"The trade always gets good money for quality things, and the design and quality of the German stuff is particularly good. But I had no idea it was going to go mad like that."
And yet, the signs have been there. In November, a single bedsheet "believed" to have belonged to Hitler sold for £2000. In 2010, historian David Irving sold Hitler's walking stick to a New York collector for more than £7000. He is now offering single strands of Hitler's hair at £1000 each. And in 2009, the metal sign over the entrance to Auschwitz, with the words Arbeit mach frei ("Work sets you free"), was stolen, apparently to order.
On Friday, just two days after the Bristol sale, Mullocks in Shropshire sold a large stash of Hitler photos and paperwork for thousands of pounds.
Many collectors say their interest is purely historical. Malcolm Fisher, a dealer who runs the website Regimentals, believes that for some of his clients there is a "buffoon element" to owning something bearing a swastika. "It's something you can use to shock your mates," he says.
But some suspect a more sinister motive. Ann Widdecombe, a Tory MP until 2010, was disgusted by the sale: "It's very disturbing that this trade exists. I mean, who is paying £28,000 for that? And what else are they doing?" Peter Hain, the shadow Welsh Secretary, who campaigns for United Against Fascism, described the auction as obscene.
There is no legislation in Britain against the trade of Nazi memorabilia, and no plans to ban it, but in France, Germany, Austria and Hungary it is illegal. In 2001, eBay imposed a ban on "items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance", singling out Nazi memorabilia and books such as Mein Kampf. Sotheby's and Christie's do not trade in Third Reich material, and Bonhams has stopped accepting it.
Clive Cockram is a private collector of World War II memorabilia, whose purchases included a 1928 copy of Mein Kampf, a book by Hermann Goering, and an SS dinner plate. For him, these items are simply of historical interest. "You can't sweep it all under the carpet and pretend none of it ever happened."
Does Dreweatts have an ethical problem profiting from the regime that murdered six million Jews? "For me, personally, no," says Claridge. "My son is a soldier: he fought in Afghanistan. I was brought up with the military. Everybody realises that what the Nazis did was completely wrong. But the Holocaust should be explained to the younger generation, and, yes, you should be allowed to collect these things. People think it's perpetuating neo-Nazis. But that's a big paranoia. It's like collecting Roman helmets: you wouldn't buy them because you were a Caesar supporter."
The Imperial War Museum in London has a large collection of Nazi and Holocaust artefacts, some of which it buys at public auction. Richard Westwood-Brookes, a historical documents specialist at Mullocks, believes it is important that Third Reich documentation is preserved. "The moment you start to push this out of view, it lets in the Holocaust deniers. Anybody who comes to one of my sales will be in no doubt that the Holocaust happened."
- Independent
