Germany’s auction house Auktionhaus Felzmann pulled its planned sale of more than 600 Holocaust‑era items after a wave of global outrage. The auction, dubbed “The System of Terror,” would have included letters written by prisoners in German concentration camps, Gestapo index cards and other documents that named survivors and victims.
The backlash started in Poland, where Radoslaw Sikorski, the deputy prime minister, called the auction “offensive” and announced its cancellation after talks with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul. “We must prevent such a scandal,” Sikorski said. The decision came just days before the auction was set to open on Monday.
A group of Holocaust survivors also demanded that the auction be stopped. They argued that selling the documents would expose the identities of loved ones and exploit the memory of Nazi persecution for profit. “This auction is a cynical and shameless undertaking that leaves us outraged and speechless,” said Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of The International Auschwitz Committee. He urged the auction house to return the papers to surviving families or to display them in museums or memorials.
By Sunday afternoon, the listing had vanished from the Felzmann website. The decision came after people worldwide—especially in Poland and among Holocaust survivors—raised concerns that the items were being sold for commercial gain rather than preserved as history.
The auction is not the first time a German auction house has faced backlash over Nazi memorabilia. In 2019, a Munich shop tried to auction a top hat owned by Adolf Hitler and a silver‑cased copy of Mein Kampf. Despite indignation from historians and politicians, the sale went ahead and collected hundreds of thousands of euros. A similar event in 2021 involved a Jerusalem‑based auction house planning to sell tattooed wrist stickers used at Auschwitz. Israel’s Holocaust memorial denounced the sale as morally unacceptable, and a court eventually suspended the auction.
The controversy underscores how sensitive Holocaust artifacts remain. Documents that record names, dates, and locations of survivors and victims carry deep personal and historical weight. Many people fear that commercial sales risk trivializing or distorting the memory of the genocide that killed six million Jews and millions of others.
Germany’s political leaders and the auction house’s board took swift action after the charges and threats from Holocaust memorials and survivors’ groups. The cancellation is seen as a victory for those who want the Holocaust legacy to be protected—rather than sold—while also signaling to foreign retailers that the matter is not negotiable.
Nation‑wide, citizens on social media and in public demonstrations made it clear that the Nazi past is not a marketable commodity. Their outcry echoes the calls of survivors who see the auction as an affront to the dignity of those who endured the empire’s brutality. Efforts to preserve the documents within museums or family estates remain a priority for those looking to honor the past responsibly.
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