Do Not Display

This ceremonial dagger, worn by a Nazi naval officer, featuring the German eagle and swastika, is one of a few pieces of Nazi memorabilia in the collection. While the Sydney Jewish Museum never actively acquires such items, members of the community occasionally donate such ‘collectibles’. As former Allied soldiers age or pass on, their families are discovering medals, belt buckles, epaulettes, daggers and other Nazi paraphernalia presumably taken as souvenirs or trophies of war.

The Museum has an unwritten policy not to exhibit such items out of sensitivity to the survivors of the Holocaust and to ensure that nothing we show can be perceived as a glorification of the Nazis.

Countries, including Germany, have banned Nazi symbols and their display for non-educational purposes; the sale of Nazi memorabilia is prohibited in some countries. Some disagree with such bans on the basis that history cannot be erased or that selling/buying an item does not promote an ideology. Arguments aside, there is a booming market for Nazi-related paraphernalia.

The complexity of the Holocaust cannot be understood without confronting the human agency that lay behind acts of persecution and murder. Nazi symbols such as these were once a source of terror but now, outside of their context, stripped of that power, they are simply souvenirs of war.