War relics of World War II GIs resurface as the Reich stuff: despite efforts to suppress growing trade in antique Nazi paraphernalia, collectors say the truth about the horrors of Hitler's regime is important to the assessment of history

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 1, 2002 | by John Elvin

In a back room at the rambling and rustic Charlemont Inn, reached by tiptoeing apologetically through a roomful of intense, matriarchal mahjong players, English had loaded a buffet table that stretched the width of the room with an incredible array of war relics: helmets, medals, banners, badges, documents, photographs, postcards and daggers--a minimuseum of Nazi memorabilia. A few old-timers who were setting up the room for a later fiddlers' gathering glanced at the array with stoic Yankee reserve, while one waitress expressed shock at the display, apparently fearing it presaged a gathering of skinheads or neo-Nazis.

English grew up in a nearby mill town, North Adams. "I was interested in military collectibles from the time I was 5 years old," he says. "My first item was my uncle's 82nd Airborne patch. Then I found some Nazi coins and an iron-cross medal in an old sewing basket in the attic. I began asking other relatives what they had and, by the time I entered my teens, I had around 200 items in my collection."

What was so intriguing? In the beginning, no doubt, it was a boy's natural inclination toward "playing soldier" but as his thinking matured, English was fascinated by "going beyond the history books and seeing how these people operated. It was the most traumatic time in mankind's recorded history. This is evidence."

English keeps "99 percent" of what he collects. He nurtures a dream of one day establishing a museum. Meanwhile, he jumps at every chance to display his collection for educational purposes. But that effort is not without its frustrations. He tells of writing "World War II" on a school blackboard and being asked, "When was World War Eleven?" Another typical question posed by young people who don't even remember Vietnam is: "Did you get this stuff in Desert Storm?"

"The politicizing of history, making it incorrect to show the realities of World War II from all sides, dumbs us down" the collector believes. "Kids today have no knowledge of what it was like. It was a terrible time. Everything you did wound up in little blue Gestapo [secret-police] folders. They tracked all your interests, all your memberships, all your activities, and they would put all that together and second-guess your thinking, trying to know your thoughts before you knew them. If you thought wrong ..." He displays some truly horrifying death-camp photographs.

English says it is "grossly unfair of some critics to brand me automatically because I collect this stuff." In his extensive, day-in and day-out dedication to his collection, he maintains that he has met very few people who were attracted to the field because of their political views. The one incident he can recall involved a Holocaust denier who was part of a re-enactment organization to which English belonged, and that fellow was ousted as soon as his views became known.

The bulk of collectors may have historical interests now, but a ban on the sale of certain relics could change that. "Make it contraband and you'll attract a whole different breed," English muses.