overall: Height: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm) | Width: 1.440 inches (3.658 cm)
No restrictions on access
World War I medal awarded to Alfred Levy for his service in the German Army during the First World War (1914-1918). Alfred, a judge, his wife Marie, and their children Marie-Louise and Theo moved from the Saar region when it voted to reunify with Germany in 1935. They resettled in Luxembourg which was occupied by Germany in May 1940. Restrictions were placed on the Jewish population to segregate them from other citizens and Marie-Louise, 15, had to leave school. In December 1940, the family was deported to Vichy France, and escaped the internment camps to live in Villefranche-de-Rouergue. In November 1942, after Germany occupied Vichy, a neighbor informed upon the Levy family. In 1943, Alfred was notified by the French resistance that he was in danger of arrest. He went into hiding, and was arrested while visiting his family, and then released with the help of a French police office. The entire family went into hiding until the region was liberated in fall 1944. In 1946, they returned to Saar.
Iron Cross shaped bronze colored medal engraved with a wreath with the dates 1914 and 1918 within the wreath. There are also two swords incorporated into the design. The verso has the initials “W.R” engraved at the base of the cross. The cross has a small loop at the top connecting to a larger loop. The dates 1914 and 1918 are engraved within a wreath on the recto. The verso has the initials “W.R” engraved at the base of the cross.
The medal was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015 by Marlyse Levy Kennedy, the daughter of Alfred and Meta Mayer Levy.
World War I medal awarded to a Jewish German veteran