Edward Lessing describes wearing the compulsory Jewish badge.
Edward was born to a Jewish family in The Hague. In 1929, the family moved to the United States. Because his father had difficulty finding employment, Edward and his family returned to the Netherlands in 1932. They were living in the town of Delft and running a small clothing store when war broke out. Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. Anti-Jewish decrees were instituted, increasing in severity to the point that Jews could no longer own businesses and were forced to wear a yellow badge after May 3, 1942. When deportations of Jews in the Netherlands began, Edward and his family went into hiding. Edward posed as a non-Jew until the end of the war.
Item ViewFlory (Floritza) Jagoda describes anti-Jewish measures following the occupation of Zagreb
Flory was born into a Sephardic Jewish family. When Flory was a young girl, her mother moved to Zagreb with Flory's stepfather; Flory joined them after living with her grandmother for two years. In Zagreb, Flory took music lessons and learned how to play the accordion. Germany and its allies invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, partitioning the country and establishing a fascist regime under the Ustase (pro-German Croatian nationalists) in Croatia. The Ustasa regime soon imposed anti-Jewish regulations in Zagreb; Flory was no longer allowed to attend school, and Jews were forced to wear a badge identifying them as Jews. Flory's family fled Zagreb, finding refuge in Italian-occupied areas and later in the south of mainland Italy. The Allies invaded Italy in 1943. After the Italian cease-fire in September 1943, Flory got a job with American forces in Bari, in southeastern Italy. In June 1945, after the war, Flory married an American sergeant, Harry Jagoda. They settled in the United States.
Item ViewJerry von Halle describes restrictions on Jews in Amsterdam
In 1933 Jerry's family moved from Hamburg to Amsterdam. The Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940. In 1941, Jerry's brother perished in Mauthausen. Jerry and his parents went into hiding first in Amsterdam and then in a farmhouse in the south. The Gestapo (German Secret State Police) arrested Jerry's father in 1942, but Jerry and his mother managed to return to their first hiding place. They were liberated in Amsterdam by Canadian and Jewish Brigade troops.
Item ViewGerman Jewish adults and children wearing compulsory Jewish badges
German Jewish adults and children wearing compulsory Jewish badges are lined up against a building. Weser, Germany, 1941–43.
Item ViewElsa Eisner wearing the compulsory Jewish badge in Prague
Elsa Eisner, marked with a Jewish badge, walks down a street in Prague. She, her mother, twin sister and other members of the family were deported to Auschwitz in July 1942. Prague, Czechoslovakia, ca. 1941.
Item ViewAn elderly Jewish woman wearing the compulsory Jewish badge
Portrait of an elderly Jewish woman wearing a Jewish badge in the Olkusz ghetto. Olkusz , Poland, 1941.
Item ViewThe Margules children wearing Jewish badges
The Margules children wearing Jewish badges. Originally from Warsaw, the Margules family settled in Paris in the 1930s. Three of the children were deported and killed in 1942. Only one daughter (pictured at the bottom right) survived the war. Paris, France, 1941.
Item ViewJewish woman wearing the compulsory Jewish badge in Paris
In the Jewish quarter of Paris, a Jewish woman wearing the compulsory Jewish badge stands at the entrance to a kosher butcher shop. France, between May 1942 and 1944.
Item ViewNorbert Yasharoff wearing the compulsory star of David
Norbert Yasharoff, a Bulgarian Jew, wearing the compulsory star of David. His young sister was not then required to wear a star. Pleven, Bulgaria, between May and September 1943.
Item ViewA child wears the compulsory Jewish badge
A child wears the compulsory Jewish badge. The "Z" stands for the word "Jew" (Zidov) in Croatian. Yugoslavia, ca. 1941.
Item ViewA Jewish child wears the compulsory Jewish badge
A Jewish child wears the compulsory Star of David badge with the letter "Z" for Zidov, the Croatian word for Jew. Yugoslavia, ca. 1941.
Item ViewCompulsory Jewish badge in Greece
Joseph Levi, a pharmacist and the head of the Jewish community of Komotine, wearing the compulsory Jewish badge. Bulgarian occupation authorities later deported him to the Treblinka killing center. Komotine, Greece, 1942.
Item View
![Portrait of the Weidenfeld family wearing Jewish badges in the Czernowitz (Cernauti) ghetto shortly before their deportation to Transnistria. [LCID: 30087]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/315f3216-df2c-4856-a75c-c55ce3181d29.jpg.pagespeed.ce._Ke_AHmVfl.jpg)