One of the stories in the news this month comes from down under, courtesy of regular contributor Graham Caldwell who sent through some clippings. It’s about an auction being held in Queensland, with items from the estate of a deceased Waffen-SS officer. Now many of them appear to be the usual German militaria like daggers and medals, but in amongst these are some related to concentration camps and the persecution of the Jews. Are these genuine military collectables, or the source of morbid interest at best and neo-Nazi race doctrines at worse? In my opinion no, concentration camp items are not legitimate military collectables for someone’s private collection. They are historical items that need to be in museums to warn against the dangers of totalitarianism, fascism and racism. Does this…
