For some collectors, that much sought-after hockey card could be the one to complete a set. Others might look for rare, antique coins. And for a few collectors, it could be a swastika-bearing medal from Nazi Germany.
So says Dave Hiorth, owner of Army Outfitters surplus store on Danforth Ave. near Woodbine Ave., which also sells a variety of military antiques. Among those are German medals and badges from the Second World War.
“Everyone wants to collect (the relics of) whoever loses, whether they’re good people or not,” said Hiorth, who added he doesn’t collect himself, nor does he have any political affiliations.
“It’s a commodity to me. I put a price tag on it and I sell it. It’s part of history, regardless of what you think of the Germans during the Nazi regime.”
Selling Nazi memorabilia is a source of debate among owners and auctioneers. While some refuse to do so because they find them offensive, other say they are doing their part to help preserve historical relics.
“It’s a (terrible) part of our history but it is part of our history and therefore should be preserved,” said Chris Riley, owner of Scarborough-based CDC Auctions.
On Jan. 30, Riley posted dozens of photos to the company’s Facebook page featuring medals, knives and rings bearing the swastika symbol. But the items are no longer up for auction, not because it’s illegal — owners have the right to sell such memorabilia in Canada — but because the items he recently received from a consigner turned out to be fake.
Had the medals been authentic, Riley estimates they could have garnered upwards of $5,000 each. He said the last time he got his hands on real Nazi memorabilia, they flew off the shelf.
“There was a hell of a market for it. People would trample 10 newborn babies to get this stuff, which strikes me as odd because I would never purchase it myself,” he said. “There is always concern for people who are offended. Personally, myself, I’m offended. I don’t like it. But, I have a job to do. I bite my tongue.”
Amanda Hohmann, national director of B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights, said she worries Nazi-era German military items could be found hurtful by Holocaust survivors.
“It trivializes the suffering these people went through,” Hohmann said.
She said there’s a fine line between saving items for historical purposes and offending someone who suffered from tragedies of the war.
“Banning anything outright is probably not the way to do but I think you need to be sensitive,” she said. “There’s a difference between selling something for its historical value and selling something that glorifies the murder of Jewish people and others who died in the Holocaust. I think you need to look at the motivation behind it and the history behind the item.”
The market for such items is growing rapidly, according to Maxim Smirnov, co-owner of Toronto collectibles store Muzeum, who attributes the rise in popularity to the Internet.
Smirnov said his store won’t deal with that type of memorabilia.
“We’ve turned it away,” he said. “It’s OK in Canada but at the same time, it would offend some of our collectors.”
In Germany, there is a law prohibiting the “use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations,” which includes Nazi-era artifacts and those containing the swastika.
But the sale of Nazi symbols is legal in Canada, said Toronto police spokesperson Jenifferjit Sidhu. She said police would investigate if the sale was accompanied by something “promoting hatred,” such as inflammatory speech, for instance.
Dara Solomon, director of the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, said she recognizes that these symbols have an “icon status” that some people have grown attracted to.
“I don’t understand it really,” Solomon said. “I would hope that the more mainstream auction houses would have some kind of policy where they did not allow those types of objects to be sold.”
EBay’s website states that “historical Nazi-related items,” such as those pertaining to uniforms or bearing Nazi symbols are prohibited from being sold.
“We recognize the historical significance of World War II and that there are many militaria collectors around the world,” the online auction company states. “We allow some related historical items, but ban others, particularly those that amount to Nazi propaganda, or that are disrespectful to victims.”
Hiorth said it’s a common misconception that anyone who buys Nazi memorabilia is racist, but acknowledged that it could be a factor for some.
“If you’re going to buy it off me, I don’t care what you do with it,” he said. “It’s like collecting hockey cards. Someone wants to complete a collection and they go ‘oh, I gotta have that Wayne Gretzky rookie card.’ It’s the same thing. It’s a disease trying to complete a collection.”
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