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

(HOLOCAUST)

n.p.

Paris

1939

French and Hebrew texts. Contains Jewish Calendar for 1940, and both Aschkenazic and Sephardic versions of the Kaddish.

The preface 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, however the seemingly quiet Western Front came to be known as the “Phony War.” This lulled many in France and Great Britain over the following several months into a false sense of security. On May 9th, 1940, Germany unleashed its offensive against Belgium and the Netherlands, and on June 14th, 1940, the Nazis entered Paris unopposed