Nazi Memorabilia Is Selling, But Who Is Buying?
The large market in Nazi memorabilia is legal. OK, but the names of buyers should be made public.
Hitler with a predecessor as chancellor, Franz von Papen.
Source: Keystone/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
A collapsible top hat that supposedly belonged to Adolf Hitler sold for 50,000 euros ($55,300) at a Munich-based online auction on Wednesday. Along with a number of other Nazi items, it was purchased by Swiss-Lebanese investor Abdallah Chatila who donated it to Keren Hayesod, the Israeli fundraising organization. But he couldn’t get all the Nazi memorabilia that were on offer. It’s time the other buyers got more attention.
The market for Nazi memorabilia is large and apparently growing, boosted by several auction houses that include Alexander Historical Auction in Maryland and Hermann Historica in Grasbrunn near Munich, which have picked up the trade rejected by top auctioneers such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and even by eBay. The authenticity of many of the objects on this market is highly questionable: Last month, a large trove of Nazi artifacts discovered in Argentina — and almost accepted for display by the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires — was found to be fake, especially made for sale to people who collect this kind of thing.