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Nazi red flag with a swastika with a price tag found by a US soldier in an abandoned German store

Object | Accession Number: 2008.389.1 a-b

German flag with a swastika flag with a price tag found by a US Army soldier in an abandoned department store in Germany near the end of World War II in May 1945. The price tag was for the Kaufhof Department Store, part of a Jewish owned chain of stores founded by Leonard Tietz, whose family had pioneered the department store concept in Germany in the 1880s. The stores were Aryanized in 1933 when the Nazi government forced the family to sell their shares at a reduced value to non-Jewish government approved buyers.

Date
found:  approximately 1945 May
Geography
found: Germany
Language
German
Classification
Identifying Artifacts
Category
Flags
Object Type
Flags (lcsh)
Credit Line
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jeffrey M. Weir

About This Object

Physical Description
a. Rectangular, red cloth flag with a white cloth circle with a screenprinted black swastika sewn slightly off center. Two cloth circles are sewn together back to back, so the swastika would be visible on both sides. The center of the red cloth was cut out to insert the 21.375 inch diameter circles. The hoist side is on a short end and has a double-stitched 3 in. channel. The opposite edge is hemmed and the long edges are selvage.
b. Square, light brown cardboard tag with angled corners. The front has preprinted German text and numerical prices within an outlined black border. There are 6 small holes near the top with white thread woven through 4 holes. The reverse is blank. The tag was previously sewn to the flag.
Dimensions
a: Height: 46.625 inches (118.428 cm) | Width: 30.750 inches (78.105 cm)
b: Height: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm) | Width: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm)
Materials
a : cloth, dye
b : cardboard, ink, thread
Markings
b. front, top, black ink : KAUFHOF
b. front, lower center, faded black ink : [2]08 [2] / 82 7 / 4 55 / 120 [5]0

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
The flag and price tag were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008 by Jeffrey Weir.
Funding Note
The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Rights and Restrictions

Conditions on Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use
No restrictions on use
 
Record last modified: 2020-06-30 09:23:48
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn36423