July 20 Wound Badge

Drs. James and Beverly Shaver, in memory of Larry and Genie Hirshbach, 2012.173.001

The German Wound Badge was similar to the American Purple Heart; it acted as an award for those wounded in the line of duty On July 20, 1944, members of the German Resistance set off a bomb in a bunker where Hitler was addressing senior Nazi military staff. A special silver Wound Badge was awarded to the 24 men inside the bunker with Hitler when the bomb exploded. The plotters, senior German military officers, were imprisoned or executed.