An auction of items and documents from Holocaust victims was withdrawn a day before it was scheduled to take place in Neuss, Germany. Among the list of items, there were a collection of documents titled “System of Terror Vol II,” dating from 1933 to 1945.
The auction list included documents on forced sterilisation carried out at the Dachau concentration camp, identification documents and passports of Jews who managed to flee persecution to Chile and Argentina, “life saving documents” such as a release form for a prisoner who was able to leave the Mauthausen concentration camp, and three journal notebooks of an anonymous Polish Jew who survived the war. The auction also considered to include worn Stars of David from the Buchenwald concentration camp and a Star of David armband.
Prior to the cancellation, the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) had urged the Felzmann Auction House not to hold the event. IAC Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner stated that the action was “cynical and shameless” and that the history of Holocaust survivors was “being exploited for commercial gain.”
“Documents relating to persecution and the Holocaust belong to the families of those who were persecuted,” he attested. “They should be displayed in museums or in exhibitions at memorial sites and not be degraded to objects of trade.”
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also called the auction “offensive” and wrote on X that “such a scandal must be prevented”, later saying he was pleased to hear it had been called off. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also criticised the auction, stating that “something like this is simply unacceptable, and it must be clear that we have an ethical obligation to the victims to prevent such things.”
German State Minister for Culture Wolfram Weimer affirmed that “documents or expert reports by Nazi perpetrators that were offered at the auction are not for private collections. These historical documents of suffering and crime belong in memorials, museums and research institutions.”
