1870 Ladies And Young Ladies Cross Set To A Jewish Widow

[Paul C]

This pair of Franco Prussian War Prussian awards was bestowed on the widow of a Jewish Cantor for war service as a nurse in France

2,992 of these Crosses were awarded to womenbut how many also received the War Medal for actual nursing care service in the field rather than social/home front contributions????

Edited July 5, 2010 by Paul C

[Paul C]

The lid of the Ladies & Young Ladies Cross case:

and the fitted tray for the pre-made ribbon bow and cross:

[Paul C]

The award document for the Cross, to Widowed Mrs. Cantor Elise Rosenthal née Behre of Belm, Amt Osnabrück:

[Paul C]

From the published list of recipients:

[Paul C]

Mrs. Rosenthal’s 1870/71 War Medal document long ago fell apart at the folds and was mounted on a backing:

It was issued directly by the Prussian General Orders Commission, signed by Freiherr von Steinacker, rather than issued by a local authority. Bear in mind that, irrationally, the steel medal on noncombatant ribbon was only issued to recipients who had served in France—very often under enemy fire—but were not arms-bearers. Therefore, Mrs. Rosenthal has served with the army in some sort of nursing care position rather than being a stay at home supporter.

[Paul C]

Close-ups of the Cross, front and back

[Paul C]

And the reverse sides of the two awards

This rare set is shared thanks to the most recent Traveling Museum visit to my World Famous Epson, and is posted since I am offline thanks to Paul. Rick Research

[Paul C]

I find it amazing that this group would survive.

[Tom Y]

Beautiful. One of my all time favorites, and with all the bells and whistles . To a woman who would have been locked up at best seventy years later!

Congratulations on a superb find.

[Chris Boonzaier]

I wonder if she was good lookin?

[joe campbell]

I wonder if she was good lookin?

.......

she probably looked good to one of her aid recipients....

appearance criteria are location dependent:

hospital?

prison?

your local public house??

paul and rick: my FAY-VO-RITE medal ever. chris,

THIS medal is SEXY!!!

joe!

[Paul C]

I wonder if she was good lookin?

Chris...you sometimes amaze me with what you say. :unsure:

[saschaw]

Lovely complete group!

2,992 of these Crosses were awarded to women—but how many also received the War Medal for actual nursing care service in the field rather than social/home front contributions????

I cannot prove but think that most were awarded as doubles. Any picture I've seen by know that shows the cross in wear, shows as well the medal, as do some double mounted ribbons I've seen.

But how do you know she was Jewish? Her husband was a Kantor, which could be from any Religion...

[Chris Boonzaier]

Chris...you sometimes amaze me with what you say.

How can you NOT wonder?? :unsure:

[Rocky]

Great find, super rare and complete too boot, this is the first complete set I have ever seen congratulations outstanding.

[VtwinVince]

Really outstanding group, especially with the document for the Verdienstkreuz, very rare. I'm still looking for one of these in the case.

[Biro]

...But how do you know she was Jewish? Her husband was a Kantor, which could be from any Religion...

I would be guessing, but given the name was 'Rosenthal' and the disdain with which inter-faith marriage was (and is) treated by the Jewish, I would say even if she was not Jewish born, she would have been a conversion to 'the faith'..

Great group made 100 times more special by the paperwork!

Marshall

Edited July 9, 2010 by Biro

[saschaw]

I hardly doubt you can recognize someone's religion by his name... though, thanks!

:sleep:

[Streptile]

Interestingly enough, in Prussia from the beginnings of emancipation in 1812 but especially after 1869, when all legal rights were granted to Jews, through roughly the beginning of WWI, many Jews converted to Christianity (usually Lutheranism but also some to Catholicism). Fritz Stern, who has written extensively on Jewish life in Germany, wrote that by the end of the 19th C., converted Prussian Jews "felt they belonged to the [Christian] group to which their identity papers assigned them. They were Christian by choice and often by faith ... after a generation or two, some children of Jewish descent didn't even know of their Old Testament roots." Intermarriage between converted Jews (or the progeny of converts) and Christians was more common than in almost any other European state. Most did not change their names. Thus Ms. Behre's marriage to Mr. Rosenthal (which I agree is likely a Jewish name) would not have been at all unlikely. She may have been Jewish, but not necessarily so. By the same token, he may well have been a Christian. Remember that it was not until the Third Reich that race, rather than religion, became the determinant of identity.

Awesome group, by the way.

[seeheld]

I'm sure. She is not a jew widow. Because in her award dokument is written as rank: Frau Kantor!!!

This is a christian rank in lutheran, protestant and catholic church. I don't think so than a jew can be a christian priest at the same time...

Regards

Seeheld

[saschaw]

Seeheld, I backed this up before.

While Jewish Kantors are actually called chasanim, they might be referred to as Kantors, too. So this doesn't proof anything...

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantor

But actually, it doesn't matter that much after all.

:whistle: