After the scandal: the sale of yellow Holocaust-era patches was canceled in Germany

Yellow patch and clothes of a Jewish prisoner

Harsh criticism sales at auction in Germany yellow patches, Jewish family cards and historical documents from the Holocaust brought results: on November 16, the German auction house Felzman stopped the sale, which was supposed to take place on November 17, at the last minute. Poland demands that the objects be transferred to the Auschwitz Museum (Auschwitz).

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he had discussed the auction with his German counterpart Johann Wadeful. “We agree that it is necessary to prevent such a scandal,” the Polish minister wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Sikorski added that items belonging to Holocaust victims cannot end up in a “commercial place” and that Poland demands that the documents be transferred to the Auschwitz museum.

The German auction house put up for sale original yellow stripes at a starting price of 180 euros, correspondence between parents and children from a Jewish family in Poland (85 postcards) at a starting price of 12,000 euros, medical documents documenting forced sterilization at a price of 400 euros, and a dossier of one of the participants in the assassination attempt on Hitler at a starting price of 600 euros.

In addition, the auction house intended to sell personal documents containing names, addresses, photographs and family information of the victims.

Ravital Yachin-Krakowski, general director of March of the Living in Israel, said efforts should be made to get the items into museums. “It is very sad that evidence of Nazi crimes is being auctioned off to the highest bidder,” she said, adding that the items should be bought back and preserved.

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