Bidspirit auction | Yellow Badge Worn by a

Yellow Badge Worn by a Jew in Tunisia, Early 1940s - Yellow Badge Worn by a Jew in Tunisia During the Holocaust. Tunisia, Early 1940s. Extremely Rare. Due to Bidspirit policy, this item cannot be sold on this platform. To submit a bid, click  here The yellow badge was introduced in Tunisia during the German occupation, which lasted from November 1942 until May 1943 – a brief but harsh period during which the Jews of Tunisia were subjected to Nazi persecution, including the confiscation of property, the taking of hostages, heavy fines, and the conscription of thousands of men for forced labor. The German apparatus of persecution was headed by SS officer Walter Rauff, one of those responsible for the development of the gas vans used for mass murder in Eastern Europe. On December 6, 1942, Rauff summoned the leaders of the Jewish community in Tunis and demanded that they provide thousands of Jews within a short period for forced labor on behalf of the German army. As part of his orders, the Jewish laborers were required to wear a yellow identifying badge on their clothing. In his diary, Rauff explicitly recorded his order that the Jews assigned to the labor force be marked with a yellow badge, intended, among other purposes, to enable their immediate identification and facilitate supervision. In practice, this requirement was fully enforced in two cities: Sfax – a major Tunisian city, where 100 Jewish laborers were permanently required to unload military vehicles and construct shelters – and, to a lesser extent, Tunis. In other cities enforcement was less stringent. This accounts for the extreme rarity of Tunisian yellow badges. The requirement to wear a Jewish identifying mark is documented among forced laborers and in several communities outside the capital. A contemporary testimony from Kairouan in April 1943 describes the leader of the Jewish community as still wearing a yellow Star of David and states that the Germans had forced the city’s Jews to wear it; upon the arrival of the British army, they were informed that they were no longer required to bear the badge. The Tunisian yellow badge is an exceptional manifestation of the extension to North Africa of the mechanisms of identification and humiliation developed by the Nazis in Europe. Its function was not merely symbolic: the visible marking separated the Jew from the surrounding population, enabled immediate identification, and linked him to the system of surveillance and forced labor established by the Germans during their brief rule in Tunisia. It is reasonable to assume that had the German army remained in Tunisia, the situation of the Jews would have deteriorated further. By this stage, however, the German forces consisted of isolated and weakened troops, marked by declining discipline and confidence, surrounded by the Allies on all sides with no possibility of retreat, and devoting their remaining strength to survival. On Friday, May 7, 1943, the Allies liberated Tunis from German occupation. Six days later, the Tunisian campaign came to an end. In 1945, a wave of immigration to Eretz Israel began, initially through illegal immigration and, following the establishment of the State of Israel, through legal immigration organized by the Jewish Agency and Youth Aliyah. n 2015, the diary of SS officer Walter Rauff, who was responsible for the order to mark Jews in Tunisia with a yellow badge, was revealed. Rauff explicitly recorded: “I gave the order to mark them with a yellow badge.” See here . See also the article on our website here . Sewn fabric piece, 9 × 6.5 cm. Stains. Good condition.