English auction house defends Nazi relic sale as ‘historical education’

Britain’s Board of Deputies has demanded the auction house withdraw the items from sale.

Despite mounting pressure to cancel its upcoming auction, a family-run auction house in northern England says it has every legal right to sell Nazi memorabilia to collectors and historians.

Gilbert Baitson Auctioneers is moving forward with plans to auction over 200 Third Reich artifacts on September 1.

The collection, titled “The Earnest Beaumont Collection of Third Reich Memorabilia,” includes Nazi Party badges, Hitler Youth insignia, SS skull symbols, and a pocketknife embossed with Hitler’s image.

Starting bids range from £1 to £60, though a German Spanish Cross featuring a prominent swastika has already attracted bids up to £650.

The fourth-generation family business, established in 1935, prominently advertises on its website that past sales included “Herr Himmler’s Spectacles” – a reference to Heinrich Himmler, the SS chief and key architect of the Holocaust.

Industry publication Auction News has described the Beaumont collection as “a remarkable private collection of WWII-era German badges, decorations, plaques, and personal items.”

Britain’s Board of Deputies has demanded the auction house withdraw the items from sale.

“We strongly urge Gilbert Baitson to withdraw these items from auction, as have other auction houses such as McTear’s, Bloomfield Auctions, and Vermot de Pas,” the Board wrote to the Hull auction house.

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“The buying and selling of these items has no place in our society and, in the context of rising far-right antisemitism, is sinister and deeply concerning.”

Nevertheless, Gilbert Baitson is refusing to back down. Andrew Baitson, speaking for the auction house, told The Jewish Chronicle that the items form part of a “wider collection of historical militaria” and defended their decision to proceed.

“We respect the views expressed by the Board but as an auction house, our role is to catalogue and present such artefacts to collectors, museums, researchers, and historians,” Baitson said.

“These items are offered as part of a catalogue of militaria that reflects a difficult period in global history. They are not intended to promote or glorify any ideologies associated with the regime under which they were produced.”

Unlike much of Europe, Britain has no laws prohibiting Nazi memorabilia sales, though major auction houses including Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Bonhams refuse to handle such artifacts.

Several British auction houses have recently reversed course under pressure, including McTear’s in Glasgow, which pledged in February to stop selling Nazi artifacts, and Belfast’s Bloomfield Auctions, which cancelled a planned sale in 2019.