(Adnkronos) – A controversial auction of Nazi propaganda items, concentration camp documents, and other Holocaust-related objects has been canceled in Germany. Local authorities announced this: the disputed lots disappeared from the online preview of the Neuss auction house in western Germany after criticism, and the auction house director confirmed the cancellation to Nathanael Liminski, a senior official of the North Rhine-Westphalia regional government.
Both the International Auschwitz Committee and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul had strongly criticized the sale. “Such a thing is simply unacceptable, and it must be clear that we have an ethical obligation to the victims to prevent such things from happening,” Wadephul declared.
The International Auschwitz Committee announced that the lots included letters from concentration camps, Gestapo files, and other documents. Many of the items contained victims’ names and other personal information. According to the online catalog, among the items up for auction were also an anti-Jewish propaganda poster, documents on forced sterilizations, and a yellow star from the Buchenwald concentration camp. Wadephul announced that he had spoken by phone with his Polish counterpart, Radosław Sikorski, about the ‘scandalous incident’. “I fully agree with him that this attempt to profit from the crime of the Holocaust is despicable and must be stopped,” the German minister added.
