Jewish airmen in WWII

[Graham Boak]

Surely this is largely a matter of integration and tolerance in differing societies, with differences between western and Eastern Europe, and protestant or catholic nations, and democratic or autocratic societies.

There is no separate listings of, and publicity given to, Jews in the RAF because it mattered little to the society at the time. This is not to say that examples of intolerance and anti-semitism cannot be found in Britain of that period, but little more than that directed at other sectarian groups. I could quote the hatred between protestants and catholics in Glasgow. Other than at the time for Church parade, Jews would not stand out as a distinctive group (and even then would probably be outnumbered by other "non-conformists"). Individual examples come to mind: the electronic technician on the Bruneval raid; at least one South African ace; a Beaufighter pilot from Canada. This is about what I would expect from random sampling of any minority.

There is the additional factor that, as in many nations, the British military recruited their officers from a restricted strata of society, especially in peacetime. Some prejudice is probably inevitable in such situations.

After all, how many Methodists were there in the Royal Air Force?