I'm Jewish. I just found a bunch of Nazi stuff in my late father in law's things. Now what?

[Mitlov]

Not in terms of emotions. He's dead, we were never that close, it is what it is.

But in practical terms. I really don't want to own a Nazi coat, Nazi hat, Nazi knives, or a Nazi medal. I don't want to go the pawn shop route and make the day of some neo-Nazi searching for Nazi memorabilia. But the trash bin feels somehow not appropriate given the historical significance of the objects, no matter how awful that history is.

Any ideas? I'm at a total loss.

 

[pdg]

Museum?

 

[drop bear]

Or an RSL. Or whatever is your equivalent .

RSL National • Returned and Services League of Australia

 

[Danny T]

My father had several items from his service during WWII in the Philippines. Japanese uniform, sword, rifle. We gave it all to the WWII Museum in New Orleans, La. They were very appreciative of it.

 

[granfire]

Sounds like some memorabilia. I second and third the donation route.
It would have been interesting to know how he got the stuff. But some things can't be talked about.

 

[Deleted member 39746]

Antiques shop or museum, depends if you want to make a profit or not/how much. Or just keep it.

and i would go with a antiques shop or auction it etc as pawn shops tend to not give you a lot for things since they dont specialise in said clientele to sell it at high prices.

 

[Mitlov]

Sounds like some memorabilia. I second and third the donation route.
It would have been interesting to know how he got the stuff. But some things can't be talked about.

That would be an awkward family conversation because they're not war souvenirs; he wasn't in WWII and, my family members who did serve in WWII, all served in the Pacific. I'm not happy he had them, but speculating with his family about why he did isn't going to do anybody any good.

I'll look into the donation route, thanks everyone.

 

[granfire]

That would be an awkward family conversation because they're not war souvenirs; he wasn't in WWII and, my family members who did serve in WWII, all served in the Pacific. I'm not happy he had them, but speculating with his family about why he did isn't going to do anybody any good.

I'll look into the donation route, thanks everyone.

Sometimes these conversations need to be had.
one quarter of my family I know they were Nazis. My great uncle was in the party, as grandmother proudly proclaimed, before it was fashionable, or mandatory.
In his favor though, he died before anything really happened.
Grandpa saw the light at the end of the tunnel (too bad it was a train - the punishment for those not believing was swift and without recourse.

The otherside, dark horse.
I do know that the other grandpa had foreign workers on the farm.
It didn't make much sense at the time, french, italian, polish....
The Polish men were not there voluntarily, neither were the French. The Italians might have been much later, as there were a lot of Italians coming across the Alpes to work.
It was never spoken of the family's stance.(But I am assuming they were not objecting. All survived)

You won't have to write a book like this one journalist who resides in Switzerland I assume.
He found out that his great aunt had a lovely dinner party/ball, and between the main course and desert she invited her esteemed guests out back to shoot 180 jewish people, who had in the meantime been forced to dig their own grave and strip naked.

The lady was a fixture in post war society, and still very rich. And the de-facto head of the house after they all lost their land and money in Hungary
She was a household name! Post War! And obviously plenty of people knew. Nobody spoke.

https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Family-Sacha-Batthyány-ebook/dp/B01FG33QME

I can only imagine what this book caused around family functions.

So this isn't a 'family heirloom for you, you don't know where it came from.
If it is actually old, donate it to the museum. (if you are not sure about their collection, we have a really good one, with lots of WWII stuff in the collection)

Unless you are afraid he was cosplaying in the basement...maybe he has made a note of where he got this from?

We don't have to sign you up for the PBS show, 'Follow your Roots"?

if it's not new (and there is plenty) toss it.
Cut the insignias and buttons off and dump it in the goodwill bucket.

But have a cold one. We learn so much after a person is gone, and we clean their junk out!

 

[hoshin1600]

"Never Forget " is a popular phrase but the key lesson is that,,,,had you been in there, the likely hood that you (general You) would have been some golden light of morality who would not have participated, like the rest of the 90 million people, is almost a zero percent chance. when reading history we always read the narrative placing ourselves as the victim when the reality is that most certainly we would have been the maleviolent, evil perpetrator. that is the lesson. that this is what people are capable of..and we are people just like they were.
dont believe me?... look at the Stanford experiment. normal youths couldnt last more than 6 days before they turned into the same evil.

 

[granfire]

"Never Forget " is a popular phrase but the key lesson is that,,,,had you been in there, the likely hood that you (general You) would have been some golden light of morality who would not have participated, like the rest of the 90 million people, is almost a zero percent chance. when reading history we always read the narrative placing ourselves as the victim when the reality is that most certainly we would have been the maleviolent, evil perpetrator. that is the lesson. that this is what people are capable of..and we are people just like they were.
dont believe me?... look at the Stanford experiment. normal youths couldnt last more than 6 days before they turned into the same evil.

there is a difference between not fighting it, and making mass murder a dinner party game.

 

[Mitlov]

To clarify, he was a kid in California during WWII, not an actual Nazi committing war crimes. These are things he bought in the 50s and 60s for reasons I'll never understand...but not something he personally was issued or anything like that.

 

[granfire]

To clarify, he was a kid in California during WWII, not an actual Nazi committing war crimes. These are things he bought in the 50s and 60s for reasons I'll never understand...but not something he personally was issued or anything like that.

well, like I said, this will make for some interesting family conversations.
You never know a person until you dig through their private stuff.

the fact that he acquired much later makes for an interesting detail.
But there is really nothing you can do about!
I guess at this point, scratch your head, and let it go.
Unless you find diaries to go with them, you will never know!

 

[punisher73]

To clarify, he was a kid in California during WWII, not an actual Nazi committing war crimes. These are things he bought in the 50s and 60s for reasons I'll never understand...but not something he personally was issued or anything like that.

My dad was a big history buff and his main area was WW2. He even co-authored a series of 3 books on 3rd Reich Naval uniforms. For many people who collect military memorabilia, the German "Nazi" stuff was the hardest and more expensive items. This became what was sought after due to those reasons. To make a poor analogy due to the history of what the Nazi's did, it is why people collect the Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth cards if they are really into collecting baseball cards, or why people what the first appearance of Batman in Detective Comics or the first Superman.

It could be something like this and has/had nothing to do with beliefs on the Nazi party.

 

[DaveB]

Burn it all.

 

[Dirty Dog]

ATTENTION ALL USERS:

If you want to talk about ways to get rid of an unwanted collection, that's fine. But this is turning political, and that means it will be locked unless you redirect yourselves.
If you want to discuss politics, take it to US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum where it belongs.

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Mark A Cochran
@Dirty Dog
MartialTalk Senior Moderator

 

[pdg]

Burn it all.

Good plan.

Sweep it all under the rug, ignore that anything ever happened.

That way, if it happens again in 50 years everyone will have the "I never knew" defence.



Edit: I notice that my comment was the only one you disagree with...

 

[Buka]

On a five month trip across the country in ninety five one of our dogs got sick in Texas. The elderly couple who ran the camp grounds we were staying in sent us to the local vet. We ended up staying for four days as our pup healed up. The couple, Jim and Patty, invited us to their home, right behind the camp grounds, for dinner.

Jim was retired Air Force fighter pilot. He was shot down in both World War 2 and in Korea. Evaded capture both times. Jim was also a collector. He had several dozen mannequins in his rather large home, all mannequins were wearing uniforms to display. Uniforms from the Civil War, both North and South, from World War I, from WW2 and from Korea. He had uniforms from all sides in all wars.

Amongst them were several Japanese uniforms and two German uniforms - a regular soldiers uniform and one of an officer in the Luftwaffe. I had seen plenty of American soldiers memorabilia, but none of enemy combatants.

I found it fascinating to look at in detail. I hope you donate it to a museum or a collector.
IMO, it would be a shame to destroy a historical artifact.

 

[Xue Sheng]

On a five month trip across the country in ninety five one of our dogs got sick in Texas. The elderly couple who ran the camp grounds we were staying in sent us to the local vet. We ended up staying for four days as our pup healed up. The couple, Jim and Patty, invited us to their home, right behind the camp grounds, for dinner.

Jim was retired Air Force fighter pilot. He was shot down in both World War 2 and in Korea. Evaded capture both times. Jim was also a collector. He had several dozen mannequins in his rather large home, all mannequins were wearing uniforms to display. Uniforms from the Civil War, both North and South, from World War I, from WW2 and from Korea. He had uniforms from all sides in all wars.

Amongst them were several Japanese uniforms and two German uniforms - a regular soldiers uniform and one of an officer in the Luftwaffe. I had seen plenty of American soldiers memorabilia, but none of enemy combatants.

I found it fascinating to look at in detail. I hope you donate it to a museum or a collector.
IMO, it would be a shame to destroy a historical artifact.

In a local armor near me they still have, complete, unissued Civil War Union Uniforms, right down to the boots

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

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@kempodisciple
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