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A piece of soap might not be what most people think of when remembering World War II.

But Misha and Mara Stolin of San Francisco — the children of a Russian veteran — held onto a piece of red-poppy soap their mother bought before the war, wrapped in linen and kept to remind her of better times.

This and other objects, including original guns, uniforms and letters straight from the front lines are on exhibit at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco through Sept. 30, bringing to life the combat experiences of Jewish soldiers in the Soviet army during World War II.

“The Jewish Soldier’s Red Star” commemorates the 60-year anniversary of the end of World War II by honoring its Jewish Soviet veterans. The JCC exhibit is a joint collection of relics lent by veterans in the Bay Area Jewish community with pieces from a traveling exhibit by the Vienna-based group Centropa.

Barbara Levine, who curated the exhibit, said the combined exhibit — which includes 28 panels of war memorabilia on the second floor of the JCC — is a rare opportunity to learn intimately about a lesser-known aspect of the war.

“We all know very well about the Holocaust experience, but we don’t tend to be as versed in the men and women who fought in the war; that there were Jewish soldiers on the eastern front who fought fascism,” she said.

Levine, who runs a curatorial studio called Project B, added that even she was surprised by the kinds of items that were gathered.

“I wasn’t sure what people kept and what they didn’t keep,” she said. “The objects started coming in, two full uniforms, a gun, photographs, letters, medals, just really unique and compelling objects people have kept all these years.”

Yakov Lerner of San Francisco lent a letter, the only thing he had left from his father.

“He was very concerned to have it back safely, and we promised that we would guard it with our life,” said Yanina Nemirovskaya, the JCCSF’s émigré department’s business and program manager. (The items were gathered by members of the émigré department, who literally went door to door to collect items from veterans and helped interpret the stories of the primarily Russian-speaking veterans.)

Iosif Marshak lent his parents’ army uniforms, which was especially poignant because immigrants were so limited in the amount of luggage they could bring to the United States. “I was touched that this person who immigrated many years ago, who had only two small suitcases to carry with him, decided that this is such an important part of his life that he decided to keep the uniforms rather than something essential to his new life,” she said.

Nemirovskaya is herself the daughter and granddaughter of WWII veterans. She emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1993, and said the aftermath of the war affected everybody she knew growing up.

According to Lenore Naxon, director of the JCC’s Friend Center for the Arts, which is hosting the exhibit, the display is particularly relevant to the Bay Area Jewish community because of the local demographics — one out of every three Jews in the Bay Area are either émigrés or the children of émigrés, and two large veterans’ organizations are active at the JCC and in the Jewish community.

“It’s sad,” noted Levine, the curator, “that at a time when we’re making an exhibit to commemorate the 60th anniversary of World War II, in fact there are wars going on … and that’s not what the exhibit is about, but it makes the exhibit all the more relevant.”

“The Jewish Soldier’s Red Star” can be seen until Sept. 30 in the KS Gallery, 3200 California St., (415) 292-1294.