There's a strange trade these days in Nazi memorabilia. This was discussed a couple of years back in The Independent, which noted among other things that the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei sign had been stolen back in 2009. Although subsequently recovered, it had been cut into three pieces, and was apparently taken for trade into the world of nazi memorabilia, of which this would of course have been the crown jewel.
In some countries the trade in Nazi memorabilia is illegal, and this has lead to international on-line businesses, such as Ebay for example banning the listing of such items (other than stamps and coins). Of course it's perfectly legal in this country, and I'm not saying it shouldn't be. But so is pornography, and legal doesn't mean above criticism.
The usual justification proffered by sellers collectors is that this is part of history and shouldn't be swept under a rug or ignored. That sounds reasonable -- for a museum. But there's still something creepy about this business, which seems to have moved away from actual historical memorabilia into the realm of reproductions, for which the historicity justification seems to become rather attenuated.
With Nazi memorabilia banned from Ebay, a variety of websites have arisen to serve the market. These sites have a number of common features. (Note: because I don't want to provide traffic to these sites, no hot links will be provided.)
Use of disclaimers
It's common to see some sort of disclaimer, such as "you agree not to be offended if you click here". I'm not sure what legal purpose these disclaimers serve, because as I said above, the trade is legal in this country, although there may be a cultural or social purpose, such as seeking to avoid an imputation of affinity with Nazi ideology, or whatever.
For example, www.thirdreichmilitarydepot.com has an entry page which pretends to disavow a political motive in selling:
... authentic World War II collectibles from the Nazi Party including combat, political, and civil organizations such as the Allgemeine and Waffen SS, Hitler Youth, BDM, Luftwaffe, Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine, NSKK, NSFK, Polizei, etc.
Note that just to fully understand the disclaimer, one has to be somewhat conversant with Nazi era terms and acronyms. But just to be sure, to actually enter the site, one must attest to the following:
BY CLICKING THIS LINK AND ENTERING THIRD REICH DEPOT, I AGREE THAT I WILL NOT BE OFFENDED BY THE CONTENT OF THIS WEBSITE OR THE ITEMS FOR SALE.
For more details on this policy, you are invited to go to the website's Terms and Conditions page, which appears however to be only accessible once you click the link. I wasn't willing to agree not to be offended so I didn't actually enter the site.
A similar procedure is followed by www.militarywarehouse.com, which states that it "does not support or glorify Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan" but which nevertheless advertises for sale various "relics" using at the top of the page a photo on the right of some kind of Nazi uniform cap, and on the left what appears to be a Nazi symbol of some sort.
Sale of genuine historic material
In some cases, there are actual historically valuable items for sale, but IMHO this is just wrong, at least in the instances I saw. I mentioned /www.militarywarehouse.com above, this site offers (as of 2/19/14), identification papers (lot #C1276, $95) issued to three different workers from occupied Poland or some other east European country, probably brought to Germany as slave laborers.
Seems like if there was a real historic interest to this in the parties to this sale, there should be some provenance provided with the item, such as where were the papers recovered, etc. Each of these items has a photo of the worker, and all of them are women.
These materials belong in a museum or a university, and should be studied for clues about the Nazi forced labor regime, and maybe even these women, or more likely their descendants, could be located and these items returned to them. Crass sale of these to just anyone doesn't right.
Overt Nazi imagery and reproductions
Once you get into the area of Nazi reproductions and explicit Nazi imagery, the really crazy stuff comes out.
Another site, www.ww2germanmilitaria.com, has a banner which has a red background over which is superimposed an Iron Cross from the Nazi era (swastika in the center), with the website's name in the German frakture script. There, you could buy (Ref #: D-REP-1) the following reproduction:
Concentration Camp Jacket - Jewish Kapo
"
Kapo" was the name for prisoner trustees at concentration camps. This particular item, the reproduction of a Kapo jacket comes complete with a yellow star of David sewn over the right chest area.
The full crazy.
As creepy and strange as the sale of reproduction kapo concentration garb may be, it is by no means the craziest. That title has to belong to www,pzg,biz, with "pzg" standing for "PanZerGrenadier", a term used by the German army in WW2.
The opening banner has six images (Iron Cross, again with swastika), followed by apparently recent color images done in in propaganda styles, of a soldier wearing a WW2 German helmet with the SS rune symbol on the side, Hitler giving the Nazi salute at a rally, and three war pictures.
Right below that, the owner, Michael Kelly, shows himself dressed in what appears to be a German uniform, complete with a cap bearing the Death's Head symbol (used by Nazi concentration camp guards), knee high black boots, and his two (naturally) German shepherd dogs.
Scroll down for their wares, and you'll find, inter alia:
* Calendars ("Imported from the fatherland", "Nazi war heros", "Pictures for everyday of the year".)
* Cards ("Hitler paintings reproduced on greeting cards!")
* CDs ("Rousing nazi march music of the Third Reich soldier!"
* a "brilliantly life like Adolf Hitler" bust "imported from Europe"
* a Heinrich Himmler action figure ("Himmler looks like he's alive")
* a coffee mug with an image of Zyklon B poison gas cannister label.
* mouse pads (who uses those anymore?) in various Nazi themes
* And while placing one's orders, www.pzg allows you to "click here" to get lyrics to "sing along with the Panzerwagenlied" ... "the #1 requested Nazi song "-- and the customers rave:
My order of the Zyklon B mouse pad and the portrait of Uncle Adolph are great! The portrait is now hanging in a gold oak leaf frame in the living room and looks great. -- Dan
But wait! There's more!
Michael Kelly also operates ... yes, you guessed it, the "Tea Party Shoppe", at www.pzg.biz/teaparty . Here you can get your Gadsen ("Don't tread on me") Flag shower curtains, your General Patton key chain fobs, and your Gadsen Flag folding chair:
Listen to speakers in comfort at your next Tea Party Rally or Patriotic Celebration in this Gadsen Flag chair with bag.
Now, I'm not saying that all Tea Party-ites are Nazis -- that would violate Godwin's Law. I do think it interesting that a long term seller of Nazi "memorabilia" would find it apparently profitable to add a link to the main Nazi memo site into Tea Party paraphrenalia.