A colleague of mine was born in Germany and lived there until she married an American soldier in the 1950's. She said that when the Americans came, she was in the British zone, right near the border of the American zone. The Americans invited the German girls to a dance at the USO. She had to sneak past the British guards into the American zone to get there. When she got to the dance, nearly all the girls were wearing red dresses with black and white trim. There was no fabric available, and their nice dresses were damaged during the bombings, and many had no washing machines or soap. So they made their dresses ourt of Nazi flags, which were not only in great abundance, but declared illegal.