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Presenter: Nicolas Coiffait

If the role played by Napoleon in the assimilation of the Jews is already well known, one of its consequences is not so well documented: the engagement of Jewish soldiers in the Napoleonic wars. In-depth research carried out in the French national and military archives and also in the archives of the short-lived kingdom of Holland as in the Dutch archives, has made it possible to identify nearly 2,000 Jewish soldiers engaged in the armies of the Napoleonic Empire. This is the widest research ever carried out on the subject. This even pointed out the existence of an Israelite Corps composed solely of Jewish soldiers. Although not exhaustive, this exclusive work underlines the strong military involvement of the Jews, in France as in the rest of the Empire, including Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and other countries.