

Germany Germany the Jews and Israel History of Israel Land of Israel Photographs World War I מלחמת העולם הראשונה

Aerial view of Jaffa. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

By 1916, things were looking rather bleak for Ottoman forces in the Middle East. They were finding it difficult to repel the multi-pronged attack by the British. The Great Arab Revolt began in the summer, led by Emirs Abdullah and Faisal, with the support of Great Britain which had sent Lawrence of Arabia to the region. Even before the outbreak of World War I, the Ottoman Empire had become known as “the sick man of Europe.” At this point, after two years of fighting, the sick man was on his deathbed.

The Ottoman Empire’s German allies could no longer remain on the sidelines. They needed the Turks to engage the British in order to distract them from the critical battles on the Western Front. Indeed, following pressure from senior military officials, in the spring-summer of 1916, German units were finally dispatched to the Middle East to fight alongside the crumbling Ottoman army.

German soldiers with planes in the background. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

These units, which included an air squadron, arrived in preparation of the final Turkish-German offensive against British forces in Sinai. The German army excelled in the use of aircraft, at the time a new and not so reliable means of transportation, which was being used in war for the very first time. Accompanying the squadron was Fritz Groll, a 40-year-old German officer who was also the commander of a new unit dedicated to aerial photography. This was Groll’s first visit to Ottoman Palestine – the Land of Israel.

Fritz Groll. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Groll’s main mission was to photograph the area from the air for military purposes. This was how the first military aerial photographs of the Land of Israel came into being. Groll photographed Jaffa, the Galilee and areas in the Sinai Desert from the air for the first time. One can even make out agricultural fields and railway tracks in the photographs.

The region of Ashkelon. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Aerial view of Caesarea. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Aerial view of the ancient city of Shivta (Subeita). From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Aerial view of Be’er Sheva. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Aerial view of the Sarona Templar settlement. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

But Groll, along with his comrades in the squadron and other German units, did not treat the Land of Israel merely as a military destination. Like any avid tourist—or pilgrim—Groll documented his journey from Europe’s shores through Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, to the Land of Israel. He photographed the Bosphorus, documented the streets of Damascus, his various travels and the people he met along the way, as well as his comrades in arms. The German soldiers’ uniforms hint somewhat to the military’s colonialist attitude toward the Holy Land and the Middle East (note the pith helmets). On the other hand, Groll filled the pages of his album featuring photographs of the Temple Mount and other holy sites in Jerusalem with dense, hand-written and enthusiastic descriptions. Despite the outdated photographic equipment, it seems that Groll documented non-stop: Haifa and Jaffa, Be’er Sheva, where the forces were stationed, and even two pages of photographs of the town of Ramla.

Squadron members at attention. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Istanbul. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Locals in Syria. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

An “Arab begger”. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Bedouin women in Be’er Sheva. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

Photograph of Ramla. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

A page from the album documenting the Temple Mount and other holy sites in Jerusalem. Groll added hand-written descriptions in German. From the Fritz Groll photo album, the National Library of Israel collections

It is worth taking a closer look at this magnificent album, which was donated to the National Library of Israel by Ms. Ruth Schell of London, through Prof. Benjamin Zeev Kedar, who researched Groll’s photographs. The dozens of pictures afford an authentic view of the Land of Israel of that time, at the end of 400 years of Ottoman rule. The complete album is available for viewing, here.

Thank you to Dr. Gil Weissblei for his help in preparing this article.