page_title: Antisemitic canard
section_title: Cowardice and lack of patriotism
hierarchical_section_title: Antisemitic canard / Other canards / Cowardice and lack of patriotism
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Flugblatt zur Erinnerung, der 12.000 gefallenen deutschen Juden im 1. Weltkrieg An die deutschen Mütter! 12.000 jüdische Soldaten sind für das Vaterland auf dem Felde der Ehre gefallen. Christliche und jüdische Helden haben gemeinsam gekämpft und ruhen gemeinsam in fremder Erde. 12.000 Juden fielen im Kampf! Blindwütiger Parteihass macht vor den Gräbern der Toten nicht Halt. Deutsche Frauen, duldet nicht, dass die jüdische Mutter in ihrem Schmerz verhöhnt wird. Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten E.V.English: German 1920 poster/leaflet. A Roll of Honor Commemorating the 12,000 German Jews Who Died for their Fatherland in World War I. To German mothers! 12,000 Jewish soldiers died on the field of honor for the fatherland. Christian and Jewish heroes fought together and rest together in foreign soil. 12,000 Jews fell in battle! Blind, enraged Party hatred does not stop at the graves of the dead. German women, Do not allow that the suffering Jewish mother be mocked in her pain! The Reich Association of Jewish Combat VeteransFrançais&#160;: Aux mères allemandes&#160;! 12 000 soldats juifs sont tombés au champ d’honneur pour la patrie Héros chrétiens et juifs ont combattu ensemble et reposent ensemble en terre étrangère. 12 000 Juifs sont tombés au combat&#160;! La haine partisane enragée ne s’arrête pas devant les tombes des morts. Femmes allemandes, ne tolérez pas que la mère juive soit bafouée dans sa douleur. Alliance impériale des anciens combattants juifs
context_page_description: Antisemitic canards are "sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory toward Judaism as a religion or defamatory toward Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since at least the Middle Ages, they have formed parts of broader Jewish conspiracy theories.
  Some antisemitic canards or false accusations date back to the birth of Christianity, such as the allegation that the Jews are collectively responsible for the death of Jesus. In Medieval Europe, the scope of antisemitic canards expanded and became the basis for regular persecutions and formal expulsions of Jews in England, France, Germany, Spain and Portugal. During these times, it was widely believed that Jews caused epidemics like the Black Death by poisoning wells. Jews were also accused of ritually consuming the blood of Christians.
  Starting in the 19th century, the notion that Jews were plotting to establish control over the world and dominate it by promoting capitalism and engaging in banking and finance first emerged. In the 20th century, further antisemitic canards alleged that Jews were responsible for the propagation of Communism and trying to dominate the news media.
context_section_description: With the rise of racist theories in the 19th century, "[a]nother old anti-Semitic canard served to underline the putative 'femininity' of the Jewish race. Like women, Jews lacked an 'essence'". In Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations, Kurt Jonassohn and Karin S. Björnson wrote:
  Historically, Jews were not allowed to bear arms in most of the countries of the diaspora. Therefore, when they were attacked, they were not able to defend themselves. In some situations, their protector would defend them. If not, they only had a choice between hiding and fleeing. This is the origin of the anti-Semitic canard that Jews are cowards.
  Often Jews were accused of insufficient patriotism. In late 19th-century France, a political scandal known as the Dreyfus affair involved the wrongful conviction for treason of a young Jewish French officer. The political and judicial scandal ended with his full rehabilitation.
  
  During World War I, the German Military High Command administered Judenzählung (German for "Jewish Census"). It was designed to confirm allegations of the lack of patriotism among German Jews, but the results of the census disproved the accusations and were not made public. After the end of the war, the stab-in-the-back myth alleged that  internal enemies, including Jews, were responsible for Germany's defeat.
  In Stalin's Soviet Union, the statewide campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans" – a euphemism for Jews – was set out on 28 January 1949 with an article in the newspaper Pravda:
  unbridled, evil-minded cosmopolitans, profiteers with no roots and no conscience ... Grown on rotten yeast of bourgeois cosmopolitanism, decadence and formalism ... non-indigenous nationals without a motherland, who poison with stench ... our proletarian culture.
caption: "12,000 Jewish soldiers died on the field of honor for the fatherland." A leaflet published in 1920 by German Jewish veterans to counter the stab-in-the-back myth.
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