Unused Nazi banner with a swastika found by a US soldier

The banner was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Earl Kinne. 

Earl Kinne was born January 6th, 1920, in Pomona California. He grew up in southern California and joined the US Army in 1942. He served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in Germany, Sicily, and Italy. While in Germany in 1945, Kinne and a fellow soldier were ordered to go to Ludwigslust, a small town in Germany, to take the townspeople to Wöbbelin, a nearby sub-camp of Neuengamme concentration camp, to witness the unburied bodies and other evidence of the atrocities that had occurred there. The United States Army forced the townspeople to bury the dead. Kinne passed away at age 90, July 19th, 2010. 

Unused Nazi banner with a swastika found by a US soldier 

overall: Height: 78.500 inches (199.39 cm) | Width: 38.625 inches (98.108 cm) 

Unused Nazi banner found by an American soldier, Earl Kinne, in a boxcar near Ludwigslust, Germany, in 1945. Kinne and a fellow soldier were ordered to go to Ludwigslust, a small town in Germany, to take the townspeople to Wöbbelin, a nearby sub-camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, to witness the unburied bodies and other evidence of the atrocities that had been committed there by the Nazi government. The United States Army forced the townspeople to bury the dead. Earl found several newly manufactured Nazi flags, rolled in bundles, in a boxcar near the camp. The flags had never been used. Earl served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne in Germany, Sicily, and Italy. 

No restrictions on access 

Rectangular, red, cloth banner with a central white circle with a printed black swastika sewn onto the center. The short ends are hemmed and have a bronze metal grommet in each corner.