Warsaw Ghetto Unit Portraits

[Philippe]

I've just made a few changes to my Warsaw Ghetto Semiotics mod. I've added five unit portraits to replace the early period Russian partisans, and have included an alternative to the Irgun flag.

This mod is provisional, and I may use a different approach to the portraits later on.

[hoolaman]

Hi Philippe,

Might I suggest putting a yellow star patch and some identity papers in the background?

This was the "national symbol" that defined the Jews of Europe at the time, and seems more appropriate than the flag.

[Philippe]

Actually I wasn't trying to use a national identifier. The rationale behind the background flags is that I use national war flags. So the Germans get the Reichskriegflagge, and the Finns, if I ever get around to them, will have the blue and white flag with the lion in the coat of arms, and so on.

After my fourth re-reading of the Warsaw Ghetto section of Poland at the Flags of the World website, I came to the conclusion that I had to use one of two flags: the flag of the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa-ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization), or the flag of the Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy-ZZW (Jewish Military Union), aka the Irgun.

I already used the ZZW flag as the flag for victory locations, and I thought a more inclusive flag would be appropriate. The ZZW seem to have been in the minority in any case. There is some doubt that the flag shown on the FOTW website for the ZOB is actually correct, but my admittedly imperfect understanding is that what I have used (which eventually became the flag for the state of Israel) was also used by the ZOB. If it turns out that the FOTW ZOB flag is correct, I can make the change very quickly.

[Philippe]

The relevant passage that I am relying on from FOTW is as follows:

quote

During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April-May, 1943, The ZOB (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa or Jewish Fighting Organization or Yidische Kampf Organizatzion) led by Mordechaj Anielewicz and composed of members of leftist and ultra leftist youth organizations:

Dror He-Halutz (= Freedom - The Pioneer, unites two youth movements) - (5 fighting units),

Ha-Shomer ha-tzair (= The Young Guard - Still exists today in Israel as the youth movement of MAPAM (United Workers Party) which is part of Meretz Party) - (4 units),

Bund (socialists) (4 units),

PPR (Polish Workers Party - communists) - (4 units),

Gordonia (Named after A.D Gordon, the main spiritual leader of the labour movement) - (1 unit),

Akiva (Bnei-Aqiva, a religious youth movement. Still exists today in Israel as the youth movement of MAFDAL (National Religious Party) - (1 unit),

Ha-No'ar ha-Ziyoni (= The Zionist Youth) - (1 unit) and

Po'alei Zion smol (Zion Workers - Left (split from Zion Workers) - (1 unit)

hoisted the Zionist flag (now Israeli flag) alongside Polish white and red flag over the bunker at 18 Mila Street, at least during the first few days of the Uprising. The other group of heroic fighters, not associated with the ZOB for ideological reasons,but allied with them just prior to Uprising, was 250 fighters strong unit of ZZW (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy or Jewish Military Union) also known as Irgun (Irgun or Irgun Zva'ei Leumi (National Military Organization) was the military wing of the Revisionist Zionist Federation. BETAR (Brit Yosef Trumpeldor) was its youth movement, still exists today in Israel as the youth movement of Kherut movement, part of the Likud Party.whose members where associated primarily with Betar, right-wing, revisionist Zionist organization. That group was led by former Polish Army officer Pawel Frenkel and cultivated excellent relation with Polish Home Army and the Delegation of Polish Government in exile in London.They distinguished themselves with unbelievable courage while fighting from their compound on Muranowska Street, from which they were flying the double bi-colors: white over light blue and white over red. Those flags were clearly visible from the "aryan" side over the walls and stayed up well into the second week of the Uprising.

unquote

As an aside, I used a photograph of Mordechai Anielewicz for the face of the battalion commander. My source was black and white, but the photograph had clearly been repainted.

[junk2drive]

Nice job, nice post.

[Jack Carr]

This is a great mod. Good idea. Thanks

[Michael Dorosh]

I had a section on my Tommy site devoted to the Jewish Brigade that fought as part of the British Army, it seems to me they also used a white and blue unit patch looking very similar to that flag shown here.

Link

This site was abandoned by me a long time ago but apparently it is still being retained on the freeserver.