The apartment of Martin Friedländer

On October 1, 1935, the Jewish New Year, Rosh ha-Shanah, passers-by in Berlin's Scheunenviertel saw an unusual sight: They saw a blue-and-white flag hanging from a window of the house at Linienstrasse 196. It belonged to the apartment of 29-year-old Berlin textile wholesaler Martin Friedländer, who used it to make a self-confident statement against the racist legislation of the "Nuremberg Laws." Among other things, Jews were forbidden to hoist the German flag, but "the display of the Jewish colors" remained expressly permitted. Martin Friedländer then had this blue and white flag with a Star of David sewn on it in protest. Blue and white were the traditional colors of Zionism, the Jewish national movement whose goal was the establishment of a Jewish state. He himself fled to Australia in 1939.