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Auschwitz Cross (Krzyż Oświęcimski) awarded to a Serbian political prisoner who spent 4 years in Auschwitz. PRL version along with the original box and the awarding document.

It looks absolutely astonishing! I'm very glad that these orders are once again together in your home.

Thanks for showing us your display!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH RADMILO!

You are welcome! I'm glad if my answer was of some use to you.

Best regards!

Radmilo,

Very nice cross !

Can you post picture of medals group ?

I will ask my friends about this number .

Thank you Igor for making an inquiry, I really appreciate it!

Unfortunately this picture is the only one I've made. Rest of the medals are: Albanian retreat medal, Golden medal for zealous service, Silver medal for zealous service, WW1 commemorative medal and the Good marksmanship medal. He also had Huguenin St. Sava 5th class (also part of his inheritance but from another ancestor) and the Golden soldier's Karageorge star with swords (1914-1917 variant). There are couple of open questions about his Karageorge star. First does anyone know in what kind of box were they actually awarded? Were they boxed at all? His star is in Arthus Bertrand box for the Order of the Karageorge star with swords 4th class... Also in the inner side of the box is written that his ancestor has exchanged one of his decorations with other soldier for this star! Reasons are not known to us but they must have been pretty strong considering how much the soldiers appreciated this particular decoration. I have checked the book "Knights of the Karageorge star with swords" for his name just to be sure, and logically he is not in the list of the recipients. By the way this book contains the list of all the decorated persons and also a lot of biographies with very interesting photos of Serbian officers, NCOs and soldiers, valuable material. Original title is: Vitezovi Karadjordjeve zvezde sa macevima - Najhrabrijii medju hrabrima; author: Tomislav Vlahovic.

Greetings gentlemen,

Yesterday was my cousin's Slava (St. Michael the Archangel) one of the rare occasions we meet. So I took this chance to take a picture of a St. George Cross he has in his very interesting collection of military related items from the Royal era. Unfortunately I took a picture with my mobile phone so it's not a very good one. The Cross is placed on a wrong red ribbon. My cousin was not completely sure to who exactly this cross was awarded but considering that one of his ancestors was a member of a Serbian Volunteers Corps (HQ in Odessa) I guess it must have been his. The number of the Cross is 19 073. I would be very grateful if someone could give me more information about the cross recipient and/or any other available info based on that number.

I hope that our friend Igor will find this topic interesting considering that he is gathering information about Russian decorations given to Allied soldiers

Regards,

Radmilo

Hi Radmilo,

Would you have any idea which Cross of Mercy might have been issued to nurses who served in Serbia in 1915? I have a letter from the British Red Cross to my grandmother announcing the award on behalf of the Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes in 1920 but the medal has been lost.

regards,

Rickus

Greetings Rickus and welcome to the GMIC.

I've tried to find out which type of the cross was issued at what period and had no luck. Serbian magazine Dinar #23 from 2004 on page 84 contains a great text about the Charity Cross. It can be read there that the first two types were also awarded during WW1... Around 7000 of these medals were awarded and my guess would be that your grandmother received the first variant of the third type considering that that type is the most common one. I'm sorry that I was not able to give you more precise answer...

Best regards,

Radmilo

Greetings,

On the first picture is the digital logo and on the second one is the actual badge. This flower was discovered in 1884 in Serbia and it was named after the Serbian queen Natalija, wife of the king Milan Obrenovic. The flower grows in Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and also in northern Greece.

I've read couple of articles about this badge and it is said that the flower itself was chosen because it grows on Kajmakchalan were Serbian Army won a famous battle against the Bulgarians. Also this flower is known as the Phoenix flower because it can be brought to life with a little bit of water after being completely dry. Just like the Serbia resurrected after being occupied by so many enemies and after the tragic retreat through Albania.

This year the badge was worn by government officials and TV reporters but it is said that next year it will be given to the rest of the people in the streets, squares, schools, faculties... I hope that this is just the beginning of one great tradition and that we will appropriately commemorate this day every year in the future.

Regards,

Radmilo

Here what one of his "fans" wrote (while answering to the question "Is there any significance to the different armbands Michael Jackson is often seen wearing on his suit jackets?")

"The color of the armband depends on who he is trying to inflence- what country he is in or whatever. Michael Jackson wears medals toimpress foreign people the same way. Michael Jackson's medal includes medals from the Civil War and World War I and World War II and the Vietnam War. Much lying by Michael Jackson to impersonate the real bravery who risked their lives protecting the people of the United States of America."

---

Interesting example of how Serbians felt about Michael wearing White Eagle

http://www.xtratime....ad.php?t=124104

Cheers,

Nick

I'm trying to imagine what would be the reaction of the American people (At least reaction of the conservative Republicans )

if he wore for example Medal of Honor on a pedophilia related trial... :D

Let's hope they are not ...

Seeing him with 3rd class of White Eagle with Swords is terrible enough!

I agree

Check out the long list of his actual awards

So he was really the King, at least the King of the Agni people. :D

Another tasteless private club emblem?

Looks like a phantasy star to me.

I believe he was only a Commander during WW2.

He was promoted to the Rear Admiral during Korea War.

Regards,

Nick

Maybe I misspoken, you are right. What I meant is that Ford has reached that rank, and that during WW2 he was involved with the OSS. That's the part missing in your quote.

Anyway the reason why I've asked if the emblem was British is because I think I've read somewhere that it is, not sure.

Pictures are too small but I think that there are letters E and R on emblem, could be standing for Elizabeth Regina.

But then on the other hand ER could be standing for a lot of other things, emergency room is the first one that comes to my mind.

Regards,

Radmilo

I'll wager that when the studio went looking for a suitable Mexican award to use as a prop, some enterprising dealer sold them the cross and ribbon as a real deal mid-19th century award - and the art director, having no idea what he was looking at, bought the story...

Could be that way, in fact that's probably what happened, but still interesting article and a nice story.

There are also some interesting stories about one time when Peter Bogdanovich (Whose father was a Serb) tried to make an interview with the old Ford.

By the way Bogdanovich was the guest of Honour this year on that movie festival I've mentioned before, 40th FEST.

I've managed to find that article so if someone is interested and understands Serbian (maybe with Google Translate) here it is:

http://politikin-zabavnik.rs/pz/tekstovi/admiral-iza-kamere

Yes, you are right, it is 2nd artillery regiment. My apologies, for some reason I completely overlooked the last column.

So Stevan Jankovic was a private in 2nd artillery regiment of the Kragujevac brigade of the 2nd division of the Shumadija corps.

You are most welcome Igor.

If you ever need help with translation from Serbian don't hesitate to ask.

Best regards,

Radmilo

And what's that star on his chest? Something British, maybe Imperial Service Order? Unfortunately I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to British decorations.

Now that we are talking about orders in movies, some time ago I've read an article in the newspapers about how the Order of St. Sava was used in a movie from 1956 by John Ford called "The Searchers". The article said that at beginning of the movie main character played by John Wayne gives an order which he was awarded in Mexico to a little girl. Order used in the movie was the Serbian St. Sava order 3. grade, only it was not on a original ribbon but on green and red one.

John Ford besides of being a famous, Oscar-winning director was also the US Navy Rear Admiral and a member of OSS during WW2. It is said that he was involved in some missions in the then occupied Yugoslavia, and that during that time he learned a little bit of Serbian and something about our culture. On the first Serbian/Yugoslav movie festival called the FEST in 1971 one of the guests was Frank Capra. He was received by Tito which gave him some Yugoslav order (I wasn't able to find out which one) that was to be given to John Ford for his involvement in a rescue mission during the war! Because of that some people speculate that Ford was involved in Tito's extraction during German operation Rosselsprung (Desant na Drvar). He probably used St. Sava in the Searchers because of his connections with Serbia. And even if not, story was very interesting to me.

Regards,

Radmilo

This reminded me on that time when Michael Jackson wore Serbian Order of the White Eagle with Swords 3. grade around his neck during the child molestation trial. I remember that reactions in Serbia were divided, some people were very angry but others were happy, they were saying: You see, Michael Jackson likes us Serbs.

My guess would be that he had no idea what was the thing he wore around his neck, probably saw it on some auction and thought it would look nice on him.

I have found the book, It can be read online on this link:

http://www.archive.org/stream/ratsrbijesaturs00vojsgoog#page/n9/mode/2up

This is where the lists of decorated persons begin:

http://www.archive.org/stream/ratsrbijesaturs00vojsgoog#page/n327/mode/2up

Great book, thanks for pointing it out for us Igor, priceless material!