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

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.

The flag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998 by Kurt Joseph Linden, the son of Fred Linden.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Kurt Joseph Linden