Author: Ilya Berkovich

The manpower records of the Habsburg Army are so detailed that even a cursory survey would give a good overview of the fate that awaited most Jewish recruits. Although there were cases to the contrary, nearly all of the initial intake of Jews enlisted directly after Joseph II’s conscription edict,…

On 6th January 1791, Captain Joseph Baron von Soyer signed the papers of two soldiers who were to be transferred from the 1st Staff Infantry Regiment to the Imperial-Royal Military Transport Corps (k.k. Militar-Fuhrwesens-Corps). Written in the margins of the document was the following uncharacteristically long remark: Während ihres bey…