Evreii și Marele Război în scrierile lui Wilhelm Filderman
Jews and the Great War in Wilhelm Filderman’s Writings

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes Wilhelm Filderman’s documentary response to antisemitic narratives concerning Jewish participation in Romania’s military campaigns during the First World War. Focusing on his 1925 publication „Adevărul asupra problemei evreiești”, the study highlights how Filderman used official statistics and archival evidence to dismantle xenophobic claims advanced by A.C. Cuza and other far-right leaders who depicted Jewish soldiers as disloyal or cowardly. The article reconstructs the broader political and social context of Romanian antisemitism between 1910 and 1925, including the legislative framework of naturalization and the systematic exclusion of Jews from civil and military rights. It documents the significant contribution of Jewish combatants – mobilized in comparable proportions to their Christian counterparts – and the heavy casualties they sustained. Through this case study, the article demonstrates how Filderman reframed Jewish wartime service as both patriotic duty and political argument for full emancipation. It also illuminates the mechanisms by which antisemitic propaganda operated, and how statistical falsification served nationalist agendas. Ultimately, the study situates Filderman’s work within the struggle for citizenship and recognition in interwar Romania.

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