Figure 1.-- Here we see Jewish children playing in an unidentified ghetto in Polanhd, probably during 1941. Once in the ghettos, schooling was not allowed so there was nothing for the younger children to do. We only see one boy clearly wearing a star of David badge. It is sewed on the back of his jacket. Probably there is another badge on his front. But two others boys seem to have less destinctive badges. The other boys do not seem to have badges, although it is not real clear. These boys look to be about 5-10 years old.

There was no general NAZI ordinance about wearing Jewish badges. SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich promoted the idea. The introduction of the badges was done by local NAZI authorities first in Poland (November 1939). As a result the regulations varied. All adults had to wear them once the regulations were issued in each jurisduction. Often young children were exempted, but by age 10 years old they were required in most jurisduictions. We see much younger children wearing them. This might have been mandatory. But we commonly see images where some of the younger children were wearing the badges and some were not. We suspect that for very young children the regulations were often not strictly enforced even where required. Some parents may have sewed them on to avoid possible confrontastions with authorities. We suspect that once inside the ghettoes, authorities were not all thast concerned with the younger children. We see images of school children wearing these badges, but this was no common because in most instances Jewish children were expelled from the public schools are rounded up before the badges were mabdated. More commonly we see the badges in Jewish schools which were allowed in some areas befoire the killing began. In most ghettoes schooling was prohibited. We have not found a detailed assessment of children and the badges. Vichy North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) was a special case. Vichy quickly passed anti-Semetic laws and those applied to French North Africa. The sitution there was different than in Europe. There were no roundups, ghettoes and transports. There were work camps. The Allies linrated North Africa before the Gernans could arrange transports.A reader tells us that the children in Tunisia had to wear the Jewish badges. [Shaked] We think the same was true in Morocco and Tunisia as well.

Sources

Shaked, Edith. E-Msail message, April 28, 2018.

Created: 3:17 AM 4/28/2018
Last updated: 9:30 AM 4/28/2018