The head of a leading Holocaust charity has repeated a call for the government to consider legislation prohibiting the sale of Nazi memorabilia, after a UK auction house sold a Nazi artefact for tens of thousands of pounds last Friday.
The Holocaust Educational Trust's Karen Pollock, said the sale of a Blutorden (Blood Order) Medal by Hanson’s auctioneers in Derby was “not appropriate”, adding that it might be “time for clearer regulation on the sale of these items.”
The medal, which was awarded to Ulrich Graf, who served as a bodyguard to Hitler, was included as a lot in Hansons’ “Militaria” auction on July 26. Its asking price was between £3,500-£4,000 but it sold for around ten times that - £36,500.
Adrian Stevenson, an expert for the auctioneers, told the Telegraph that the sale was “a world-record price for a medal of its type - a phenomenal result”, describing it as “a remarkable historical piece with a huge story to tell.”
The medal was presented to Graf in 1933, months after the Nazis took power in Germany, to commemorate a decade since the Nazis’ failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch.
In the middle of the failed coup attempt, an altercation between Nazi paramilitary units and armed police led to shots being fired, killing sixteen Nazis and four policemen. Graf, an amateur wrestler, had shielded Hitler with his own body, taking five bullets.
Having served in the SA, Graf would go on to serve in the SS. In 1948 he was sentenced to five years of hard labour. He died in 1950, with his family selling all his belongings later that decade, having no desire to keep anything associated with the Nazis.
Mr Stevenson described the seller to the Telegraph as “a British doctor who had a large collection of German Third Reich medals.”
He said that some countries, including France, had banned the sale of such items, but said he thought “that does a disservice to the victims of the Nazis, it is almost like sweeping it under the carpet.”
Ms Pollock, however, said that it had long been HET’s view that “it is not appropriate for items like this to be on the market for personal profit or macabre interest”, saying that such items should rather be “placed in archives, museums or in an educational context.
“Several leading auction houses and online sites already rightly refuse to sell such material and many countries have banned the sale of Nazi memorabilia. Perhaps it is time for clearer regulation on the sale of these items here in the UK. ”
A spokesperson for Hansons told the Telegraph that while they respected Ms Pollock’s view, “we also fully respect the historical importance of the objects we sell.
“It's impossible to ignore history or brush away the past. This item was sold purely as an historical object.”
