[The importance of Jewish nursing in World War I as shown by the example of the Jewish nurses' home in Stuttgart].

Abstract

The history of Jewish nursing in World War I has so far not been central to medical history research. Rosa Bendit's war diary is still the only source available on the voluntary service Jewish nurses provided during World War I. Their number was small compared to that of nurses in general. Jewish nursing in Germany has hardly been researched. Jewish nurses, like their Christian colleagues, took on wartime nursing tasks voluntarily. This paper will focus on the experiences of the nurses who were sent to various locations in East and West by the Stuttgart Jewish Nurses' Home. Based on quotations from the war diary their position within the medical service will be described, compared and analyzed. The paper draws attention to special characteristics in the comparison ofJewish and Christian nurses and explores issues such as religious observance, religious discrimination, patriotism and differences in the evaluation of the nurses' work. A brief outline of the history of the Stuttgart Jewish Nurses' Home illustrates their working conditions. The Jewish nurses applied themselves with as much effort and devotion as their Christian counterparts. Although there were only few of them, the Jewish nurses managed to establish a recognized position for themselves within the medical service. The history of Jewish nursing in Stuttgart ended in 1941 when the Jewish Nurses' Home was dissolved by the Nazis and four nurses were murdered in concentration camps.