La Tefila du Soldat. Livre de prières a l’usage des militaires israélites en campagne [“Book of Prayers for Jewish Soldiers along the Front]

The preface directed to the French-Jewish soldier, composed by Isaiah Schwartz, Grand Rabbi of France notes: “This Tefila is the reproduction of that which aided your elders to pray in the last War. You are called some twenty years later to defend our land against the same enemy.” On September 1st, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The French response was a general mobilization against possible attack. The seemingly quiet Western Front came to be known as the “Phony War.” Many in France and Great Britain were lulled into a false sense of security over the following several months. However on May 9th, 1940, Germany unleashed its offensive against Belgium and the Netherlands, and on June 14th, 1940, the Nazis entered Paris unopposed