Update: Israeli Court Halts Auction of Auschwitz Tattoo Kit
Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Tuesday condemned the sale at auction of a machine used to tattoo numbers on inmates at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, calling the trade in such historical items “morally unacceptable.” Ya think?
According to Hebrew media reports, the machine, which was manufactured by the medical device firm Auscelap and comes with its original documentation, is set to go for sale at Tzolman’s Auction House in Jerusalem. Walla News reported that the item, which is one of only three currently in existence, will likely sell for over $30,000.
“The appropriate place for these historical artifacts from the period of the Nazi Holocaust is in Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, where they can be thoroughly researched, expertly preserved and ultimately utilized as historical testimony for the purposes of research, education and commemoration,” Yad Vashem Directorate Chairman Dani Dayan said in a statement.
“The trade of these items is morally unacceptable and only encourages the proliferation of counterfeits. Yad Vashem opposes the sale and urges both auction sites and online sellers to stop selling these historic items from the Holocaust.”
Responding to an online entreaty that Yad Vashem purchase the item to keep it out of the hands of private collectors, Dayan tweeted that “Yad Vashem opposes in principle the existence of a market for Jewish [or] Nazi objects from the Holocaust period and therefore does not purchase such items with money.”
-Haaretz , Israeli News Media
