National Fascist Party of Italy (PNF) membership badge owned by Jewish female refugee from Nazi Germany

Partito Nazionale Fascista [National Fascist Party] of Italy lapel pin worn by Gitta Schadur (later Shadur) in the 1930s when she was the only Jewish member of a Fascist group in Berlin, Germany. Gitta had emigrated from Latvia in 1931 and owned a successful exotic fruit and delicacies store in Berlin. Her frequents travels to Italy had led her to become a supporter of Mussolini. Shortly after the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933, her store became a target for anti-Semitic protests. Many of her customers felt pressured to stop patronizing a Jewish owned business. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938, she closed her store, managed to obtain a visa for the United States, and sailed from Belgium on September 2, 1939. Once settled in Minnesota, she was able to help other family members escape Nazi-dominated Europe.