'Internet site makes money through nazi stuff'

[Feuerbach]

Today in the Dutch new papers (and translated to English for you guys);

AMSTERDAM -
Clothing from camp Auschwitz - pajamas , original daggers of the Hitler Youth , Hitler and SS dolls clothes: it's all for sale , and is sometimes asked for sale on Marktplaats.


The sales site acts according to a recent census in two thousand Nazi - related items . In the broadcast of consumer program Kassa tonight jewish lawyer Spong argues that Marketplace acts in this illegal ones . The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI ) wants as mother company eBay takes responsibility Marketplaats.
Auction site eBay has recently taken all Nazi stuff from the website and has donated the money to a charity as compensation. CIDI will take legal action against Marketplaats. The site claims that they comply with the law and puts the responsibility on the users down . However, lawyer Gerard Spong argues that the company is violating the law : Article 137E of the Criminal Code states that nazi stuff can not be sold . One should also not earn money with Nazi articles . Previously insisted include Rabbi Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles to all the internet sites to stop the auctioning of this nazi stuff .

Well thats another good internet selling site down the drain. Seems like its getting harder and harder to sell and buy III Reich items. Strange enough this only counts for ww1 and ww2 German stuff, and that jewish layer Spong and the CIDI has no problems with Americain ww2 or other regimes.

[Scout]

Thats the problem with blanket laws. Strictly speaking, 'lager' items/clothing were made within the TR system, but I bet thats not what was originally thought of.

[stuka f]

Still got ad's going on MP with swa's...need to check that.
Thanks for pointing it out!
|<ris

[Feuerbach]

Israel has made billions over the years with Auschwitz guided tours (60 euros for 3 hours).
The problem is however people are being told collecting III Reich items as being weird, strange and even sick. I once recieved a very rude email from a (jewish) man calling me a dirty nazi and other names I will not repeat here. When I replied and told him that if he was offended by German items being sold on that site, he just shouldn't be looking on the ww2 site at all. He replied stating I was even dumber than he thought. I did some research on the guy, and found out he works at a war museum! After mailing the museum where he works, and sending them the emails he had sent me they simply told me it was wwrong making money on ww2 German stuff, and that I should not sell it but donate it to the museum! And I wasn't even selling something with a swastica on it or so, but I offered a pair of Y straps on internet!

[stuka f]

I have been a antique dealer for greatest part of my life and found it always very difficult working (selling!) to musea in general!
I had ( and still have) some things who belonged to our previous queen's grand father. The response I got when asking if they might be intrested in purchasing it, was that I could offer it! And that was before they were in need of money!!!;-)
cheers
|<ris

[Scout]

When I was (even more) naive and thought the best of people and institutions (years and years ago), I thought museums were beacons of integrity.
I have since learned otherwise.
The horror stories of some museums having fakes in their displays, forgetting where things came from, misplacing items and last but certainly not least selling items - some donated - are legion!

[Spitace41]

I too would be worried about donating items to a museum. I have heard too many stories of items donated being left to sit in drawers in a back room. Also funnily enough I was reading through and old Classic Arms and Armour magazine the other day and came across a name I recognized in the dealer section. Turns out this bloke is now the curator of a museum. Just made me think.

[stuka f]

The Brussels military museum as been lutted by people working there ever since! Things could be ordered.
And exept of the personal hand gun of von Rundstedt,that is missing sinds the early '80 ties, you would hardly notice.
|<

[CARL]

Israel has made billions over the years with Auschwitz guided tours (60 euros for 3 hours).

????

You are clearly not aware of the site and the enormous costs involved in its maintenance. Please read the link below, it will give you a brief insight into the difficulties facing the administrators of the Auschwitz Museum.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Cash crisis threat to Auschwitz

Despite the site being recognised by Unesco's World Heritage List in the late 1970's, no financial assistance came from the outside world until the 1990's. The annual budget is 10 million dollars - which barely covers the day-to-day operational costs and staff salaries (some 250 people strong). The sheer scale of the site is immense - Auschwitz-II, Birkenau is the size of a town. Anybody who has been there would understand this and also realise the enormous costs involved- No fee is charged to enter the site either, only for guided tours. The money helps to preserve the hundreds of buildings and remnants of this historically important site for the future.

[Gunny Hartmann]

Israel has made billions over the years with Auschwitz guided tours (60 euros for 3 hours).
The problem is however people are being told collecting III Reich items as being weird, strange and even sick. I once recieved a very rude email from a (jewish) man calling me a dirty nazi and other names I will not repeat here. When I replied and told him that if he was offended by German items being sold on that site, he just shouldn't be looking on the ww2 site at all. He replied stating I was even dumber than he thought. I did some research on the guy, and found out he works at a war museum! After mailing the museum where he works, and sending them the emails he had sent me they simply told me it was wwrong making money on ww2 German stuff, and that I should not sell it but donate it to the museum! And I wasn't even selling something with a swastica on it or so, but I offered a pair of Y straps on internet!

Please don't think what i'm saying is aimed at you personally Feurbach, i do realise that you may feel hurt from the emails you received from the Jewish guy but we all have to realise feelings still run very deep.
My wife is a quarter Jewish and thinks there is nothing wrong with me collecting TR items, to her "it's all part of history", on the other hand she works for a Jewish family who lost many relatives in the death camps, there's no way my wife or i would mention to them that i collect nazi memorabilia. The feeling in the family run so deep that when they were flying to Israel the plane developed a fault and was diverted to a German airport, they refused to get off the plane and step onto German soil, they were allowed to stay on the aircraft while it was repaired.
By collecting TR items we will always leave ourselves open to criticism, i've been called a "raving nazi" by one of my daughters friends but i just shrug it off.
"Israel has made billions over the years with Auschwitz guided tours" sorry that isn't true as the money made from guided tours is used for for upkeep of the memorial and for staff wages.