Dirty Medals

MedalFuhrer

After looking at HerrSheisse's impressive Belgian collection and his new addition of his Congo Star, it gave me the idea of starting this thread of "Dirty Medals".
And I don't mean medals that are tarnished or soiled, I mean medals which have a dirty dark sinister history that no amount of polishing will remove.
Now instantly people will post 3rd Reich medals, but a 3rd Reich medal awarded to a cleaner for 5 years service in the civil service is not very dark. E.g. a Nazi Luftwaffe medal I wouldn't consider a fiendish medal where as an SS one would be due to it possibly having a dirty black history.

So I'll start the ball rolling with this one from behind the Iron Curtain in Poland.


Polish "People's Police" medal for "Service and Upholding Public Order".
Like most things when it comes to regimes or governments, if it includes "People" or "Democratic" or "Socialist" in the name then it is most likely the complete opposite.
Quite a sinister medal here as many people were silenced and "dissappeared" during the grey days of the Communist Regime. Issued to a Sargent of the secret police in 1975. Exactly what acts were done to warrant this award?

Established in 1971 to honor the individuals who contributed to maintenance of public order or showed bravery and sacrifice or distinguished themselves in performing the duties to maintain public order. Conferred in three classes: 1st Class - gold, 2nd Class - silver and 3rd Class -bronze. The medal was meant primarily for members of the Civic Militia (Police) and Security Service.

My one is the bronze version, so maybe clubbing a few beatnik long haired hippy students would be enough for this one....

Original award documents and medal pouch.

Fuinseog

it reminds me of when I was in Budapest and wanted to go into a museum called the House of Horror, remembering those who died in 1956. My Hungarian friend was reluctant. It turned out there was a big picture of his grandfather inside. he had a top job with the secret police and organised the reprisals against the insurgents.

Maybe in this country some War of Independence medals were awarded to men who took part in ethnic cleansing?

Morlar

Fuinseog wrote: »

Maybe in this country some War of Independence medals were awarded to men who took part in ethnic cleansing?

My opinion would be that it's probably more likely there were some Irish War of Independence medals awarded to soldiers who were later involved in atrocities during the Irish Civil War. This would include executing republican prisoners out of hand or tieing them to a landmine & detonating it and so on.

Great idea for a thread btw.

HerrScheisse

At first sight, the Soviet medal for the battle of Berlin should be something glorious, a celebration of the demise of the Nazi regime.

But it is badly tarnished, by the behaviour of the unruly hordes of troops that rampaged through the city pulling woman and young girls from the bombed out ruins and violating them repeatedly until many were driven in despair and shame to suicide. it is estimated that 100,000 were raped in Berlin alone.

When Stalin heard that the troops were getting rapey, he simply said to "let the boys have their fun."

The Dragon

Great idea for a thread.

Medals posted so far would certainly make one think.

Fuinseog

RAF medals awarded for bombing German civilian targets?

MedalFuhrer

Fuinseog wrote: »

RAF medals awarded for bombing German civilian targets?

Hmm, hard one to call but I would say no. Controversial and a sad loss - yes. But it was actually adopting the German tactic of levelling many cities in the months previously that the Luftwaffe did. The realised what an effective tactic that this was. War is dirty but that was openly an agreed tactic to end the war (for good or bad) in an attempt to save their own losses, whereas these other ones are sinister and dark. Committing bad in the hope of good. Rather than committing bad for the sake of bad.

HerrScheisse

I was actually thinking of the Uk firestorm over Dresden. I am still in two minds on that one, firtsly because it was not a military target, secondly, the allies knew that killing civilians would not change the regime. In my own personal opinion, it was a war crime as it was a deliberate attempt to kill civilians and experiments were carried out to determine how to maximise the damage. That the Luftwaffe did it on London, does not excuse the allies from doing the same. That is just not cricket!

On the other hand...maybe they were right to do it in Japan as it forced the emperor to surrender. So you can reason with a self proclaimed "God" but not with a democratically elected madman :-?

HerrScheisse

Nobody can disagree on this one, posted a couple of days ago but Ill post it again in this thread. The service star for Congo, the first type so awarded to the pioneer colonials.




The more I read into this subject the more shocked I become, as the atrocities are beyond rational belief. Soldiers keeping collections of negro heads in their gardens, families being held hostage while the menfolk were forced to harvest rubber, and the limb removal as punishment. One of the most disturbing and heartbreaking pictures I have ever seen is a Congolese father sitting on the ground staring powerlessly at the severed hand and foot of his 5 year old child. I would post it but it is copyrighted, maybe it is available on google images. A truly heartbreaking image.

So while the ships laden with rubber steamed into Antwerp harbour, the human cost was hidden away out of sight, deep in the forbidden Congo jungle.

Ironically, some tribes collaberated with the regime and supplied the slave trade with human fodder.

MedalFuhrer

Not to get the thread off topic, but what they witnessed in Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. etc. where the Luftwaffe were given orders to attack schools, hospitals, power stations and strafe fleeing civilians on the ground, and then what they directly experienced themselves with Belfast, London, Coventry, Sheffield, Glasgow, etc. etc. was that total civilian chaos brings industry and government to a standstill. And the allies under consideration then deliberately adopted this same tactic. (Not saying that it was right or wrong, or that two wrongs make a right. Just explaining that they deemed it a just tactic to save their own bacon). So it may be “wrong” but it’s not sinister.


Yes while you Congo Star is a lovely medal and a rare one, it no doubt has a black history (excuse the pun! ;-) ). The Belgian soldiers got a liking for big game hunting but in Belgium this was seen as a waste of government time and money. So a rule was brought in that for every bullet that a solder used he must produce a severed hand to prove that he has used it for a good purpose. i.e. shooting a negro. This didn’t stop them shooting big game of course, they just would march into villages and lop off hands for each bullet that they used to cover their asses with their superiors. Each regiment had an official "Keeper of hands" who would smoke and preserve them.
This started up a business for entrepeneur rival tribes who would attack a village and lop off everyone's hands. They would then sell bunches of hands to the Belgium solders as this would save the Belgiums time and effort of catching themselves a negro to lop off their hands.

"Hmm, give me 5 of the adult ones and 3 of the child's ones please. I'm have to cover my leopard hunting your know!"

The history books have Belgium down as the all time worse atrocity maker and slaver, France being second.
So I wonder what the original owner did to be awarded that star?! :-0 No doubt spend good time in Congo so it more than likely has some terrible dark history to it! :-0

HerrScheisse

I am sure quite a few of the Partisan medals could be considered dubious. Survive the occupier during the day, and the partisan in the night.

HerrScheisse

A waste of government time - the government only managed to wrest Congo from Leopold in 1908 so before that Congo was the only colony in the world ruled by one individual. This medal dates from 1889 to 1910, so it is from the original settlers.

MedalFuhrer wrote: »

Yes while you Congo Star is a lovely medal and a rare one, it no doubt has a black history (excuse the pun! ;-) ). The Belgian soldiers got a liking for big game hunting but in Belgium this was seen as a waste of government time and money. So a rule was brought in that for every bullet that a solder used he must produce a severed hand to prove that he has used it for a good purpose. i.e. shooting a negro. This didn’t stop them shooting big game of course, they just would march into villages and lop off hands for each bullet that they used to cover their asses with their superiors. Each regiment had an official "Keeper of hands" who would smoke and preserve them.

MedalFuhrer

On thinking on this, the RAF medals mentioned could be posted here as they would definitely have a dirty taint (but as I posted above, this does not reflect on the crews that were awarded them)

Jagdtiger

Yes or No?


...it might look physically clean :rolleyes:

HerrScheisse

I think that probably most medals are dirty in a moral point of view. The majority involved the destruction of a nation, and in particular cases a race.

Noble medals are those for sport, civil achievement (can also become dirty...), civic duty, it really depends on what side of the fence you sit, and at what particular time.

But it is a good and healthy discussion to have. Anything that opens a different perspective for healthy discussion gets my vote!