us-005578-irn49876-irn60747
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Circular offwhite cloth patch, now discolored, with a Star of David embroidered in blue thread on the front; the points touch the blue embroidered border around the edge of the patch. The Hebrew character Mem is embroidered in blue thread in the center of the star. The word Aachen is embroidered vertically in a break in the star embroidery on the left. The cloth edges are folded over and pressed. front, left, vertical, embroidered, blue thread: AACHEN front, center, embroidered, blue thread: מ [m]
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: approximately 1935
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: heb
has record set type: Item
history: Isidore (later Edward) Gross was born on October 31, 1921, in Aachen, Germany, to Markus and Ida Reiter Gross. Markus was born on July 27, 1895, in Kalusz, Poland (Kalush, Ukraine), to Samuel and Esther Ehrlich Gross. Ida was born in approximately 1890 in Nowica, Poland, to Israel Isser Sculiezer and Esther Neuhauser Reiter. Markus left Kalusz in 1912 and married Ida in 1919. In 1920, they joined Ida’s brother Jacob and sister Celia in Aachen, Germany. Jacob Reiter and his wife Toni had moved to Aachen several years before and owned a shoe store as well as a large building in the town center. Celia and her husband Morris Hausman moved to Aachen in 1919 and opened a shoe store. Markus opened a shoe store in the neighboring town of Kohlshied. Markus and Isa had two more children in Aachen: Isidore’s younger sister Lena, was born on January 25, 1924, and a brother, Morris, was born in approximately 1932. The family attended synagogue regularly and Isidore attended a Jewish school. In January 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Jews were persecuted under the Nazi government almost immediately. Isidore’s Aunt Celia died in a hospital in 1933. The family believed she was killed by lethal injection because she was Jewish by a nurse with Nazi sympathies. Isidore was bar mitzvahed on September 22, 1934. He played soccer at the Maccabi sports club, a Jewish organization. In September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws, racial based anti-Jewish laws, were enacted. Celia’s husband Morris and four of their children left for Palestine in 1936. In November 1936, Isidore had to register with the Nazi regime. Shortly after Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, Poland passed a law to invalidate the passports of all Polish Jews who had not been in Poland for five years or more. In September 1938, Markus was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Zbaszyn, a town in Poland near the German border, where he lived in a refugee camp. On October 26-28, 1938, the German government began…
history: The sports club patch was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Judith Gross, the daughter of Edward I. Gross.
identifier: irn60747
is or was included in: us-005578-irn49876
record resource extent: overall: Height: 2.500 inches (6.35 cm) | Width: 2.375 inches (6.033 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: White sleeve badge worn by Isidore (later Edward) Gross as a teenager when he played soccer with the Maccabi Sports Club in Aachen, Germany. He lived with his parents, Markus and Ida, and two younger siblings in Aachen, Germany. His parents had been born in Poland, but had lived in Aachen since 1920. Since the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in1933, Jew were increasingly persecuted in Germany. In fall 1938, Markus was deported back to Poland by the German authorities. Following Kristallnacht on November 9-10. Isidore, age 17, and his maternal uncle Jacob were arrested. Isidore was released because he could prove he was planning to leave Germany. Jacob was sent to Sachenhausen concentration camp where he died in late 1939 or early 1940. Markus was released from Zbaszyn holding camp in Poland once his family got him a US visa. In 1939, Edward and Markus immigrated to New York. Edward’s mother and siblings, Ida, Lena, and Morris, were held in Gruener Weg camp in Aachen but, in 1941, arrived in the US via Portugal. In 1943, Edward was drafted into the US Army. He served with the 703rd Engineer Petroleum Distributing Company in campaigns in North Africa and Italy. Most of the extended Gross and Reiter families in Europe perished in the Holocaust.
title: Maccabi sports club patch with a blue Star of David and Aachen worn by a Jewish youth