Selling Nazi artefacts

[greencurtainshanging]

I was in an antique shop last week and was surprised to spot a cabinet full of Nazi artefacts for sale. There were original armbands, some swastika cufflinks, Reich coins and original amateur photos of Hitler as well as a Nazi officer uniform.

I actually (mistakenly) thought it was illegal to sell Nazi memorabilia but apparently it's not. It's really bothered me though and while I think it's important to preserve these things so that future generations can learn, I hate the idea that someone is trading in this stuff and potentially selling it to neo Nazis. I think these items belong in a museum or an archive but they should not be up for sale.

But it got me thinking, should the trade of some things like this be regulated/banned?

Honestly I have a Nazi crab fork which I found in the garden one day: I could sell it.

The point is that these are for the most part just objects. The malice was in the people that used them and the ideology. If you can accept that then you will understand someone can own such a thing without sharing the morality.

That doesn't mean I'd be massively happy to have a flat mate with a room full of Nazi memorabilia but is the person first I think. Selling this stuff is to me okay.

I don’t think it should be illegal, but I would not buy anything from a place that sold it or be friends with anyone who bought it. I agree it would ideally be in institutional hands.

Nazi artefacts are so common that museums who want them, will already have them.

It's history. Relax.

"It's funny how you get more right wing as you get older...."

A Nazi crab fork is rather niche. How do you know it's a Nazi one? And are you in the UK, or a country where crab-eating Nazis might have been more common?

Honestly I have a Nazi crab fork

Okay seriously? You can't just say that without a photo 😮

It is odd. Found in the back garden of a house in Hertfordshire. The house was built after the war so no explanation there.

However, it has a swastika on it. Pure silver. My guess is that it was part of a much bigger set. People are used to go to Nazi Germany on honeymoon! If you were well to do in England and on the right then this was not as weird as it might seem now. People really did think the Germans had found a good way to manage their society.

The alternative, that louche members of the Luftwaffe dropped out of window on a bombing raid on London while eating a lobster is too silly.

Was it in the New Forest?

Btw if anyone does doubt me, you may Google "Nazi Lobster Fork". This was definitely a thing

Ah, I am so tired. I never had to wash up crab forks when I was in the Wehrmacht

I agree OP, and would make a strong judgement about people who own or collect these objects.

Why should it be banned? People have the right to buy and sell historical memorabilia. Is everyone going to be compensated for handing over very valuable items to these museums?

My grandad brought back a First World War German compass he found when he fought in the war. It's now part of our family history, ds took it to school when they were doing a project about the war along with grandad's medals.

Does it point to Alsace-Lorraine?

I went to Nessebar in Bulgaria a few years ago and was quite shocked to see how many souvenir shops were selling Nazi items, there was everything from armbands, daggers, posters, medals etc and I did think it was offensive.
Some of the Berlin Olympics memorabilia bearing the swastika made me wonder if this was historical or simply shouldn't be sold I didn't buy anything but many did.

People have the ‘right’ to do all sorts of things, it doesn’t mean they should though!

I'd like a picture too.

And me.

Place mark for the Nazi crab fork

Haa!! Laughing about the crab fork 😂

No, I'm not saying sales should be banned but if I were the shop owner, it's not stuff I would be willing to trade in/make money from. I'd hate to think it might somehow find its way into the hands of neo Nazis so I wouldn't want any part of that.

But I also accept the point they are just objects which symbolise a movement which ultimately ended in defeat.

I get the conflicted response. I have a couple of Nazi propaganda books I inherited that I don't want to keep but am also reluctant to sell (family member bought them because of an interest in motoring history, which is the ostensible topic of the books, not because of the Nazi link).

My father was in the Royal Marines and stationed in Northern Germany immediately after the war. He brought home a couple of Nazi official rubber stamps as souvenirs, which we still have. People were starving and only to willing to swap anything in exchange for food. I am sure a lot of small items, crab forks perhaps, ended up coming back to the UK.

This is reminding me of Father Seamus Fitzpatrick and his Nazi room. He definitely would have had a Nazi crab spoon.

@bombastix Or allied forces took them as souvenirs when they had access to Nazi buildings in the immediate aftermath of the war.