So as some of you know, I have a recent historical interest in the First World War and I have the beginnings of a collection of interesting and rare items from all sides of that conflict (albeit only two items at the moment since interesting and rare WWI stuff is kind of hard to come by). Some of you might remember a pristine post card I have of French army life circa 1917, that's one of the items.

The dilemma I face comes from the item that forms the core of the collection. When I was about 8 years old, my grandfather gave me a silk pennant which I knew little about for many years; more recently I discovered it was actually a WWI-era imperial German pennant which means it is extremely likely that this was captured by my great-great grandfather, who served in the American Expeditionary Force and died of mustard gas exposure. It is unlikely, given where I got this flag from, that it is a reproduction which makes it quite a rare and desirable item.

I have this pennant inside a two-sided glass frame in my living room at the moment; however it has come to my attention that the Imperial German flag has gained associations with extremist groups that I do not wish to be associated with in any way shape or form. This puts me in an odd position. On the one hand, I'm not displaying it for extremist reasons, I'm not waving it around at furry conventions or posing with it on Facebook, and I'm not using state funds to display it. On the other hand, it is a tarnished symbol and without knowing the back story of how I came by it, visitors to my apartment might get the wrong idea about me.

Do I:

A. Put it back in storage out of sight for another 23 years
B. Explain to visitors what it's all about and hope they believe me.
C. Don't worry because I'm not waving it around in people's faces like a twat
D. Donate this well-preserved family heirloom to a museum and likely never see it again
E. Build a bigger and more rounded collection of WWI artifacts so that it has some actual context

I'm kind of leaning toward "E" but I have to be careful about money at the moment and I'd like to get some diverse perspectives on this issue.