Holocaust artefacts sent to Auschwitz archives after auction backlash
Hundreds of Holocaust-related documents whose planned auction in Germany sparked international outrage have been handed over to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.
According to a statement issued by the foundation on Friday, 433 historical documents were formally transferred during a ceremony at the state parliament of Germany’s western North Rhine-Westphalia region.
The collection includes camp postcards, letters written by perpetrators and camp-issued currency, the regional government said in a press release.
“I am grateful that we have found a way to hand over the documents to the archives of the memorial sites concerned. Remembrance in archives and museums preserves the dignity of the victims and serves further research and education about the inhuman National Socialist persecution and extermination processes,” said State Parliament President André Kuper.
An auction house in Neuss, near Dusseldorf, had previously scheduled a sale of the items for November 2025, but cancelled it after international protests.
According to the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC), letters from concentration camps, Gestapo index cards and other perpetrator documents were to be auctioned.
Many items contained personal information and names of those affected.
The online online catalogue also listed an anti-Jewish propaganda poster and a Jewish star from the Buchenwald concentration camp with “signs of use.”
Some of the artefacts have since been taken over by a foundation that runs a Holocaust museum in the Israeli port city of Haifa.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany has welcomed the handover.
Vice President Abraham Lehrer said it was vital for survivors and for the memory of those murdered during the Holocaust that the documents end up in the right places and hands, where they can be protected and preserved for future generations.
