Benton County Museum Reveals Massive Nazi Flags From D-Day

SAUK RAPIDS (WJON News) -- The staff at the Benton County Historical Society and Museum recently discovered some unusual items in the collection.

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Two massive Nazi flags were tucked away in some boxes.

Executive Director Lacey Fontaine says some digging discovered they were donated to the museum by historian Edward Sowa. He captured the flags while in Normandy about a month after the initial invasion. Sowa was part of a unit that would supply armed divisions with equipment during the liberation of France.

He and his unit came across these Nazi flags and decided to take them. One of them is a massive flag. It hung on a government building, according to Sowa. It has your typical Swastika with a German eagle on it.

The second flag has the red and black Nazi colors, but it just has a cross on it. Historians at the Minnesota Military Museum say that was a flag that would have been displayed on Nazi vehicles so they wouldn't bomb their own cars.

It's really significant to us here at the historical society, because the flag that hung on German vehicles was signed by everybody in Sowa's unit. Edward Sowa's name is one it and that's how we knew how to connect the dots.

Some Nazi medals were also taken by Sowa. Fontaine says souvenir hunting was very common during the war.

The Benton County Historical Society and Museum is giving the medals to the Minnesota Military Museum. Fontaine says they plan to display the flag with Sowa's name on it at the museum in Sauk Rapids.

The second floor of the Benton County Historical Society and Museum is currently undergoing a major renovation.

When it is done, they'll have four designated exhibit spaces with one of them being a military room with artifacts from the Civil War to 9-11. Fontaine says she's not sure yet what she'll do with the larger Nazi flag.

Two books about the history of Benton County, written by Edward Sowa, are available for you to buy in the museum store.