Neuss (North Rhine-Westphalia) – There are relics documenting the horrors: personal letters from concentration camp prisoners, Gestapo index cards, documents about forced sterilizations – and even a Jewish star from the Buchenwald concentration camp.
An auction house in Neuss want to auction it all off. Now sales have stopped. The NRW state government announced: The auction plan has been cancelled. The auction house originally wanted to auction the items starting Monday under the title “The Terror System, Volume II” – unedited, with photos, names and addresses of those persecuted. Sometimes even with references to their descendants.
These objects come from private collectors. Felzmann’s auction house usually sells coins and stamps.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (62, CDU) on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers on the situation in the Western Balkans
Sharp protest from politics
criticism of auction coming fast and hard. The International Auschwitz Committee first protested. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul then also spoke: “This kind of thing is completely inappropriate, and it should be clear that we have an ethical obligation to the victims to prevent such things,” said Wadephul.
400 euros collected for forced sterilization paperwork
He spoke with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski (62) about the “terrible events”. Both agreed: “This attempt to capitalize on the crimes of the Shoah is abhorrent and must stop.”
“Cynical and shameless”
Christoph Heubner (76), Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, stated on Saturday in Berlin: Those Who Survived Auschwitz disaster and their relatives saw the auction plan as a “cynical and shameless enterprise”.
A Jewish family’s 85-card correspondence between parents and children forced to do hard labor in various labor camps will also be auctioned.
Their accusation: The suffering of Nazi victims was misused for profit. “The documents of the persecution and the Holocaust belong to the families of those who were persecuted,” Heubner said. They should be displayed in museums and memorials – not auctioned off.
There was no comment from the auction house
Resistance also occurs on online platforms. Opponents of the auction in Neuss (North Rhine-Westphalia) called for a protest. Felzmann’s auction house could not be reached for comment Sunday.
