Weird inheritance

[DodgyInheritance]

I’ve recently inherited the entire estate of my uncle. He wasn’t someone I knew particularly well, him and my dad never really got on but I was his closest relative so for whatever reason he left everything to me.

It’s an incredible help financially and totally unexpected so I’m obviously massively grateful. Only issue is that he was an utter racist and his house holds an awful lot of Nazi memorabilia. Bags and bags of coins, original 1930’s books and some medals. Having had a look on EBay none of it seems particularly rare - the coins seem to go for about £10 each and books and medals about £30-£50. In total I’d guess it’s about £700 worth of stuff.

But - I don’t want to sell this to people who collect Nazi memorabilia as they’re obviously bastards. Equally none of it seems rare enough for any museum to be interested in it. Even if I donated to a charity shop it would still end up being sold to weird Nazi collectors. But then if I don’t sell it and I suddenly drop dead and people find I’ve got an attic full of Nazi stuff they’ll think I’m a psycho.

Any suggestions? The money isn’t an issue as there’s plenty of non racist stuff in the house I can sell, it’s just this stuff that I’m concerned about.

@DodgyInheritance

I’ve recently inherited the entire estate of my uncle. He wasn’t someone I knew particularly well, him and my dad never really got on but I was his closest relative so for whatever reason he left everything to me.

It’s an incredible help financially and totally unexpected so I’m obviously massively grateful. Only issue is that he was an utter racist and his house holds an awful lot of Nazi memorabilia. Bags and bags of coins, original 1930’s books and some medals. Having had a look on EBay none of it seems particularly rare - the coins seem to go for about £10 each and books and medals about £30-£50. In total I’d guess it’s about £700 worth of stuff.

But - I don’t want to sell this to people who collect Nazi memorabilia as they’re obviously bastards. Equally none of it seems rare enough for any museum to be interested in it. Even if I donated to a charity shop it would still end up being sold to weird Nazi collectors. But then if I don’t sell it and I suddenly drop dead and people find I’ve got an attic full of Nazi stuff they’ll think I’m a psycho.

Any suggestions? The money isn’t an issue as there’s plenty of non racist stuff in the house I can sell, it’s just this stuff that I’m concerned about.

The Imperial War Museum would probably take them off your hands. The only issue I can think of is that they might not be accepting donations at the moment.

But drop them an email, anyway...

Calling a person who collects war memorabilia a racist is rediculous and childish!! I think a lot of adults need to grow up and start using their brains. Memorabilia is history whether good or bad and should not be forgotten. If you throw away the bad your also throwing away the good. Think about it!!!

@nicky7654

Calling a person who collects war memorabilia a racist is rediculous and childish!! I think a lot of adults need to grow up and start using their brains. Memorabilia is history whether good or bad and should not be forgotten. If you throw away the bad your also throwing away the good. Think about it!!!

The OP already knew he was racist before he died. She didn't form an opinion on the basis of the memorabilia.

There will definitely be a museum that will at least look at it. I saw an article recently about a museum in Holland (i think) that was burgled for it's nazi materials. It's important evidence of what happened.

He wasn’t a racist because he collected war memorabilia . He was a racist because he hated anyone who wasn’t white British. I’d be slightly more understanding if he had a collection of war memorabilia from various different countries/ wars but it was all Nazi stuff. He had 6 copies of Mein Kampf, not sure who would do that unless they were either doing some really in depth studying of Nazi Germany or they were just a total fascist.

Yes, he was obviously a nasty racist and a Nazi supporter but not all racists are.

I would imagine that most people who go out to buy Nazi war memorabilia aren’t the most wholesome people. I’ve also already said that I’m not going to throw it away.

When my grandad died my mum found he had loads and loads of Freemasons stuff - weird artefacts, robes (from all the countries he'd lived in), books and certificates - she contacted the Freemasons and found out they had a museum in London, so she donated the whole collection.
She also found that he had brought back various daggers (really vicious looking but quite ornate) from when he was in the war in India - they got donated to the local museums history collection.
Both were better than when we cleared my grandads house. When we emptied the shelves in the outside loo we found that it was full of urns of various relatives ashes that he hadn't scattered over the years 🤦‍♀️

Jeeze— RTFT, people! The OP’s father - this man’s brother described him as “a racist bugger”. I think he’d know. Meanwhile, I don’t think I’d want my kids hanging out learning his views. Six copies of “Mein Kampf” implies a rather strong fanboy! I applaud your unwillingness to benefit from this OP. I don’t actually have much faith in human conscience, but this has restored a wee bit, so thank you!

Sorry should have said *other grandad for the second one

I wonder though if a historian (with an interest in this period) would maybe be open to a zoom call with you to discuss what you have and advise where would be best to pass them on and the bonus would be that you may get some interesting information on the history of certain items or from the period.

I also think the majority of this stuff should go to a war or Holocaust museum.

Sell some of the minor stuff on eBay like coins as not all collectors are Nazis honestly.
A lot of collectors are just fascinated with coins / militaria of various wars & hold no allegiance to any side.

Personally I collect original photos of all nationalities from ww1 & ww2, as I have studied ww1 & ww2 in depth especially the Holocaust & what interests me is how so called 'ordinary people' could behave how they did. (My gran was from a Jewish background so it's personal).
I've got literally a library of books on the subject as well.
One was written in the UK by a German Jewish refugee in 1934 actually predicting the Holocaust but tragically no one listened.

If you have any photos you want to get rid of then you are welcome to pm me.
It's better that someone who collects them for decent reasons has them than someone who is a Nazi.

Omg @wonkylegs regarding relatives ashes! That's awful!

Oh for Gods sake most people don't collect Nazi memorabilia because they're massive bastard racists. They will probably collect historical or war memorabilia in general. Just stick it on FB marketplace, list it a free and have done with it. Such a non-issue

Actually my dad inherited an elderly neighbour's gun!

He always said he'd been in the special forces & as he had no family he left the job of clearing his home to my dad... who was shocked to find a working 1940s pistol next to his bed!!

My father has a small collection of war memorabilia from past and more recent wars.
He’s not a racist, far from it, he spent a long time in the army and has a very interesting display cabinet of mainly shrapnel and cartridges and some weird cannon ball holder, and then some other personal items that he came across along the way that weren’t able to be reunited with family members. He said before that he will pass it on to me when he dies (I’m not interested in any of it, he has a personal connection with his collection as he gathered it himself), I will then pass it on to anyone who might be remotely interested - not many people I guess, it’s all pretty run of the mill stuff really.
I’d suggest getting in touch with a museum or educational facility. My school uses a place down in Winchester who send out resource boxes for various topics, often including real artefacts. It’s fantastic and a brilliant way for children to have something tactile to go along with a topic to really embed their knowledge and understanding.
As horrific as some elements of the past are, we cannot and should not ever want to erase it. It’s how we have learnt and moved forwards, we should try as best we can to preserve and keep talking about it to make sure we don’t ever slip backwards.
Good luck, I would feel uncomfortable owning those items myself and want rid of them ASAP, but please make sure it ends up somewhere appropriate.

Find a university that runs a holocaust studies course and see if they want it. And I’d probably be inclined to make a donation to a holocaust survivor charity as well.

@CoronaIsWatching

Oh for Gods sake most people don't collect Nazi memorabilia because they're massive bastard racists. They will probably collect historical or war memorabilia in general. Just stick it on FB marketplace, list it a free and have done with it. Such a non-issue

But in this case it seems pretty clear: the uncle was a massive racist, and the collection wasn't general memorabilia, it was specific Nazi stuff. So, even if it's a minority of collectors, he was proof they exist. And anyone who can't understand why potentially feeding that sort of interest by making it available to all and sundry seems not to have thought it through very well. (Or just doesn't care).

I wouldn’t ever assume that anyone that collects historical artefacts was a racist - I collect a lot of antiques myself. I do, however, assume people that go out of their way to collect JUST Nazi stuff are probably fairly morally questionable. If I just sold it through EBay then there’s a good chance it would just go towards someone’s Nazi hoard. I’d have absolutely no issue with giving it to a school/ museum/ someone who collects all kinds of different stuff from a similar era though.

I'd go through it and bin anything obviously offensive but things like the coins and medals I'd sell and donate the proceeds to a suitably relevant charity.

It would definitely be better to give it to someone like a historian who studies/writes about that period or a museum. What these things represent is horrible, but it's part of history, just like medieval instruments of torture are.
Your uncle didn't sound like a very nice guy, but I feel that in principle, these things could be given away for good use.
There are a lot of people who are interested in WWII, like me, who whilst feeling reviled by such artefacts, would still want to look at them in a museum. Owning them might be a different story....I would find the books very interesting to look at (assume they're written in German though), but I wouldn't have any desire to have my own copies though! I'm sure somewhere will take them - there are a lot of pace around the country with exhibits and a lot of people with a keen interest in history wanting to see them.

Sell it and give money to charity

Sorry but this is reminding me of the Father Ted episode where he comes home to find he’s been bequeathed a whole lot of Nazi memorabilia and the room is festooned with swastika banners etc...

Seriously, I think you need to start by making a list of of what you have. Then you will be in a more informed position to dispose of it. Contacting the IMW sounds good and if they don’t want it they might be able to advise who would. And good for you trying to deal with this stuff in a responsible way!

BBC props department?

Not read all pps - but I understand this stuff may be illegal to sell and even to own - depending where you are. I believe it is illegal in Germany.