Since approximately 1995, a team of enthusiastic and dedicated historians and genealogists working with the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX) has provided appropriate evidence to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) to amend errors in relation to the commemoration of Jewish casualties in the two world wars.¹ At first working individually, the researchers were then asked by the CWGC to work with me to simplify coordination. My team members have included Harold Pollins, Saul Issroff, and the late Andy Green. Others helping us were Henry Morris, the late Gerry Bean, Colonel John Starling of the Pioneer Corps/Logistics Corps Museum, and Charles Tucker of the United Synagogue Archives.

The CWGC will accept many kinds of reliable written evidence in order to effect changes either to their records or to headstones and memorials. Such evidence can come from, among others sources, combinations of the following: The British Jewry Book of Honour (BJBH) for World War I names, National Archive records at Kew, records of FreeBMD, archives of the Canadian Jewish Congress, synagogue and Jewish cemetery records, and headstones. Genealogical records of various kinds from British and Commonwealth Jewish archives, family testimony and letters and documents, Jewish Chronicle (JC) items and articles and local newspapers, records from military and other museums,² war memorials, Israel Defense Force archives, records of the Association of Jewish Refugees, and many more are all accepted.

Successes and Failures

We have been able to replace crosses with Stars of David on war graves, thus raising the visible level of sacrifice our people made; to add membership of special forces to the units many belonged to and that brought about their deaths, many lonely and tortuous, in action; and even to commemorate those who were not even remembered due to the confusion and fog of war. Many Jewish families were unaware that the headstone of a loved one did not have an appropriate symbol until it was visited, often many years later, by people who then highlighted the error with either AJEX or the CWGC itself.

Often, and especially in World War I, the forms sent to families about which religious symbol was required on a headstone never arrived or were never returned for various reasons, so by default the CWGC placed a cross on the grave or left it without any symbol.³ Our disappointments have been caused by non-Jewish spouses or family members who refused to consider Jewish remembrance on headstones; Jews who professed to be atheists or converts to Christianity, or those whose surviving families tried to respect their wishes in death, even though the casualties themselves may not have agreed to have no religious symbol or cross on their CWGC headstone. It could also have occurred due to a lack of any evidence that someone was Jewish, even when their name made it obvious, because the casualty attested as “Church of England” in case of capture by the Nazis and no family survived to say otherwise. We have recorded all of these so that should anyone ever query a cross on a headstone of a casualty who was really Jewish, we can at least explain the anomaly even though we may not accept its veracity.

Constant Vigilance

Clearly we rely on the vigilance of all well-meaning members of the public who visit CWGC cemeteries around the world or who surf the amazing CWGC website of casualties,⁴ to contact us about genuine doubts they may have about the accuracy of headstones and records. This can be done by e-mailing AJEX⁵ with your message, giving full details, or by contacting us and obtaining the current address. Below are several examples of the work being undertaken; please contact the author at Martin.Sugarman@ yahoo.co.uk or AJEX directly if errors are found. Unfortunately, it is impossible to for us to publish everything as the list goes on for many pages.

Sample Cases

• 246996 Lt Gabriel Adler (“Gabor”), aka John Armstrong, Cassino memorial. Recognized as Special Operations Executive (SOE).⁶
• Cpl Martin L Amson RAC, Grooesebeek memorial, aka Abrahamson.
• 13051473 Ian Anson (buried East Ham) PC, killed in action 22 October 1944, really Arnstein.
• Gnr Jack Beagle, RA. Buried with a cross on his tombstone at Minturno, Italy; now changed to Star of David.
• Fus Mark Berkoff killed in action February 1944, buried at Anzio with no symbol as requested by his wife; probably due to left-wing atheism.
• LAC Aba Bardicev RAF, Palestinian Jewish SOE, unrecognized as Special Operations Executive.
• Korea: Cpl. Lipschild, buried Pusan, no Star of David, under investigation.
• VAD7 Edith Hilda Munro, died 1916, JC/BJBH, death certificate proves she was in service. Awaiting answer from CWGC.
• Lt Moses Forman, E Lancs, killed in action April 11, 1917, buried in Tilloy with a cross, despite evidence from JC and BJBH and South African records, CWGC initially refused to change the symbol, because records show a cross requested by family, but now has reversed its decision.

Notes

1. See Shemot, Vol. 16, no. 3.
2. The specific records of the Pioneer Corps Museum concerning the real “Jewish” names of its former members, as opposed to their noms de guerre, are a good example of this source.
3. Grief, change of address, emigration, estrangement from family, for example.
4. www.cwgc.org.uk.
5. www.ajex.org.uk.
6. The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organization, officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, in 1940, to conduct warfare by means other than direct military engagement. Its mission was to encourage and facilitate espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines.
7. Voluntary Aid Detachment: worked alongside military nurses during the two world wars.

Martin Sugarman is Honorary Archivist of the AJEX Jewish Military Museum.