Cross of Honor of the German Mother medal, 1st Class, Gold, acquired by a US soldier
- Date
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commemoration:
1938 December 16
found: approximately 1945 April-approximately 1946 March
- Geography
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found:
Germany
manufacture: Pforzheim (Germany)
- Language
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German
- Classification
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Awards
- Category
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Medals
- Object Type
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Medals, German (lcsh)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Estate of the Tick family
Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter [Cross of Honor of the German Mother] medal and presentation box acquired by Sidney Tick, a soldier in the 3rd Battalion, 329th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division. The Mother's Cross was instituted by the Nazi Party in 1938. It was first awarded in 1939 to some 3 million mothers as a propaganda measure to promote National Socialist population policy. Mothers of eight or more children received a gold cross, mothers of six or seven, a silver cross, and three or four, a bronze cross. In spring 1945, Sidney was deployed to the Europe to join the 83rd Division as it advanced through western Germany. In April, the Division liberated subcamps of Buchenwald concentration camp. Because Sidney spoke Yiddish, he was selected to work as a translator with the former prisoners of Buchenwald and its subcamps, as well as liberated prisoners from Dachau.
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Record last modified: 2020-06-30 09:25:19
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn521602
Also in This Collection
Tick family papers
Document
The papers consist of photographs of Dachau concentration camp taken from May to June 1945; a pamphlet entitled, "Buchenwald Concentration Camp: A Letter Home," written and published by Col. F.M.S. Miller of the 15th U.S. Army in May 1945; and a typed letter with envelope written to Joseph Tick in Scranton, Pa., by Louis Wilkowitz in Brooklyn, N.Y., expressing gratitude to Mr. Tick for his assistance in locating Mr. Wilkowitz's surviving brother in Germany.