Warbird Information Exchange

This is very definitely off topic, but I could use some advice:

I know an old widow at my church who has an authentic Nazi flag from WW2. Her husband was a crew chief in the war, and got a bunch of stuff that's been lost over the years. The main thing that is left is this flag, which is HUGE. It's roughly 3 1/2 feet high by maybe 6 or 7 feet long. It's solid red with the white/black swastika on only one side....leads me to believe that it was hung from somewhere on display, instead of on a pole.

It's starting to come apart really bad, and I honestly don't think she has bags of time left. She thought about donating it to the D-Day museum in New Orleans, but they wanted her to sign a contract saying it would probably be in storage most of the time. I know that's SOP (look at the Enola Gay and the Paul E. Garber facility..) but she wants it where her family can see it.

I've been trying to find a way to preserve it (maybe frame it??) but I can't find much info.

Any ideas guys??

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ATC: "Oscar 2, cleared to engage wildlife at your discretion..."

Given the large size of the flag it would be extremely difficult to properly mount and frame it in a case or frame. About 4 years ago I donated an old 38 star American flag to the city of Marshfield and had it framed. The flag was about 3' x 5' and that is about the max you can do with a standard frame without having to reinforce it. I was also forced to use plexiglass instead of glass to keep the weight down. Otherwise the frame just wouldn't be able to support it. The cost is not cheap for something like this...it ran me about $300 (just for the framing)!!

You can hire a professional conservationist to sew up and preserve damaged areas of the flag but it may take you awhile to find somebody and I'm not sure what something like that would run.

As for the D-Day museum or other museums in general...the contract is pretty much standard procedure. Museums just don't have the space to display all of their collections and usually just a fraction is on display at any given time. However, some museums are good about rotating their collections on a regular basis. The Wisconsin Veterans Museum located in Madison is like this. They have some wonderful items on display from the Civil war onwards and rotate displays, but some of the real "goodies" are kept in storage under climate control like all of the Wisconsin Civil War regimental battle flags from the Civil War. If you wanna see those babies you'll have to make a special appointment with the curator!

Another thing to keep in mind is that these Nazi flags and banners are still somewhat easy to obtain and aren't really considered "rare" by most militaria dealers. You can obtain some through military antiques dealers and even ebay (although they aren't supposed to sell them on ebay) for anywhere from $200-$500 depending on size and condition. I would venture to guess that the D-Day museum (and most other well-known museums out there) already have several of these flags/banners in their collection which have been donated over the years.

My advise to her would be to hire somebody to conserve it and keep it in the family as a reminder to future generations what her husband did during the war as a member of the "greatest generation." As long as it is kept in a cool, dry place and out of direct sunlight...it should last for generations to come.

John