Star of David badge printed Juif worn by a Jew in France

Star of David badge given to Dr. Witek Sierpinski after June 1942 by a Jewish friend who had worn it in France. After the German occupation of Poland in 1939, Witek worked in a psychiatric hospital in Lvov, Poland (Lʹviv, Ukraine). In November 1941, he moved to the Warsaw ghetto and joined the Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdrowia Ludnosci Zydowskiej w Polsce (TOZ), a ghetto health organization that helped the sick and starving. A former co-worker got him out of the ghetto. By 1942, he was active in various Polish resistance groups, particularly the Armia Ludowa [People’s Guard] (AL). He recruited medical professionals, trained aides, and provided care to AL fighters. In 1944, Witek illegally shared a room where he hid weapons and illegal literature, with Wiera Baksztanska, a Polish Jew living under a false identity. He returned to Warsaw which was liberated by the Soviets on January 17, 1945. Witek reunited with Wiera and the couple married.