BBC Editorial and Opinions: Is it OK to collect Nazi memorabilia?
Marc Garlasco is not the first person to get into trouble for an interest in an aspect of the Third Reich.
Two years ago Bryan Ferry was pilloried for expressing admiration for the films of Leni Riefenstahl and the buildings of Albert Speer and other aspects of iconography. And in 1999, then GQ editor James Brown had to resign after Rommel and the Nazis were referred to in a list of the century's 200 most stylish men.
But on both sides of the Atlantic there is a burgeoning market in Third Reich-era memorabilia. Mr Garlasco is one of thousands of collectors who are seeking rare items from the period.
His hobby has outraged bloggers, who also accuse him of anti-Israel bias, and he has defended himself in a piece on the Huffington Post blog by saying that suggestions he has Nazi sympathies are"defamatory nonsense". Instead, he says he has a long-standing interest in World War II memorabilia from both the German and Allied sides.
"I've never hidden my hobby, because there's nothing shameful in it, however weird it might seem to those who aren't fascinated by military history," he wrote.
"Thousands of military history buffs collect war paraphernalia because we want to learn from the past. But I should have realized that images of the Second World War German military are hurtful to many."
He admitted making"juvenile and tasteless postings" on two websites. He had been accused of saying an SS leather jacket was" cool"...
... The people who buy the militaria are ordinary people from various walks of life, says Mr Fisher. He says he is wary of journalists who try to represent the hobby.
"There is a 1% fringe element that are loonies but that will happen in any walk of life."
The prices for the kind of items sold by Mr Fisher and collected by the likes of Mr Garlasco can be extraordinarily high, but there is also a parallel market in reproduction militaria. Enthusiasts both collect the reproduction material, but also wear uniforms at re-enactment events...
... And the notion that collecting could be associated with political leanings is far fetched, he says.
"[Garlasco] being suspended is ludicrous. The first collectors were ex-servicemen. My wife's uncle was a left-wing union leader. He had a Nazi dagger his dad collected in the desert. He passed it down to his son. It's the same as any other heirloom."
He readily admits that a big factor in re-enactors' choices is aesthetic.
"The German uniforms looked better than anybody else's... If you looked at the British uniforms and equipment, [it was] very practical rather than aesthetic."...
Here is a selection of your comments.
As far as German uniforms looking" cool", that was entirely the point of them. The SS uniforms were designed by film costumers, not by the German army. Similarly, Leni Riefenstahl films and Albert Speer buildings are massively significant artistic artifacts, and if you want to do any kind of assessment of artistic value then it's important to disconnect the visual element from the political context, because German art from that period *has* influenced everyone since. The problem is that no-one before or since has been as effective at propaganda as the Nazis were, particularly in the use of art as propaganda. But that in itself is something we must learn from history too - the country with the most effective propaganda is not necessarily the country who is in the right.
Graham Bartlett, Cambridge, England
My grandfather passed down a small Mauser pistol that he obtained from a captured German officer in WWII- it is still functional, and we even take it to the range on rare occasions. To me it is like a trophy- a memento of the Allies' victory against the Axis forces. War implements are like any other historical memorabilia, in that there is a story to tell behind them... though with instruments of battle the story is often a cautionary one. History is something to be studied and learned from- not feared or censored.
Jim Kenny, VA, United States
I recently saw a BBC documentary about Nazi war re-enactments, where there were a vast amount of Nazi memorabilia on sale. I was astonished to see people proudly dressed in Nazi uniforms, even a Nazi wedding was filmed. I felt saddened that my home country could actually allows such gatherings when every year the war memorial services get less and less. I think all Nazi memorabilia should be on display in museums as a learning tool, a way to show future generations of what happened and what to avoid.
Dean Flexen, Spain
Read entire article at BBC Magazine
Two years ago Bryan Ferry was pilloried for expressing admiration for the films of Leni Riefenstahl and the buildings of Albert Speer and other aspects of iconography. And in 1999, then GQ editor James Brown had to resign after Rommel and the Nazis were referred to in a list of the century's 200 most stylish men.
But on both sides of the Atlantic there is a burgeoning market in Third Reich-era memorabilia. Mr Garlasco is one of thousands of collectors who are seeking rare items from the period.
His hobby has outraged bloggers, who also accuse him of anti-Israel bias, and he has defended himself in a piece on the Huffington Post blog by saying that suggestions he has Nazi sympathies are"defamatory nonsense". Instead, he says he has a long-standing interest in World War II memorabilia from both the German and Allied sides.
"I've never hidden my hobby, because there's nothing shameful in it, however weird it might seem to those who aren't fascinated by military history," he wrote.
"Thousands of military history buffs collect war paraphernalia because we want to learn from the past. But I should have realized that images of the Second World War German military are hurtful to many."
He admitted making"juvenile and tasteless postings" on two websites. He had been accused of saying an SS leather jacket was" cool"...
... The people who buy the militaria are ordinary people from various walks of life, says Mr Fisher. He says he is wary of journalists who try to represent the hobby.
"There is a 1% fringe element that are loonies but that will happen in any walk of life."
The prices for the kind of items sold by Mr Fisher and collected by the likes of Mr Garlasco can be extraordinarily high, but there is also a parallel market in reproduction militaria. Enthusiasts both collect the reproduction material, but also wear uniforms at re-enactment events...
... And the notion that collecting could be associated with political leanings is far fetched, he says.
"[Garlasco] being suspended is ludicrous. The first collectors were ex-servicemen. My wife's uncle was a left-wing union leader. He had a Nazi dagger his dad collected in the desert. He passed it down to his son. It's the same as any other heirloom."
He readily admits that a big factor in re-enactors' choices is aesthetic.
"The German uniforms looked better than anybody else's... If you looked at the British uniforms and equipment, [it was] very practical rather than aesthetic."...
Here is a selection of your comments.
As far as German uniforms looking" cool", that was entirely the point of them. The SS uniforms were designed by film costumers, not by the German army. Similarly, Leni Riefenstahl films and Albert Speer buildings are massively significant artistic artifacts, and if you want to do any kind of assessment of artistic value then it's important to disconnect the visual element from the political context, because German art from that period *has* influenced everyone since. The problem is that no-one before or since has been as effective at propaganda as the Nazis were, particularly in the use of art as propaganda. But that in itself is something we must learn from history too - the country with the most effective propaganda is not necessarily the country who is in the right.
Graham Bartlett, Cambridge, England
My grandfather passed down a small Mauser pistol that he obtained from a captured German officer in WWII- it is still functional, and we even take it to the range on rare occasions. To me it is like a trophy- a memento of the Allies' victory against the Axis forces. War implements are like any other historical memorabilia, in that there is a story to tell behind them... though with instruments of battle the story is often a cautionary one. History is something to be studied and learned from- not feared or censored.
Jim Kenny, VA, United States
I recently saw a BBC documentary about Nazi war re-enactments, where there were a vast amount of Nazi memorabilia on sale. I was astonished to see people proudly dressed in Nazi uniforms, even a Nazi wedding was filmed. I felt saddened that my home country could actually allows such gatherings when every year the war memorial services get less and less. I think all Nazi memorabilia should be on display in museums as a learning tool, a way to show future generations of what happened and what to avoid.
Dean Flexen, Spain