In what turned out to be one of the deadliest military confrontations in human history, Jews fared badly on all sides. Rumors abounded that Jews were shirking their military duty and failed to enlist in the army or, failing to evade the unavoidable, Jews were thought to have found countless ways to stay away from the front. The German army conducted a so-called ?Jewish Census?, ostensibly to quell such rumors. But when it became clear that Jews were practically overrepresented in the army, the authorities suppressed these findings.