The Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, has confirmed the cancellation of a controversial auction involving Holocaust-related items. This decision came after discussions with German counterparts, particularly concerning an auction linked to the Felzmann auction house in Germany.
Sikorski revealed in a Polish-language post on the social media platform X that he had a conversation with German Foreign Minister @JoWadephul about the planned auction in Neuss, which featured items from the era of German terror during World War II. “We agreed that such a scandal must be prevented,” he stated, underscoring the gravity of the situation.
In an English-language post, Sikorski expressed gratitude towards Minister @JoWadephul for the cancellation of the auction, emphasizing that respect for the victims of the Holocaust demands silence rather than commercial exploitation. “Thank you, minister @JoWadephul, for the information that the offensive auction of Holocaust artifacts has now been cancelled,” he noted, highlighting the importance of maintaining dignity for those who suffered.
Minister Sikorski, who recently addressed a joint press conference at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Weimar Triangle of France, Germany, and Poland with Ukraine’s foreign minister in Warsaw, remains a vocal advocate for preserving the sanctity of Holocaust history. This recent development underscores his commitment to this cause.
The planned auction had been set to include deeply sensitive items such as letters penned by concentration camp prisoners, Gestapo index cards, and other documents from perpetrators, according to The Associated Press and German news agency dpa. This collection, tied to Nazi Germany’s heinous crimes against Jews during World War II, remains a poignant reminder of one of the darkest chapters in 20th-century history.
Nazi Germany’s horrific mass murder of Jews during World War II represents a major point in 20th century world history. Items that would have been up for auction included letters written by prisoners in concentration camps, as well as Gestapo index cards and other perpetrator documents, The Associated Press reported, citing German news agency dpa.
A photo taken 27 May 1944 in Oswiecim, showing Nazis selecting prisoners on the platform at the entrance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. (Photo by -/Yad Vashem Archives/AFP via Getty Images)
There had been pushback against the plan for the auction.
For example, the Fritz Bauer Institute strongly objected to the Holocaust-related auction in a press release.
“The Fritz Bauer Institute protests against the planned auction by the Felzmann auction house and fundamentally opposes any commercial trade in documents relating to Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. No business should be conducted with such documents,” a German-language press release declared, according to a translation.
A group of child survivors behind a barbed wire fence at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in southern Poland, on the day of the camp’s liberation by the Red Army, 27th January 1945. Photo taken by Red Army photographer Captain Alexander Vorontsov during the making of a film about the liberation of the camp. The children were dressed in adult uniforms by the Russians. The children are (left to right): Tomy Schwarz (later Shacham), Miriam Ziegler, Paula Lebovics (front), Ruth Webber, Berta Weinhaber (later Bracha Katz), Erika Winter (later Dohan), Marta Weiss (later Wise), Eva Weiss (later Slonim), Gabor Hirsch (just visible behind Eva Weiss), Gabriel Neumann, Robert Schlesinger (later Shmuel Schelach), Eva Mozes Kor, and Miriam Mozes Zeiger.
“For victims of Nazi persecution and Holocaust survivors, this auction is a cynical and shameless undertaking that leaves them outraged and speechless,” Christoph Heubner of The International Auschwitz Committee declared in a statement, according to the AP. “We urge those responsible at the Felzmann auction house to show some basic decency and cancel the auction,” he had noted in the statement, according to the outlet.
