I had an exhausting and exhilarating day today. It was day one of The Center for Jewish History’s Conference on World War 1 and the Jews. It will take me weeks, months really, to absorb and digest everything I learned. I took copious notes. It is amazing to live in New York City and attend these types of events and then walk back onto the street where people are going about their day. I am too tired to share much right now, but one neat thing did happen. After one of the sessions the moderator invited the audience to check out the two exhibits that opened this weekend. These are The Kaiser’s Call to Arms: Jewish Expression in the Great War and German Jews at the Eastern Front in WW1: Modernism Meets Tradition.
Many people were looking at the displays when I noticed a woman paying close attention to one case. Incredibly she was comparing the war medals of one Carl Rosenwald with those of her grandfather. As you might imagine this drew considerable interest from many of the guests. Here are a few photos.
The Great War medals of Carl Rosenwald (left, in display case) and Ernst Backarach (right, on top of case)
The medals of the two men are not all the same, but you will note that a few of them are. Both men appear to have been from Munich; they each received the Bavarian Military Merit Cross. There is a King Ludwig Cross in each set as well. Then there are the Prince Luitpold medals. It was extraordinary to see these after listening to such authoritative speakers talking about the war and its causes and consequences.
Ernst Bacharach’s granddaughter shows the medals he earned during the Great War. Bacharach came to the United States at the start of the Second World War.
As one might imagine public interest in Bacharach’s story was keen. There is nothing like making a tangible connection to history.
The Strawfoot 
thanks for posting the connection between my grandfather and the medals. it was an amazing conference to hear varied aspects of the war in terms of culture, politics, religion and social impact.
Lynn, I’m so glad you checked out the blog. It was indeed a great conference. I wrote up a little something for the WW1 Centennial Commission’s Facebook page but they have not posted it yet.
My friend and I are going to go back in January and check out the exhibits more in depth.