Outcry Over Nazi Documents Sale
Holocaust survivors and human rights organisations have expressed profound outrage over plans to auction hundreds of Nazi-era documents, including Gestapo execution records and letters from concentration camp prisoners. The controversial sale, scheduled for Monday at the Felzmann auction house in Neuss, Germany, has been described as 'cynical and shameless' by those representing victims of the Holocaust.
Disturbing Items for Sale
The auction, titled 'The System of Terror', features 627 historical items that document crimes committed during the Nazi regime. Among the most disturbing lots is a Gestapo card detailing the execution of a Jewish resident from the Mackheim ghetto, expected to sell for approximately 350 euros. Other items include an eight-page pamphlet promoting a 1940 anti-Jewish propaganda film with starting bids at €120, and a letter from a Polish Auschwitz prisoner dated 1940 with a €180 starting price.
Perhaps most chilling is a letter describing the death of a 'euthanised' patient at Hadamar State Hospital, a facility used for systematic killings during World War II. This document is anticipated to fetch at least €350. Another file documents the forced sterilisation of a man at Dachau concentration camp in 1937, who was deemed 'racially unclean' by Nazi authorities.
Campaigners Demand Cancellation
The International Auschwitz Committee has led condemnation of the auction, with executive Christoph Heubner stating that families of Holocaust survivors were left 'outraged and speechless' by the commercial exploitation of their suffering. He emphasised that these items rightfully belong to victims and their families and should be preserved in museums or memorial exhibitions rather than being sold to private collectors.
According to the Fritz Bauer Institute, the auction house employed questionable tactics to increase profits, including justifying higher starting prices for items that included accompanying photographs. The research centre for Nazi crimes insisted that such documents should be entrusted to public archives and memorials where they can be professionally preserved and made available for historical research while respecting copyright, personality rights, and the protective interests of affected families.
By Sunday afternoon, following mounting pressure and international criticism, the auction listing had been removed from the Felzmann website. The auction house, located just outside Dusseldorf and normally specialising in postcards, has yet to comment publicly on the controversy or confirm whether Monday's sale will proceed as planned.
