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Sports medal awarded to a young female Polish Jewish athlete during the 1935 Maccabi Games

Object | Accession Number: 2008.327.2
2008.327.2 back Sports medal awarded to a young female Polish Jewish athlete during the 1935 Maccabi Games Click to enlarge 2008.327.2 front Sports medal awarded to a young female Polish Jewish athlete during the 1935 Maccabi Games Click to enlarge

Medal awarded to 16 year-old Liza (Leah) Grochowska in the Maccabi Games in 1935. She competed in basketball and track and field. She and her family lived in Bialystok, Poland. Her older brother Alexander emigrated to Palestine in 1935, and Liza joined him there in 1938. Her parents, Joseph and Lova, and her younger sister, Chaya, were deported in 1943 to Auschwitz concentration camp where they perished. In 1947, Leah emigrated to the United States.

Date
1935  (commemoration)
1938  (emigration)
Geography
received : Poland
Language
Hebrew
Classification
Awards
Category
Medals
Object Type
Sports--Medals (lcsh)
Credit Line
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Leah Gutman
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About This Object

Physical Description
Shield-shaped, silver-colored metal medal. The front border is engraved with a Star of David and Hebrew text and numbers. Attached at the top is a 4 link chain; within the links is a flower with a small silver bead in each center. The reverse has engraved Hebrew text in the corners.
Dimensions
overall : 1.620 x 1.500 in. (4.115 x 3.81 cm.)
Materials
overall : metal
Inscription
front center, engraved : Hebrew characters forming stylized Star of David / 2 lines of Hebrew / 7 – 9 / VI / 1935
back center, engraved : 5 lines of Hebrew
Contributor
Subject: Leah Gutman
Biography
Liza (Leah) Grochowska (Grochovsky) was born in Białystok, Poland. She had an older brother, Alexander (Sasha), born in 1915, who immigrated to Palestine in 1935. Leah joined him there on December 9, 1938. She participated in the Maccabi Games in basketball, and the track and field events and later became a coach and instructor for Hapoel. Her parents, Joseph, born in 1893, and Lova Yevnin, born in 1895, and her younger sister, Chaya, born in 1921, were imprisoned in a ghetto and then deported in 1943 to Auschwitz concentration camp where they perished. In 1947, Leah immigrated to the United States. She married Arnold Gutman and they had two children. She passed away, age 92, on January 7, 2012, in Illinois.

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
The sports medallion was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008 by Leah Grochowska Gutman.

Rights and Restrictions

Conditions on Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use
No restrictions on use
 
Record last modified: 2018-01-11 14:21:46
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn37285