Medal Issued to Commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
caption:
The reverse of the medal has a picture of a wall from the Ghetto on the lower half of the medal. Embedded in the wall are the letters ZOB, the initials of the Polish name for the Jewish Fighting Organization, and the dates “1943” and “1983”. Rising out of the wall is a rifle with two flags flying from the top. These flags represent the Jewish Flag and the Polish flag that the Ghetto Fighters flew from the top of the Ghetto as the Nazis were attacking the Ghetto. The Germans viewed the flying of these flags as a major affront to them and sacrificed many soldiers in having them removed.
Identifer: CJF-RFC2015066
Medium
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Description
This medal was issued in bronze and is 70 mm in diameter.
The obverse of the medal is modeled after the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw, Poland. The sculptor of the Monument was Natan Rappaport and the architect Marek Suzin. The bronze sculpture was cast in Paris. In great irony, the large memorial surrounding the sculpture is made of blocks of labradorite, a stone the Nazis ordered from Sweden in 1942 to construct a victory monument. The Monument was unveiled on April 19, 1948, the 5th anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising. A copy of this monument was erected at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 1975-6.
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