A controversial auction in Germany, which included artefacts from Nazi concentration camps such as Buchenwald and Auschwitz, has been cancelled following widespread public condemnation. The decision was announced by Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, who expressed gratitude to his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, for ensuring that ‘such a scandal must be prevented.’ The auction, organized by German auction house Felzmann in Neuss, was set to feature over 600 items, including a letter from an Auschwitz prisoner and medical records detailing the forced sterilisation of a Dachau prisoner. The sale faced immediate backlash from Holocaust survivors’ groups and politicians, who argued that such items should not be commodified. Sikorski emphasized on social media that ‘respect for victims requires the dignity of silence, not the din of commerce.’ By Sunday afternoon, the auction listing had been removed from Felzmann’s website. German State Minister for Culture Wolfram Weimer stated that documents and expert reports by Nazi perpetrators should not be part of private collections and called for measures to prevent similar auctions in the future. Christoph Heubner of the International Auschwitz Committee condemned the auction as ‘cynical and shameless,’ urging that these artefacts belong to the families of the victims and should be displayed in museums or memorial exhibitions. Poland’s Culture Minister, Marta Cienkowska, announced an investigation into the provenance of the artefacts to determine if any should be repatriated to Poland. Auschwitz, a central site in the Nazi campaign to exterminate Europe’s Jewish population, saw nearly one million Jewish deaths, alongside Poles, Roma, and Russian prisoners of war.
German auction of Nazi concentration camp items cancelled, Polish minister says
