Jewish Brigade Patch
for a Sergeant
The British Army established the Jewish Brigade in September 1944. It included more than 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine and was the only independent, national Jewish military unit to serve in World War II.
The Jewish Brigade served in combat, fighting Germany in the final battles for the liberation of Italy. After the German surrender in Italy in May 1945, the Jewish Brigade was stationed along the Italian border with Austria and Yugoslavia, and later in Belgium and the Netherlands. Brigade soldiers helped create Displaced Persons (DP) camps for Holocaust survivors and secretly arranged transport and resettlement of many survivors to Palestine. The British disbanded the Brigade in the summer of 1946.
The patch design is modeled after the Jewish Agency of the British Mandate in Palestine’s logo. Those familiar with today’s Israeli flag will recognize the Jewish star and blue stripes on the patch as a precursor to the Israeli flag.