People judgmental about your collection?

**egray** · 03-21-2013, 04:22 PM

I collect paperwork of the Third Reich, letters, soldbuchs, award documents anything and everything paper. In my house I have them meticulously displayed. My parents and my girlfriend's parents don't mind, the problem comes when we have other relatives visit. I get looks and snide comments over my collection, as well as the "You're being disrespectful." Because I had relatives on both sides of my family in concentration camps.

I was curious if anyone else had to deal with an issue like this?

**bigmacglenn** · 03-21-2013, 04:28 PM

I've had to deal with similar utterances at some point throughout my life (been collecting since the age of 8)...I've stopped arguing with them and simply state "It's historical, whether you like it or not"...On one hand folks say "never forget"...but on the other hand they don't like to be reminded of these historic events...you can't win arguing with such people, in my opinion...And of course there's a difference between a tasteful, classy historic display and an outright Nazi-Glorifying display.
cheers, Glenn

**meyle77** · 03-21-2013, 04:28 PM

I keep all my items in my "office" and have no problems. I also not to keen on showing my items to anybody - "my precious" :-)

**octavian** · 03-21-2013, 04:31 PM

Thankfully, no one has come down on my collecting. I have both American and German, and other countries represented in my collection.

**Gunny Hartmann** · 03-21-2013, 04:32 PM

A couple of my daughters friends have called me a "raving Nazi" behind my back, no matter how my daughter tried to explain that i'm just a collector they still think i'm a latter day Hitler!...

**guns ltd** · 03-21-2013, 04:32 PM

i agree with Glenn:
Just tell them it is part of history and leave it at that.
We seem to live in a world of many people with all kinds of opinions.
I have a secure room in my house that is my office and I really don't show people my collection.
Just enjoy it with my forum friends and my sons.
Just my thoughts.

John

**slados28** · 03-21-2013, 04:39 PM

Funnily enough, the people that complain and make negative remarks are usually the ones with little to no knowledge/interest in the actual subject at hand. I usually chalk it down to ignorance and shrug it off, if people want to judge me as a person by an item I own... well...

**tempelhof** · 03-21-2013, 04:46 PM

i keep my collection pretty much completely secret.

by "secret" i mean that i don't even mention that i collect (the obvious exception being you good people online).
i think i have 4 people in this world that have ever seen it or know that i collect at all.

i think probably i actually keep things this way both for the sake of security and because of the potential for the issues you gentlemen raise.

i occasionally get comments about the very large number of books i have centering around this subject, but they are easier to defend in terms of their historical nature to people who may be trying to judge or pigeonhole.

**big ned** · 03-21-2013, 04:50 PM

by Gunny Hartmann

A couple of my daughters friends have called me a "raving Nazi" behind my back, no matter how my daughter tried to explain that i'm just a collector they still think i'm a latter day Hitler!...

I can't for the life of me understand why they would think that
Gunny.....