AW: [Cz-L] austrian or romanian

Hi Paul, Cornel ... There is no contradiction between the views of your both.
Maybe we should think of what it meant when one regarded itself as Austrian within
the Austria-Hungarian Empire. This empire was multiethnic where one ethnic group
(or nationality) was the Germans, others were Chechs, Poles, Ruthenians, ...,
and Jews (which partially wanted to be seen just a religious minority).
There was no such ethnic group like Austrians within the empire.
So, the expression "I am Austrian" meant belonging to this state, not to
a distinctive group of people withing this state.
One could be a proud Austrian and same time a proud Jew.
My grandfather served as an officer in the Austrian army during WWI, some time later he
was a member of Betar, clearly expressing his identity as Jew.
Alex

----- Ursprüngliche Mail ----
Von: cornel fleming <cornel.fleming_at_virgin.net>
An: Paul Heger <pheger_at_gmail.com>; Czernowitz-L <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Gesendet: Donnerstag, den 11. März 2010, 17:50:43 Uhr
Betreff: RE: [Cz-L] austrian or romanian

Hi Paul....I can only speak for my extended family and friends,but they
certainly regarded themselves as Austrian. And unlike Jews in the Russian
lands who dreaded having to be in the military,in Czernowitz there were
large numbers of Jewish volunteers in the 41st Infantry based there, well
before WW1...see pics of my family on our site. I also have a book on the
history of the regiment from 1888 to 1905 and the names of many of the
officers etc are very Jewish...and there are photos of nationalities in the
regt. And one shows a very large group of Jews! Very different to the later
Romanian time. As one of our list members called it..it was a benevolent
Empire as far as the Czernowitz Jews were concerned. Cornel

-----

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Received on 2010-03-12 07:39:40