Holocaust artefacts now in Israel after auction cancelled

Several Holocaust artefacts whose planned auction in Germany recently sparked outrage have now arrived in Israel, according to Israeli media reports.

They were acquired by a foundation in the port city of Haifa, which operates a Holocaust museum there, the Israeli news portal ynet reported on Monday.

"There should be no trade in items that bear witness to the memory of the Shoah and the suffering of the Jewish people," said the head of the Yad Ezer L'Haver foundation, Shimon Sabag.

"The right place for these objects is in a museum, and in particular in the Holocaust Museum in Haifa, which is free to enter."

An auction house in the western German city of Neuss had planned to auction the objects last month under the title "The System of Terror Vol. II 1933-1945."

The items to be offered included letters from concentration camps, Gestapo index cards and other perpetrator documents. Many of the items contained personal information and names of those affected.

According to the online catalogue, an anti-Jewish propaganda poster and a Jewish star from the Buchenwald death camp with "signs of wear" were also to be auctioned.

However, following fierce protests, the auction was cancelled.

The auction house subsequently clarified that most of the documents and objects had been handed over for auction by descendants of the victims. Another part came from a private research collection that was to be sold.

Nevertheless, the auction house was "aware that we made the wrong decision in evaluating the consignment request and regret if we have hurt the feelings of the bereaved and those affected by the victims of Nazi terror."