us-005578-irn65252-irn4057
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Yellow-gold cloth rectangle printed with a 6 point Star of David. The star is formed from two overlapping dyed outlined triangles with the French word Juif printed in the center in a pseudo Jewish font. The cloth has unfinished edges, where it was cut from a larger piece of cloth. The badge would be cut out from the rectangle for use.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1944 August-1944 September
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: fra
has record set type: Item
history: Judah Nadich was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 13, 1912. He was the oldest of four children of Isaac and Lena Nathanson Nadich, who had emigrated from Russia in the early 1900s. Isaac owned a neighborhood grocery store and was a socialist and member of the Workmen's Circle. Nadich's mother Lena died in 1919, and he was raised by his stepmother Nettie Gifter Nadich, an immigrant from Lithuania. Nadich was awarded a scholarship to study at the Yeshiva high school in New York City, and he then attended Yeshiva College, City College of New York, and Johns Hopkins University. Upon completion of his undergraduate studies, he enrolled in the rabbinical school of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and in a master's program in history at Columbia University. In 1936, he received his rabbinical ordination and his masters degree, and later earned a doctorate in Hebrew literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Between 1936 and early 1942, Rabbi Nadich served as a rabbi at Conservative synagogues in Buffalo, New York, and Chicago, Illinois. Shortly after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Nadich enlisted in the US Army as a chaplain. At the end of summer 1942, he was sent to Great Britain as the first Jewish chaplain in the European Theater of Operations. For the next two years, he was stationed in Northern Ireland and England. He was responsible for serving the religious needs of Jewish soldiers and officers and for training and assigning duties to new Jewish chaplains as they arrived in the United Kingdom. In 1944, Nadich was sent to France, where he was put in charge of procurement for all religious purposes. When Allies Forces marched into liberated Paris at the end of August, Nadich followed close behind. He sought out the Jewish community, driving his jeep with his Jewish chaplain's insignia, and a crowd soon gathered. Most had survived the war in hiding and he was the survivors' first contact with the outside Jewish world. They …
history: The Star of David badge was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by Rabbi Judah Nadich.
identifier: irn4057
is or was included in: us-005578-irn65252
record resource extent: overall: Height: 4.500 inches (11.43 cm) | Width: 4.125 inches (10.478 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Cloth rectangle with a Star of David badge imprinted Juif given to Rabbi Judah Nadich in Paris after liberation. Seeking out surviving members of the Jewish community, Nadich drove his jeep with his Jewish chaplain's insignia into the prewar Jewish neighborhood and soon a crowd gathered. Most had survived the war in hiding and Nadich was their first contact with the outside Jewish world. They gave him a batch of the yellow star badges that Jews in France had been forced to wear as a mark of humiliation from March 27, 1942. See 1988.39.1-3, 1990.54.2-4, and 1994.a.0250.2 for 7 other badges he received. Nadich, a Jewish chaplain in the US Army from 1942-1946, arrived in Paris just after liberation on August 24, 1944. In August 1945, Lt. Colonel Nadich, Senior Jewish Chaplain, European Theater, was stationed at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces, as the first Advisor on Jewish Affairs to General Eisenhower. He was assigned to investigate conditions of Jewish refugees at displaced persons camps in the American occupation zone. Nadich found conditions horrifying with severe overcrowding, insufficient food, and barbed wire enclosed camps that residents were not permitted to leave. In addition to improvements in conditions, Nadich convinced Eisenhower to reconsider the Allied policy of sending refugees back to their native countries, explaining how unthinkable that was for survivors whose entire families had been murdered in those homelands.
title: Unused Star of David badge with Juif acquired by a Jewish chaplain, US Army