Overview
- The NRW State Chancellery confirmed the cancellation after a call between chief Nathanael Liminski and the auction house owner, and the lots were removed from the website.
- The catalogue had listed more than 600 items, including letters from concentration camp prisoners, Gestapo files, an antisemitic poster and a Buchenwald Judenstern.
- Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski urged handover to the Auschwitz memorial after speaking with Germany’s Johann Wadephul, and Germany’s ambassador in Warsaw welcomed the halt.
- The International Auschwitz Committee and the Fritz-Bauer-Institut denounced the commercial sale, warning of a cynical market logic and violations of personality rights.
- Local Jewish groups and civil society had prepared protests, the auction house had argued private collectors aid research, and authorities now seek provenance clarification and appropriate custody for the items.