Menia Awret-Back collection

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• irn41796
• English
• 1940-1945
• a: Height: 4.000 inches (10.16 cm) | Width: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) | Depth: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm) b: Height: 4.250 inches (10.795 cm) | Width: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm) | Depth: 0.500 inches (1.27 cm) c: Height: 4.125 inches (10.477 cm) | Width: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm) | Depth: 0.625 inches (1.588 cm)
• Updated 7 months ago

Belgian Red Cross medal 2nd class with ribbon and presentation box awarded to Menia Awret-Back in recognition of her work as a nurse for Jewish refugee children in Brussels, Belgium, during the war. Belgium was occupied by Germany in May 1940. Restrictions were placed on Jews to exclude them from society. Jewish children and expectant mothers were not allowed to be treated in existing facilities. Menia, as a Jewish nurse, had to wear an armband with a blue cross in place of the usual red cross. Since 1938, Menia had worked for L'Ouevre Nationale de L'Enfance [National Children's Aid] and th...

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• irn44136
• English
• 1940-1945
• overall: Height: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) | Width: 6.125 inches (15.558 cm)
• Updated 7 months ago

Blue cross armband worn by Menia Awret-Back, while working as a nurse for Jewish refugee children during the war in Brussels. Belgium was occupied by Germany in May 1940. Restrictions were placed on Jews to exclude them from society. Jewish children and expectant mothers were not allowed to be treated in existing facilities. Menia, as a Jewish nurse, had to wear an armband with a blue cross in place of the usual red cross. Since 1938, Menia had worked for L'Ouevre Nationale de L'Enfance [National Children's Aid] and the Belgium Red Cross, which now established and staffed special treatment ...

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• irn519009
• English
• 1930-1949
• folder 1
• Updated 7 months ago

Consists of official documents, correspondence, identity cards, and photographs related to Menia Awret-Back's work as a baby nurse in wartime Brussels, Belgium. Mrs. Awret-Back, who was Jewish, was saved from deportation at the behest of the various charitable agencies for which she worked. Includes her identity paperwork as a nurse, a Red Cross armband with a blue cross (as she was Jewish), photographs of the children in the orphanage in which she worked, and copies of the correspondence asking for her continued freedom. Also includes wartime letters to her husband, Isaac Back, who was int...