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Handmade white flag with a blue Star of David made by a German refugee in Shanghai

Object | Accession Number: 1998.147.1

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    Handmade white flag with a blue Star of David made by a German refugee in Shanghai

    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    White flag with a blue Star of David sewn by Ruth Linden in 1945 in Shanghai, China, to express her vision of the future flag of Israel. The flag was sewn in the "Ladies Secondhand Store," owned by the Linden family. They provided clothing goods and tailoring services to the community in Shanghai.
    Date
    creation:  1945
    Geography
    creation: Hongkou Qu (Shanghai, China)
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Kurt Joseph Linden
    Contributor
    Subject: Fred Linden
    Biography
    Fritz Isaac Lindenstrauss was born in 1895 in Prenzlau, Germany. During World War I (1914-1918), Fritz served in the German Army as a cannoneer. After leaving the military, he worked in several positions in department stores in Germany. In 1933, the Nazi regime came into power and pursued anti-Jewish policies. Fritz lost his job in 1934 because he was Jewish. On November. 12, 1935, he married Ruth Betty Salomon, a seamstress, who was born in Cammin, Pomerania, Germany, in 1909. The couple lived in Berlin where they had a store. A son, Kurt Joseph, was born on December 27, 1936. Their store was destroyed by Nazi Party supporters during the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9-10, 1938. Fritz arranged for his family to flee Germany shortly afterwards. The family left Germany in April 1939 for Shanghai, China. They lived in the Hongkew ghetto, the area of Shanghai designated for Jewish refugees by the Japanese occupation authorities. The family owned and operated the Ladies Secondhand Store at 325 Wayside Road, in the same building where they lived. The war in Europe ended in May 1945 and the war in Japan ended in September. The Linden family, with sponsorship from relatives and friends, were able to emigrate to the United States in August 1947. They settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. They Americanized the family name to Linden and Fritz changed his name to Fred. Ruth, 66, died in 1967. Fred remarried in 1972. He passed away on June 6, 1997, at the age of 102.

    Physical Details

    Classification
    Identifying Artifacts
    Category
    Flags
    Object Type
    Flags (lcsh)
    Physical Description
    Blue and white cloth flag with a Star of David at the center with the top half stitched in white and the bottom half stitched in blue.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 19.000 inches (48.26 cm) | Width: 33.875 inches (86.043 cm)
    Materials
    overall : cloth

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The flag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998 by Kurt Joseph Linden, the son of Fred Linden.
    Record last modified:
    2022-10-17 09:02:04
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn522158

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