Jewish airmen in WWII

[Franek Grabowski]

Thanks for the replies.
For the beginning I will explain my issue concerning Jewishness.
I understand a Jew a person being of Jewish nationality/faith. A person of Jewish origin is the one of Jewish roots but does not recognise itself as a Jew anymore.
A sample of the former might be Weizmann, while of the latter - Marseille perhaps?
I know that in the Luftwaffe, at least Simsch had a Mischling status. Others - I do not know but names like Baer, Krakowitzer, Marseille or Suess suggest their 'nicht ganz arisch' origin.
Similarly, names like John C. Meyer, Myron Levy, Levi Chase sound Jewish but did they consider themselves Jewes?
Another question is what was the presence of Jewes in air forces in percents (approximate)? I have seen some articles on the subject but my impression was that the number was usually inflated.
Oh, and what is typical/traditional Jewish name in UK?

[Jaap Woortman]

If it was a typical jewish name for the UK I do not know but Klaus Hugo Adam was born in Berlin. His father had a famous sportsshop in Berlin and his parents were Jewish. The family went to the UK in 1934. Klaus Hugo Adam and his brother flew as Typhoon pilots in no.123 RAF Wing, 609 and 183 Sqn., from Gilze-Rijen, Kluis and Plantlünne airfields in 1944/1945. So they were German and Jewish and flew in the RAF. Klaus Hugo Adam changed his name during his operational time to Keith Howard Adams and grew a moustache. Now he is Sir Kenneth Hugo Adam OBE.

Jaap

[Graham Boak]

If you want the stereotype jewish name in the UK then it is Cohen. However, many Jews were well integrated into British life and had names indistinguishable from Christians, atheists, agnostics or even Welsh.

If I may be permitted a personal story to illustrate this: many years ago I was running the reception desk at an SF convention, when I asked the well-known (in context) Ron Bennet what his wife's Christian name was. He just grinned and gently pointed out that this was rather difficult, both of them being Jewish. Bennet is an entirely English name.

I did notice recently that the list of the nationality of BoB pilots included one Israeli. An interesting concept, that.

[Franek Grabowski]

Thanks for the replies
It seems Adam was one of a number of Jewes that left Germany but was their part significant in the war effort? How many of them joined RAF. We are still talking about single names. There was Sid Seitz or Klibanski (sp?) but were there any more?
Concerning Goodman, it is a pure case of PC. He cannot be considered as an Israeli because the country did not exist yet. He had a Palestinian passport and the table counts citizenship rather than nationality (a lot of mess with Commonwealth I think). In the Polish Air Force we had two non-Polish nationals. Both were on Polish pay roll, both had Polish service nos and both had no relationships to Poland being Czechoslovaks. Should they be counted on Polish or Czechoslovak lists?
Finally, concerning Cohen. I expected something more subtle. Cohen is just a variation of a very popular Jewish name appearing eg. like Cohn (eg. Cohn-Bendit), Kon (eg. Feliks Kon - a member of Polish Soviet government in 1920), Kun (eg. Bela Kun), Kochan, etc. Pronuntiation is almost identical in all cases.
Of course, in case of changed names, there is no possibility to judge, but in Germany or Poland Jewes had different names rather than the rest of population, originating from places (Krakowitzer-Krakowski), trade (Fleischmann), flowers (Blum, Lilienthal), metals (Messing, Goldbaum), etc. I expected similar pattern in England.

[Graham Boak]

Many thoroughly Anglo-Saxon English surnames come from placenames (e.g. Kirkham, Barton) and occupations (Palmer, Fletcher, Cooper, Smith) so that would be no way of distinguishing their religion. My understanding was that this is/was common in Western Europe, even Germany. I don't think that there is any suggestion that Messerschmitt had any Jewish origins, or that any was implied in Goering's famous "You can call me Maier" boast.

There are specifically Jewish surnames in England, but as far as I know these are basically those recognisable anywhere. Many Englishmen with Germanic names would be Jewish, of course, but not all. The well-known families of Battenberg and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha spring to mind. However, many English Jews with Germanic surnames will have changed them to avoid being mistaken for Germans during the hate campaigns of WW1.

[Franek Grabowski]

Graham
Perhaps I was not clear enough. Jewish names were of big cities rather than small villages: Amsterdamski, Berliner, Bremer or Krakowitzer.
Also only particular trade names were considered Jewish. Smith, Schmidt, Kowal or Kowalski are Arian ones, but there are some variations considered Jewish like Kowalewski or Goldschmidt. I cannot say anything about Messerschmitt though. This is a very subtle matter.

[G. Warrener]

May I turn the question around?

Insofar as the most recent anti-semitic excesses of the European history have been caused by German heathen or various national Catholic/Protestant or inspired/misled Soviet fanatics... what does it really matter what a WW2 pilot believed in?

Rudel?
Townsend?
Bader?
Slaski?
Galland?

etc.

you climb into your aeroplane and avoid being blasted to smithereens - whilst attempting to do the same to others.

We who are not so challenged - respect those who were. Some fought for the 'wrong' side - some fought fought for the "good guys". Most died - some survived.

Unfortunately 60 years on - I'm not too sure that we all agree who the good guys were.....

For me Jews are good guys.....

Graham

[G. Warrener]

Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski

Graham
Perhaps I was not clear enough. Jewish names were of big cities rather than small villages: Amsterdamski, Berliner, Bremer or Krakowitzer.
Also only particular trade names were considered Jewish. Smith, Schmidt, Kowal or Kowalski are Arian ones, but there are some variations considered Jewish like Kowalewski or Goldschmidt. I cannot say anything about Messerschmitt though. This is a very subtle matter.

How about Goodman - a Pole that got away?

http://www.fau.edu/library/br123.htm

;-) graham

[malladyne]

Many Jews in the UK are so anxious to either assimilate themselves or to hide their true identity that they assume English names and very often those that display a English root or a certain element of taste and style.
For example, I know of a jewish legal practice in North London where the of the principal partners were called Isidore Isaacs,Nahum Rothstein and Jacob Goldblatt, but upon qualifying as solicitors they changed their names to Rupert Winchester, Guy Sheringham and Alex Tonbridge.
During the War, of course, such Jewish airmen as there were (not that many) had much better reasons to change theirr names..and many did.
Malladyne

[drgondog]

John Chalot 358Fs/355fg was a Jew, went down on 11 March and spent the rest of the war at Dachau (survived). Only Jewish fighter pilot I am aware of in the 355th

Regards,

Bill Marshall