Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, announced on Sunday that an auction of Holocaust artefacts scheduled in Germany has been cancelled. This decision came after discussions with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, highlighting concerns raised by Holocaust survivors.
A group representing Holocaust survivors had previously urged the German auction house Felzmann to withdraw from the sale of a significant collection, which included personal letters from concentration camp prisoners and documents that identified individuals involved. The auction was scheduled to take place in Neuss, near Düsseldorf, and reportedly featured more than 600 items, including Gestapo records. The auction was titled “The System of Terror.”
Sikorski expressed gratitude to Wadephul for the cancellation and emphasized the need to prevent such occurrences. The listing for the auction on the Auktionshaus Felzmann website was no longer available by Sunday afternoon. The auction house did not respond to inquiries made via email and phone on the same day.
Christoph Heubner, an executive vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee, remarked that the auction’s nature was offensive, asserting that it exploited the suffering of Nazi victims for financial gain. He noted that many documents contained identifiable names of individuals, reiterating that such artefacts should be preserved for educational purposes in museums rather than treated as commercial items.
The situation raises questions about the ethical implications of auctioning historical documents related to traumatic events, particularly in light of ongoing discussions about their appropriate custodianship and exhibition.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/16/german-auction-house-urged-to-cancel-sale-of-holocaust-artefacts