The German auction house Felzmann canceled a planned auction of Holocaust-related items, including yellow star of David-shaped badges, following a wave of protest from Holocaust survivors, memorial organizations and public figures in Poland, German media reported Sunday evening. The auction was scheduled for Monday, but the items have now been removed from the auction house’s website.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said he had discussed the issue with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul. "We agree that such a scandal must be prevented," Sikorski wrote on the X platform, adding that Holocaust victims’ belongings should not be turned into “commercial commodities.” He emphasized that Poland demands the documents be transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
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A yellow star of David badge and a Jewish prisoner uniform
(Photo: Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock)
Among the items Felzmann had listed for sale were original yellow Star of David patches with a starting price of €180, a collection of 85 postcards between a Jewish family in Poland and their children for €12,000, medical documents detailing forced sterilizations for €400 and an arrest file of a participant in the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, starting at €600.
Among the most controversial items are personal documents containing names, addresses, photos and family details of Holocaust victims — materials described by critics as “human remnants now being marketed as shelf products.”
Revital Yakin Krakovsky, CEO of March of the Living Israel, condemned the sale and called for the items to be preserved in museums. “It is deeply troubling that evidence of Nazi crimes is being sold to the highest bidder,” she said. “Faced with the choice of purchasing these items to preserve them in museums or allowing them to fall into private hands, I believe we must act to safeguard them.
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Correspondence between members of a Jewish family during the Holocaust
(Photo: Felzmann Auction House)
The International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) also called on Felzmann to cancel the auction. IAC Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner denounced the sale as “cynical and shameless,” warning that Holocaust survivors’ histories were being “exploited for commercial gain.”
“Documents relating to persecution and the Holocaust belong to the families of those who were persecuted,” Heubner said in a statement to German media. “They should be displayed in museums or in exhibitions at memorial sites and not be degraded to objects of trade.”