A man with a three-day stubble was petting his tiny dog, which was dressed in a plaid sweater. In the back row, a woman munched on a cookie while she waited for the auction to start. My bile was rising, but the reporter in me forced it down. Keep observing, take notes.
The back of the room held a glass case that pushed me over the edge. All the Nazi items had been neatly organized in their cases. This case, though, was a jumbled mess of American military items — Navy stripes, Army infantry badges, small U.
My father fought in WWII. He died a decade later after being institutionalized with PTSD. I had to say something. I noted, to two women standing nearby, the unseemly juxtaposition of pieces taken from the uniforms of Americans who had fought the Nazis, with the respectfully displayed items from the men who tried and, in many cases, succeeded in killing them.
You can find more information in our data protection declaration. Illegally displaying Nazi symbols in Germany can be punished by three years in jail. The ban broadly exempts art, but which works are allowed to show swastikas, SS sig runes and such is often more a matter of the medium. In the German version of the popular video game Wolfenstein II , swastikas have been replaced by triangular symbols and the fictional, mustacheless dictator Herr Heiler stands in for the English version's Adolf Hitler, angering many gamers.
Last week, the USK lifted its blanket ban , though symbols still must be approved. Displaying Nazi emblems in Germany is, naturally, complicated, even without the USK's guidelines for age ratings and game content. In Germany, the law considers swastikas and SS sig runes the "symbols of anti-constitutional organizations.
The Nazi salute and statements such as "Heil Hitler" are also banned in public. Swastikas and other banned symbols can, however, be displayed in Germany if they are used for "civic education, countering anti-constitutional activities, art and science, research and education, the coverage of historic and current events, or similar purposes," according to the Criminal Code. That means that movies and TV shows — Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Amazon's The Man in the High Castle , among them — are usually allowed to be distributed in Germany even if they feature swastikas and other Nazi symbols.
Whether video games should be treated like movies and TV shows are has been controversial. Though many gamers argue that video games should be treated as art, others believe that they should be held to a different standard because of their interactive and immersive nature. Posting a picture with a swastika in it or Nazi slogans on social media is illegal in Germany.
The sale of Nazi memorabilia is banned or at least restricted in a number of European countries, including Germany and France, yet it continues to be a feature of British auction houses. This is a particularly concerning problem given the dramatic increase in the number of reported anti-Semitic attacks in the UK this summer. But a recent event has led me to see it in a new light. As I scrolled through the catalogue, my reaction to these lots, shoved in between the customary, anodyne costume jewellery and wall clocks, was visceral.
Its presence in the auction room troubled me very deeply. Image source, Hermann Historica. The tip-off from a Nazi that saved my grandparents The girl who witnessed Kristallnacht.
Image source, Getty Images. Eva Braun was a long-time companion of Adolf Hitler, and briefly his wife. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
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