Hello Looking through my grandfather's photos it came to a great surprise that he had a medal ( http://imgur.com/QTfIJjQ ). Unfortunately he passed away 5 years ago and there is no one to ask about it. The photo is from 1943 and he was living in Eastern Europe. Could anyone, please, help us identify it? Thank you!
It looks a lot like some variant of the Iron Cross, but I don't recognize the raised symbol in the center of the medal. Do you have any other information to help narrow it down? The Iron Cross was a German award, so nationality would help. And do you know if he was military or civilian at the time?
Did some Google searching around, couldn't find a medal with that specific design on it, but I did find some designs with the cross in the middle of it that are from the Greek Orthodox church. Was your grandfather involved in the Greek Orthodox church at all? As /u/Imperator314 said before, it could be a religious award of some kind, specifically Greek Orthodox. Hope this helps!
This is not a Romanian military medal. I spoke to a Romanian historian friend of mine regarding this, and he says that the only similar medal he is aware of (one with the cross in the center) was one worn by Queen Maria - but it's not the same one. Conceivably this could be a lower class version of that same medal. He is going to show your image to some colleagues at the university to see if anyone is familiar with it.