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On July 19th, four sketches by Adolph Hitler are to be privately auctioned in Montreal. The sketches were made in charcoal, colored pencil and ink and are architectural in nature. Also up for auction are two Christmas cards which are dated 1935 and 1938, and bear Hitler's personal seal and signature.

When asked about the morality of the auction, the auctioneer responded, ""I am simply doing my duty, which is to transmit history to other people and to preserve objects that are important for humanity."

The Canadian Jewish Congress is calling the auction offensive and states, "This is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the end of Hitler's regime, and there are still ... 15,000 in Canada who will be legitimately outraged by this desecration of the memory of what they suffered and of those who died."

The complete story can be found here.

I personally believe that it is important to preserve history, warts and all; however, I don't think that an auction is the way to go about it. An auction's sole purpose is to produce a profit and there is no way to ensure how the items will be used by the buyer, or who the buyer actually is. Many historic artifacts have been lost by way of auctions.

If the motivation behind the auction truly is to preserve these sketches and cards as the auctioneer states, the items should be donated to a museum where they would be properly displayed and put into the context of the bigger picture and used to educate the public on both Hitler and the Holocaust.


"The Holocaust was not just a Jewish experience. It is an experience of great importance to the whole world,"
- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

"Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana


Update:
The man who will be taking bids on several sketches and postcards by Adolf Hitler at a local auction later this month said he hates the Nazi dictator and all tyrants as much as anyone, but he is merely doing his job.

Read the rest of the article here.


Expat Talkback:
What is your opinion of the auction?