Nazi memorabilia

collectibles

in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1964. Today internationally based private collectors and traders more often are handling artifacts with a troubled past online.
Photo: Jack de Nijs / Anefo

Nazi memorabilia are items produced during the height of

uniforms, insignia, coins and banknotes, medals, flags, daggers, guns, posters, contemporary photos, books, publications, and ephemera

.

During the

Second World War, soldiers from opposing Allied forces often took small items from fallen enemies as war trophies.^[1] These and other items from this time period have since been acquired by museums and individual collectors. In Europe museums still regularly receive everyday artifacts from the Nazi era and have to deal with remnants of National Socialism and relics of war and hatred.^[2]

Market

Nazi Party uniform insignia (collar patches and cap badges), party membership pin, parade belt buckle, Nuremberg Rally

badges, etc.

In recent years the market for buying and selling Nazi memorabilia has increased.[3] As veterans pass away, some families have tried to get rid of their possessions.

Many in the general public are offended by, and condemn, auctions, militaria shops, online stores and other businesses selling Nazi 'antiques', and find the goods and commercial trading 'tasteless' and 'hateful'. Most of those wanting to restrict the trade of Nazi collectibles will accept donations to public museums though. While many private collectors are exclusively interested in the historical background and fascinated by the distinctive design of the items, some collectors are in fact political supporters of Neo-Nazism and other hate groups.^[4]

With the growing demands for Nazi memorabilia, many Jewish groups are disapproving the sale and purchase of Nazi products for leisure purposes. Others such as Haim Gertner, director of Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, believe that some of the Nazi memorabilia are worth saving, claiming that anti-Semitic history shouldn't be forgotten.^[5]^[6]

As original items from the Nazi era and Second World War are sold for high prices, there is a large amount of copies, forgeries and even inauthentic objects on the market.^[3]

Legal restrictions

SS skull-and-crossbones emblems (Totenkopf), Nazi Party

membership pins, etc.

The sale of Nazi memorabilia is strictly prohibited in some parts of Europe. In France, the Internet portal site

war crimes and crimes against humanity" by allowing such memorabilia to be sold via its auction pages.^[7]

Yahoo!'s response was to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia through its website. A Paris court cleared Yahoo! in 2003.

Fearing similar litigation, auction website

Holocaust-related products. Memorabilia such as coins, stamps, or printed period literature such as magazines, books, or pamphlets are not prohibited.^[8]

Examples

Canadian soldiers during Operation Overlord showing a captured Nazi flag as a war trophy outside Hautmesnil, France in August 1944.
Photo: National Archives of Canada
Nazi awards etc. in an antique and militaria shop in the Netherlands 1966
Photo: Jack de Nijs / Anefo
Nazi era artifacts in the
Swingtanzen verboten" sign.^[9]

Fabric intended for swastika
armbands brought home as an American soldier's personal World War II souvenir and made into a swimsuit in 1950 as an expression of disrespect. Exhibit on display in the North Carolina Museum of History
.

The eyeless 'Hitler beetle' (Anophthalmus hitleri), named after Hitler in 1933, is of interest to collectors purely because of its name and therefore in danger of extinction.