This website showcases and offers a variety of items from a massive collection, likely the largest of its kind in Israel, to the public. The collection includes over 12,300 insignias from the IDF, security, and emergency forces throughout the generations, as well as civilian insignias that are part of the Zionist heritage. The website does not claim to be a catalog, as it only describes the items in the collection, but it provides references and explanations for each item in the hope that it will serve as a reliable index for collectors.

The Beginning of the Collection – 1940s

The collection began in the late stages of World War II. My father, Ben Zion Solomin z"l, volunteered for the British army in July 1940 and served in the Middle East, Egypt, and Greece in the Royal Engineers. My father was introduced to the British army tradition of exchanging unit insignias when units met. He carried unit insignias in one pouch and kept his growing collection in another. About seven months after enlisting, on April 29, 1941, my father was taken prisoner by the Nazis in Kalamata, Greece, along with about 12,000 British soldiers and around 2,000 Palestinian volunteers.

Naturally, when he was captured, my father had to part with his collection. He spent exactly four years as a prisoner of war until his release on April 29, 1945, following a 300-kilometer "death march" over three months, during the final days of the war. Nine days after his release, the war ended on May 8, 1945. American soldiers handed my father and his comrades rifles to participate in the fighting, during which they captured an SS officer. One friend took the officer's boots, another his submachine gun, and my father took two insignias: a Nazi buckle and a distinctive gorget. These insignias gave the officer the authority to redirect convoys as he wished.

These were the first two insignias in my father's collection, which he cultivated. The gorget, in particular, is a rare item, as it appears to have been issued only in the final days of the war. I have searched military museums and Nazi insignia catalogs but have found no evidence of a similar insignia.

My Father’s Collection – A Lifelong Project

As a child, I was fascinated by my father’s collection, and he noticed. When I turned 13 in 1961, my father gave me his collection as a Bar Mitzvah gift, and I became its owner. I began visiting shops and manufacturers of insignias, such as Marcel in Haifa, Kreitmer in Jerusalem, and three manufacturers at 63 Nahalat Binyamin in Tel Aviv. Over the years, the collection expanded in various directions. Even before the internet era, I focused on British military insignias, especially from World War II. I also collected police badges from around the world since my father was a watchman in the 1930s and later joined the Israeli police in 1948.

The Current Stage – Sale and Preservation

As a child, I was deeply interested in my father’s collection and embraced it with enthusiasm. However, despite my efforts, my children and grandchildren did not share my passion for the collection. After much deliberation, I decided to sell it, so that my heirs wouldn’t sell it by weight.

I believe this is one of the largest collections in Israel, if not the largest. According to ALL BADGES, my collection contains 12,374 items, though only a portion of them are displayed on this website. The majority of the collection is Israeli, with an emphasis on the IDF, though it includes some civilian insignias as well. Although I limited myself to security and emergency forces, I also collected civilian insignias that are part of Zionist heritage, such as those from the Halutz, Gdud HaAvoda, and the struggle for Soviet Jewry.

Before selling, I decided to preserve the collection online, and I will begin selling items only after they are added to the site. As an obsessive collector for over 60 years, it is hard for me to stop buying or trading items. However, I now dedicate most of my time to preparing and uploading items to the website.

Though the website is not a catalog, as it only describes the items in the collection, I do my best to provide explanations and references. While not catalog-like, I hope it will serve as a reliable index for collectors.