us-005578-irn68613-irn370
type: RecordSet
archival history: The medal was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by Rose (Raszka) Galek Brunswic.
biographical history: Raszka Galek was born on November 24, 1920, in Sochocin, Poland, to Moshe and Fela (Zipora) Perznianko Galek. She had three sisters: Hinda, Deana (Dina), and Sala (Sara). Her father Moshe was born December 19, 1883, in Sochocin, to Yaakov and Zelda Mottel Galek. He had three sisters and three brothers. Moshe owned a mother of pearl button factory with 100 employees. Raszka’s mother Fela was born May 12, 1892, in Zakroczym, to Yehoshua, a lawyer, and Basha Perznianko. She had one brother, Tolek, who went to Russia before World War I. Fela was a hat designer in Warsaw until she married Moshe. The family was prosperous and employed several maids and a nanny. They lived with Raszka’s paternal grandmother, who ran a general store and bakery. Around 1930, Raszka’s maternal grandmother Basha moved in with them after her husband died. Raszka and her sisters attended a Polish school, where she learned German and English. She studied Hebrew twice a week. Circa 1934, the family moved to Warsaw so the children could receive a better education. Raszka’s sister Hinda married in 1938 and left for Palestine in early 1939. Made anxious by the rising antisemitism, Moshe wanted to use bribery to get to Italy and then Palestine. Fela did not want to start over, so Moshe decided they would stay. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Warsaw was heavily bombed and German troops occupied the city on September 29. Moshe evenly divided the family’s possessions, such as jewelry and American gold coins, and said that they should all save themselves. In December, the family was required to wear Star of David armbands. In November 1940, the Galek family had to move into the newly formed Jewish ghetto, to an apartment crowded with many other families. There was very little food and no electricity or heat. Raszka briefly worked with the Judenrat in food distribution. In April 1943, the Germans lined up the Jews for a selection. Moshe and Fela, emaciated and weak, were shot in front of thei…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Thin, flat, circular medal made of silver-colored metal. The front features a stamped religious image of the Virgin Hodegetria. Mary is shown from the waist up and facing forward, holding the baby Christ with her left arm, gesturing to him with her right hand. Christ, wearing a mantle, is lifting his right hand up towards her, holding a book in his left hand. Both figures are wearing multi-point crowns on their heads, each flanked with angels on either side. Behind the angels and crowns, each figure also has a circular halo. A semicircle of 12 raised dots surrounds the halos. Underneath the crown, Mary is wearing a hooded mantle decorated with stars over a dress. Around her neck is a chain with a cross pendant. To the left and right of the image is raised Polish text, curving to follow the perimeter of the medal. The back is flat, with Polish text engraved in the surface. The text curves around the perimeter of the medal, with four lines of text and a date range in the center. At the top of the medal is a small tab with a broken edge. The raised portions of the image show significant wear and damage, and the overall image is heavily tarnished.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1943 June
has beginning date: 1932-01-01
has end date: 1932-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: pol
has or had subject: 204
has or had subject: 1106
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn370
is or was included in: us-005578-irn68613
record resource extent: overall: | Diameter: 0.750 inches (1.905 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Religious medal of Our Lady of Częstochowa (also known as the Black Madonna of Częstochowa or Matka Boska Częstochowska), given to Raszka (Rose) Galek in June 1943 by Jan Majewski to help her hide as a Catholic. The medal was made in 1932, and modeled after a revered painting of the Virgin Mary and the baby Christ at the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa, Poland. The medal commemorated the 550th anniversary of the painting’s donation to the church. In November 1940, Raszka, her parents, Moshe and Fela, and her sisters Deana and Sala were confined to the Warsaw ghetto. In April 1943, Raszka’s parents were shot and her sisters were deported to a concentration camp. Raszka later escaped and went into hiding. She received false identity papers for a Polish Catholic named Maria Kowalczyk from the Polish underground. Jan Majewski, a resistance member, hid Raszka in his refugee camp for displaced Polish people, and gave her the medal when she left the camp. The medal had belonged to Jan’s brother, a Catholic priest who was killed in Auschwitz. In June, she was sent to a farm in Krummhardt, Germany for forced labor. Raszka was liberated by US forces in April 1945 and moved to Stuttgart displaced persons (DP) camp. She began working as a liaison between DP camps and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. She met and married Kurt Braunschweig, a UNRRA employee, and immigrated to the United States in 1947.
title: Our Lady of Czestochowa medal given to a Polish Jewish woman hiding as a Catholic laborer