Exhibitions of Nazi art. auctions and sales of Nazi war relics are booming in West Germany. Some of this is rationalized as coming to grips with the past. But much of it is evidently catering to a growing market of morbid curio-hunters.
An exhibition of Nazi paintings, sculptures and architectural designs opened yesterday in Frankfurt amidst a wave of public protest. The display, which will continue until Dec., has been organized by the Frankfurt Art Society and a group from the local university. The organizers contended that the exhibition is “an attempt to interpret the Nazi era and to help people come to terms with the past.” An organization in Wiesbaden, dedicated to preventing the dissemination of Nazi culture, declared that the exhibition “merely glorifies the Nazi legacy.”
In Bavaria, the government there auctioned some 350 vases, statuettes and other memorabilia that once belonged to Nazi Air Force Chief Hermann Goering. A Bavarian government spokesman said the objects were of “appalling taste.” The government had inherited them after the war and had to find a way of getting rid of them the spokesman said. He had no comment as to why the government wanted to make money from the legacy of a leading Nazi, Instead of destroying the objects.
BIDDERS FROM MANY COUNTRIES
A week ago, Hermann Otto Winiarski conducted his ninth sale of curios in the Bavarian village of Toerwang and said he plans to make his auctions a regular event. Winiarski, who resides in Toerwang, reported that bidders came from many countries, including the United States, France and Britain.
In what he described as lively bidding, caps bearing the SS insignia went for as much as $150. Ceremonial SS daggers bearing swastikas sold for as much as $230. A copy of Leon Trotsky’s, autobiography, which Hitler had annotated critically, went for $750. Goering’s Mercedes was sold last month to an American buyer for more than $165,000. Some Nazi relics are still awaiting some buyers willing to pay the reserve price, like $750 for a life-sized painting of Hitler, or $4000 for a sweat-stained cap once worn by Hitler.
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