Jewish Brigade Group embroidered shoulder title patch worn by a Brigade soldier

Shoulder title patch worn by Leo Englard when he served as a soldier in the Jewish Brigade Group during World War II. The British Army established the group in September 1944. It included more than 5000 Jewish volunteers living in Palestine and was the only independent, national Jewish unit to serve in WWII. The unit served in combat during the final battles for the liberation of Italy. The British dissolved the Brigade in the summer of 1946. Leo remained in Palestine and married Fanny Dominitz, a German Jewish Holocaust survivor who emigrated to Palestine in 1947. The couple had known each other in Germany and had corresponded throughout the war.