On sales platforms such as Marktplaats, there is plenty of trade in Nazi attributes from the Second World War. A working group is calling for these deals to be banned.
According to Arthur Graaff, coordinator of the Do Not Remember Nazis working group, traders deliberately keep their advertisements vague. They avoid forbidden terms like ‘Nazi’ and ‘Holocaust’ and describe their wares as ‘German militaria’. Graaff calls the traders ‘unscrupulous’. “They ignore all information about the holocaust and also make a lot of money from it.”
According to the Working Group Don’t Remember Nazis, approximately twenty websites offer such attributes. On Marktplaats a small 3600 ‘German items’ from the Second World War are for sale.
Incidentally, the trade in ‘objects with Nazi symbols’ is already prohibited on Marktplaats. Memorabilia of the Second World War without SS signs and swastikas are allowed. Graaff: ,,That ban will therefore not be enforced. We must by law ban the trade in this kind of stuff, just like in Germany.”
Curator Heiko Ates collects war items for the Victory Museum in Grootegast, from the Allies and the Germans. He doubts whether a ban will help. “Everything that you ban only becomes more interesting for trade.” According to the curator, not all collectors have bad intentions. “They’re really not all neo-Nazis. It’s about what someone does with it.”