Pewter medal with a red cross and caduceus, certificate and box awarded to a Polish midwife for postwar service 2005.260.2_a-b closed

Medal for excellent health care practice, with certficate and presentation box awarded to Anna Toronczyk in 1964 by the government of Poland for her exemplary service as a midwife. Anna was living in Lodz, Poland, when Germany invaded in September 1939. She worked as a midwife in the hospital in the Jewish ghetto until September 1940, when she escaped to the Soviet Union. Her twin sister, Roza Herszenberg, assumed her position in the hospital. Anna was in the Soviet Union until 1946-47, when she was repatriated and able to return to Lodz to be with her family. Roza, her husband Calel, and daughter Salomea escaped the destruction of the ghetto by the Germans in spring 1944 by going into hiding, then obtaining jobs on the crew assigned to stay behind to salvage materials. Following the cleanup, they hid until the city was liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945.

Medal for excellent health care practice, with certficate and presentation box awarded to Anna Toronczyk in 1964 by the government of Poland for her exemplary service as a midwife. Anna was living in Lodz, Poland, when Germany invaded in September 1939. She worked as a midwife in the hospital in the Jewish ghetto until September 1940, when she escaped to the Soviet Union. Her twin sister, Roza Herszenberg, assumed her position in the hospital. Anna was in the Soviet Union until 1946-47, when she was repatriated and able to return to Lodz to be with her family. Roza, her husband Calel, and daughter Salomea escaped the destruction of the ghetto by the Germans in spring 1944 by going into hiding, then obtaining jobs on the crew assigned to stay behind to salvage materials. Following the cleanup, they hid until the city was liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945.