Cut Star of David Patch & Other Items From Supposed Vet Estate
Article about: Hi guys! My friend who buys and sells guns called me today and told me an estate he was working on today had a couple of TR items and asked if I was interested. I drove over to the daughters
So Carl, is there any explanation for the Jude star to be found sewn to the KZ uniform material? It is my understanding, that the Yellow Jude/Juif/Jood/etc stars were for "home" use to identify a Jewish resident on the street from that of a Non-Jewish one. Once in the KZ system, all the images that i can locate show inmates with colored triangles sewn together to identify their reason for being there and so forth.
In my opinion, the star looks genuine, but it is confusing to see it on Camp cloth? Were there any camps in the system that utilized the solid yellow Jude stars? It would hardly seem practical, as they would give no information other than the person being Jewish-which was pretty much assumed, since they were there to begin with. Shouldn't there also be a prisoner number beneath it? Although, as close cut as it is, there well may have been a number strip that is no longer with it.
Hi William,
I too am yet to find an image with a plain solid yellow star present on a Konzentrationslager inmates uniform. The thread I linked earlier related to prisoner identification insignia shows the variations and none are a solid yellow star.
TrondK,
In the latter stages of the war, concentration camp uniforms and insignia were indeed in very short supply. However, the general method used to deal with this issue was to simply paint a large visible marking onto the inmate's civilian clothing, rather than adapt a new form of insignia.
That image from the surviving Erkennungdienst (identification records department) collection was taken prior to the prisoner number and nationality indicator - in this case 6831, being added to the star. Some of the Jewish arrivals at Auschwitz were identified in such a manner, as shown in the attachments below. The main series of numbers for women, which was introduced during spring 1942, initially included Jewish prisoners and ran from 1-90,000. From May 1944 however, further specific series were added to identify Jewish inmates by a prefixed letter, eg - "A" series 1-30,000 for Jewish women. The Erkennungsdienst was led by SS-Hauptscharführer Bernhard Walter and SS-Oberscharführer Hans Hoffman, although the photographs themselves were not taken by members of the camp SS staff. The thread below addresses this department in more detail:
Another point to consider concerns the acceptance of researchers that prisoners within concentration camps did not wear striped uniforms until 1936...and it was in fact only prior to 1936 that Jewish inmates wore large plain yellow stars.
Is it possible that these 2 pieces are both original and were put together by the GI that liberated them for whatever reason?
I feel rather strongly that they were souvenirs brought back by the GI. Obviously this is just my opinion from meeting his family face to face. His family did not discover this item as well as the other 2 posted until after his death and had never seen them before that. This could have just been a line but from their genuine unwillingness to have this item in their possession I believe them.
Is it possible that these 2 pieces are both original and were put together by the GI that liberated them for whatever reason?
I feel rather strongly that they were souvenirs brought back by the GI. Obviously this is just my opinion from meeting his family face to face. His family did not discover this item as well as the other 2 posted until after his death and had never seen them before that. This could have just been a line but from their genuine unwillingness to have this item in their possession I believe them.
If proven genuine by a fabric expert then yes, it is possible as the star resembles those seen on ghetto staff such as electrical unit workers or postal delivery staff...but the fragment of "KZ cloth" begs a totally different question...especially as most were destroyed due to the high risk of disease.
Is it possible that these 2 pieces are both original and were put together by the GI that liberated them for whatever reason?
I wrote this in an earlier post, but i deleted that part. So then we are both thinking the same thing.
I wrote earlier, maybe he got a loose star, and attached the star to a clean piece of cloth because all the prisoner clothes were very dirty and also because of the contamination risk diareah etc.
by Wagriff
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