In Havdalah and the Grand Tattoo, Gronemann applied his acute observational skills and talent for narrative to set down his recollections from the Eastern Front during World War I. He had served in the press bureau in Kowno and Vilna, where he also began his friendship with Arnold Zweig. The book was a bestseller, filled with entertaining anecdotes, and contributed to a reappraisal of Eastern European Jewry.