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

A small if improbable army could be outfitted with all the uniforms, weapons and other gear. There are U.S., German and Japanese uniforms from World War II displayed near Civil War rifles, adjacent to medieval suits of armor. In a spacious but cluttered back office, Zyla sits among the medals, helmets, daggers and other memorabilia being catalogued for his next auction. At his elbow is what appears to be a silver tea service, boldly initialed "A.H."

Selling Third Reich memorabilia is "a controversial thing, but there are other factors like, No. 1, cost," begins the bearded, rather professorial Zyla, an internationally known consultant who has helped museums develop their militaria collections. "New collectors don't have the money; older collectors who started just after the war are spoiled. You tell them something is $100 and they say, `That's ridiculous. I bought one for $12.' You tell them, `Sure, and milk was 18 cents a half-gallon then, too.'"

Zyla emphasizes that his interests and sales run the gamut of military history. "People who collect are basically just interested in history, or they've got a personal interest because grandpa or somebody was involved in that theater of operations. You don't have to justify collecting Confederate swords or western-outlaw paraphernalia, even when in some cases the original owner might have been evil" he says.

"But the critics say these relics are symbols of evil. The item itself is not evil," Zyla asserts. "Why don't they protest the communist items, or items from the KGB that was notorious for executing people on the spot? Are they telling us that a picture of Hitler is evil but a picture of [Josef] Stalin is not?"

The auctioneer believes that those who condemn collectors are ignorant of the field. "Those who ascribe a political agenda to collecting are not the same people who are involved in the hobby. They're outsiders, sitting back writing a book or a column saying that those who collect these items are warped."

So collectors aren't closet skinheads and neo-Nazis? "There are collectors from different walks of life and at all different levels," Zyla says. "It's an extension of the general interest. The interest in World War II is huge; there are not just collectors, but readers and those who watch films or just sit around and talk about their relatives and where they were during the war."

He also notes that there are anti-Nazi activist buyers, such as Holocaust survivor Milton Kohn, whose 700-piece collection includes grisly items that would never be found in Zyla's militaria catalogues--a bar of soap made from human-body fat, a pillow stuffed with human hair and a patch of skin bearing a tattoo.

If the controversy hasn't touched us personally, it may one day. This reporter's father, Bill Elvin, was an infantry captain who went through Germany and into Austria "where we met the Russians and agreed that was as far as either of us would go."

He recalls, "I picked up a group of books, in German, that portray Hitler more as a regular politician, with pictures of him smiling and talking to children. I sent back some large metal swastikas that had been on the flagpoles around Nuremberg, and a big Nazi flag. Our guys of course took those down wherever they found them. There was a lot of interest in Lugar pistols and other small weapons."