Dog tag identification issued to a Jewish medical officer, 2nd Polish Corps

Dog tag identification issued to a Jewish medical officer, 2nd Polish Corps 

Dog tag identification issued to a Jewish medical officer, 2nd Polish Corps 

overall: Height: 1.125 inches (2.858 cm) | Width: 1.375 inches (3.493 cm) 

Dog tag with his name, birth date and place, and blood type issued to Dr. Edmund Lusthaus, a medical officer in the 2nd Polish Corps, a unit of the British Armed Forces during World War II. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and seventeen days later, the Soviet Army invaded from the east. Lusthaus was captured and taken to a camp for Polish prisoners of war in Novosibirsk, Siberia, where he served as a physician. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Polish POWs were released to join the fighting. Lusthaus joined the volunteer Polish Army of the East, known as Anders Army. In August 1942, the unit left Soviet territory and became the 2nd Polish Corps, British Army. The unit trained in the Middle East and fought against German forces in Tobruk in North Africa. In February 1944, they deployed to join the British 8th Army in the Italian Campaign. The Corps fought its way north and was honored for bravery in the May 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino. The unit was in Italy on May 7, 1945, when the war ended. When Edmund learned that his wife Helena and 7 year old daughter Elzbieta had survived and were in a displaced persons camp in Germany, he arranged to have them brought to Italy circa September 1945. Helena and Elzbieta had lived in hiding in Poland under false identities as Catholics. In December 1946, the family emigrated to England.