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?

I do love a Fanta 😬

Yes a lot of what is sold here as Hitler or Nazi items at UK auctions are modern items. Perhaps not true copies of real items. The lobster fork emblem can presumably be researched and dated fairly tightly.

Before they came to be associated with Hitler and National Socialism, swastikas were a fairly common friendship or good-luck symbol.

No it has little wings around it, squared end. It is certainly Nazi

I’ve never seen a lobster fork before. That one gives me the creeps.

Was going to say I didn't know that snippet of information but apparently the only thing linking it back is the name and that Coca-Cola manufactured it. I'm so glad they totally changed the recipe 😂

a recipe within the limitations imposed by wartime rationing. It was basically made from the leftovers of other food industries: fruit shavings, apple fibers and pulp, beet sugar, and whey, the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained during cheese production.

In April 1955, Coca-Cola reintroduced Fanta with a new recipe, this time as an orange-flavored drink.

I have a Kipling book from about 1910 with one on the cover because of the Indian connection. Unlike the lobster fork, it doesn't include Hitler's initials and a big Nazi angel thing.

I don't read it in public, though, despite knowing the harmlessness of the publisher's intention.

fruit shavings, apple fibers and pulp, beet sugar, and whey

Can't imagine why they changed that winning formula.

Name changed…

I'm really surprised by the responses here. My son (and I) are really interested in history. He's interested in war memorabilia (medals etc) and researching into the people behind the artefacts. He nearly bought a nazi war medal purely for the historical interest. He decided against it, but it wouldn’t have bothered me if he did. It never crossed my mind people would be so offended. Humans are basically horrible anyway- many historical artefacts have an unpleasant history.

Things are things. People are evil. Lest we forget and all that…

Ps there’s loads of stuff readily available in antique shops all over.

I did a smug chuckle to myself that I understood this reference. Good old A-Level History!

This is not my actual fork but this what it looks like

Never did A Levels but even i understood it, think it's taught even before you choose your subjects at secondary? I agree it was a very clever comment though.

@bombastix that looks the same as the lobster fork. Now I've got to go down the rabbit hole of shellfish cutlery sighs

EDIT - SHRIMP FORKS?!?!
A crab fork (similar to, and sometimes synonymous with, a shrimp fork)

This. And people here are talking as if the Nazi regime was just another forgotten byway of history. It wasn't and isn't. People who sell this stuff know exactly the sort of people who buy it, and they're not the sort that decent businesses deal with. These are cult objects.
Late husband was a military historian and collected rifles and carbines. Some of his collection came from the Royal Armouries, whom he advised on 19th century Austrian bolt-action rifles. He collected all sorts of stuff for academic research but he wouldn't have this stuff in the house.

Yeah, it's a bit grim and it is illegal in some areas of the Europe, as I understand it. I think it probably shouldn't be allowed to be sold, but how that would work in practice I don't know. I also try ink that holocaust denial should be illegal here too, tbh.

I teach History and when I first started a child brought a Hitler Youth dagger in that had belonged to his grandad. This stuff is everywhere

It's surprisingly common. I used to work in antiques and there is a LOT around. I have some personal experience - after my grandfather passed we found a box in the attic with a pair of Nazi pistols in it. Stamped with the eagle and everything. He was in Europe during the war so we guess he must have picked them up (or taken them off someone). We never knew he had them.

Being pistols we handed them over to the police, none of us had interest in keeping them and we didn't at the time know anyone who would be licensed to keep them privately.

My Grandad brought home a Nazi photo album that they gave out to the soldiers, he spent what must have need on age scraping the swastika off the front but you can still see it. He saw auschwitz and came back from the war a deeply traumatised young man, we didn't even know he had it until it came time to clear the house out turns out the album itself is very common.

I have inherited a Nazi medal from my great grandmother for being a prolific breeder. We’re not sure how she acquired it as a) she was living in U.K. and b) she was Jewish. My great uncle said that it was to protect the family in case of a German invasion.

@DeadButDelicious was he Russian ?

For 'angel', read 'eagle'. No idea what autocorrect was up to there.

I knew about the motherhood medals, but the story of how that particular one reached its destination must be fascinating.

@LittleGreenDragons Don't remember it at GCSE but that's a good way in the distance, and some days now I forget I'm wearing my glasses on my head. 😂

No, from the north of England.

I'm not sure why they would be banned. They are part of history, just as roman coins or neolithic axes are.

I can see how they might cause an issue in Germany where AfD is a force and there are extremists who revere such things, but in the UK....

I have some stamps with Hitler on, and some items my mum brought back from the war. Old newspapers, photos, documents, some cufflinks etc. I wouldn't sell them. I might give them to a museum, although I doubt anyone would want them.