Brooklyn Soldier's Lost Purple Heart Given To Manhattan Museum

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY — A long-lost Purple Heart belonging to a Brooklyn soldier who fought in World War II was recovered and will be stored in the Museum of Jewish Heritage's permanent collection in Manhattan.

Sgt. George Sahlmann's Purple Heart was lost for decades before the nonprofit Purple Hearts Reunited located it. The nonprofit works to return lost or stolen military medals to veterans and military families. The Purple Heart is bestowed on members of the armed forces who are wounded during war.

Purple Hearts Reunited recovered Sahlmann's medal from a military collector, and unearthed an important story that it thought should be preserved by the Museum of Jewish Heritage, located at 36 Battery Place.

Sahlmann, a Jewish man, was living in Germany in the 1930s before he managed to escape Nazi persecution by boarding an America-bound ship in 1937, according to Purple Hearts Reunited. Once in the U.S., Sahlmann worked as a barber in Brooklyn and lived in Brownsville before enlisting for service in the U.S. Army in 1943.

Sahlmann served as a combat infantryman and was wounded three times. He also worked as an interpreter and supervised a German prisoner of war camp.

"George had to now care for the very men who attempted to wipe out his race," Purple Hearts Reunited said in a statement. "He did so with respect, compassion, and the utmost professionalism one would expect from a Non-Commissioned Officer."

Sahlmann died in 2006 at the age of 95.

The medal was added to the museum's collection during a ceremony on Monday.

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