Medal for service as a Yugoslav partisan fighter

Object | Accession Number: 1990.118.16

1990.118.16 back
Medal for service as a Yugoslav partisan fighter

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Classification: Military Insignia
Category: Medals
Object Type: Medals, Slovenian (lcsh)
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Jewish Community of Giessen

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Dimensions: overall: Height: 1.880 inches (4.775 cm) | Diameter: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm)
Materials: overall : metal, cloth
Contributor: Subject: Jakob Altaras
Biography: Jakob Altaras (1918-2001) was born in Split, Croatia and was the youngest of six sons of Leon Altaras. His medical studies in Zagreb were interrupted by the war, and he joined the Partisan resistance movement in Croatia. He saved Torah portions and other sacred objects from the Split Synagogue when it was set on fire; he smuggled a group of 33 Jewish children from Croatia to safety in Villa Emma near Modena, Italy; he illegally entered the Rab (Arbe) concentration camp to smuggled out photographs which were later used by the Commission for War Crimes in Yugoslavia; and he served as a surgeon in hospitals for Jewish partisans in Bari, Italy. After the war, he completed his medical studies and practiced and taught medicine in Zagreb. Altaras was politically persecuted and forced to leave Croatia in 1964 when he began investigating the 1945 death of his brother Silvio Altaras at the hands of the communist regime of Yugoslavia. He worked in Zurich, Switzerland for two years before settling in Giessen, Germany, where he served as the president of the Jewish Community of Giessen.
Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The medal was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by the Jewish Community in Giessen.
Conditions on Access: No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use: No restrictions on use
: Record last modified: 2023-08-31 14:19:35
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn2549