Service on the Day of Atonement by the Israelite Soldiers of the Prussian Army before Metz 1870

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

H. Schile

New York

1871

Colored lithograph. With Hebrew

Unrecorded

This lithograph depicts a Kol Nidre service performed on Yom Kippur 1870 for Jewish soldiers in the Prussian army stationed near Metz (Alsace region). The Franco-Prussian War was waged in 1870-71. The Germans had occupied Metz by August of 1870, however were unable to capture Metz's prominent and formidable fortress, where the remaining French troops had sought refuge, for a further ten weeks. Yom Kippur was celebrated in the interim, but hostilities continued even through that holy day. While the soldiers pray in the image, artillery in the background shells distant buildings, likely including the Metz fortress itself. It seems surprising that such an image would likely appeal to American Jews, an event both geographicaly and politically distant. The lithograph is unknown to Singerman, who equally fails to record any of the publisher's other productions. A similar image was produced on linen, see Catalogue of the Jewish Museum (London), p. 135, no. 664