Fair enough, but he should say it’s a condition of employment that he can’t own one, not that it’s illegal for him to own one. He could certainly own it, he’d just have to find new work.
Owning an item from a contractually-forbidden group is not the same as belonging to said group.
Would your Grandmother want you getting rid of it?
Personally, I’d keep it - but I’d write an essay explaining how it came into your family, a bit about the horrors of the Nazi regime, how your grandfather contributed to the war effort, and how this was a symbol of your family’s contribution to the destruction of an evil ideology. I’d then include that with the flag, along with any pictures of your grandfather and maybe some general WWII photos of a building with such a flag displayed in it, to give it some historical context.
You could even frame it, in folded state, so the swastika isn’t showing (Or a small piece of it is, so people know what it is), and add a picture of your grandfather to the frame - preferably any photos of him from WWII. If you want, add a picture of Auschwitz or Treblinka or something like that, and turn it into a historical display. If you can get any of your grandfather’s service ribbons, or any of his other WWII memorabilia, add it to the display.
Failing that, I’d donate it to a museum. I would not destroy it. It is still an historical artifact. It’s just as important to remember our historical failings as our successes, so we don’t repeat them. I don’t want the Nazis airbrushed out of history, I want them remembered as a cautionary tale of what can go wrong if you lose sight of your basic values.
Yes, condition of employment. And as it’s a civil service job our conditions of employment are enacted by law. I’ll grant you that the only penalty for violating this would be losing my job but that’s like saying that you can break the speed limit all you want if you’re willing to pay a lot of fines and give up your driving license.
No, but I am prohibited from belonging to the Ku Klux Klan.
And I’m not a warden. New York doesn’t even have wardens anymore; we have superintendants but I’m not one of those either.
To a certain point - a childhood friend of mine had a grandfather who brought back a Japanese skull.
Mr Kobayashi wrote
“[…] there’s no guarantee if you put it on eBay or simple sell it by other means that it won’t fall into the hands of the 88 crew.”
What’s an “88 crew?”
88 is a code neo-Nazis use to identify each other. 8 represents the letter H, the eighth letter in the alphabet. So 88 represents HH, which stands for “Heil Hitler.”
There are plenty of WW2 collectors who collect Nazi artifacts and are not Neo Nazis.
This. It’s just like collecting civil war artifacts. There are people who fly confederate flags at their house but these are obviously not collectors.
It is tradition, but I always heard that the three gold balls are from the family crest of the de Medici family of Italy, who were a banking dynasty.
As part of a military musuem, I can accept donations and provide a tax receipt (up to 1000, before I need an independent appraisal). Plus, as a bonus, it’s a gift to The Crown, so you get the full value of the receipt.
You can donate it to a military museum. I would even consider taking it, if you want to PM me.
The 10th Armor Division has not been in existence since sometime just after the end of WWII. If his battalion or brigade had some sort of historical importance then their lineage may be linked to a unit that exists in one of the remaining divisions. Unlikely. The army is much smaller than it was then.
He could certainly own it, he’d just have to join a hate group to be required to find new work.
This is what confuses me. Does the “condition of employment” terms in Nemo’s contract (and similar LEO contracts) say “you can’t physically possess or own this prohibited stuff” or does it specify “you can’t be part of these groups” and he is conflating the two.
Perhaps coincidentally, “88” also has just a little more ink (or pixels) than “SS,” the Nazi Party’s paramilitary branch, and the 88mm cannon was a famous German artillery piece of WW2.
I agree with those who suggest you look into donating it to a museum. If there’s not one in your state, do some Googling - the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has a big military museum, for instance.
I know this is an old post but I hope you decided to keep this flag. As I have gotten older I have come to appreciate my family history more than ever. This flag albeit a symbol of evil, also represents how you family triumphed over that evil. I would have but it in a shadow box under glass on black velvet and afixed a brass plaque on the bottom explaining how this came to be in your family. It is history, and your family was part of it and thankfully on the side of the “good guys”. Some people may still be put off but most would appreciate it for what it is and not so much for what it was.
I am not a collector as such but do have some communist era memoribila even though I fled communist Cuba in 1960. It symbolizes the struggles my family went through to get away and more inportantly that we thrived not only survived in this great USA which we call home.
Thats just my take on it. Congrats on your ancestor’s valor and dedication to our country.
This. In fact that is what I did. Mine is only a pennant like this though:
http://4u2treasure.com/gj/products.php?77&sid=4d0ad197089442c06d5ef0d6fdd48a1e
It was collected by my Dad in the wake of the German retreat from either Italy or North Africa.
If you are really uncomfortable having it around, sell it. Hopefully it will go to some neo-nazi and you will be depriving him of whatever he pays for it. If they spend enough on useless memorabilia, they have less to spend on guns and websites.
Thousands of GIs stationed in the Pacific brought home Japanese swords. No one is accusing them of being Imperial Japanese.
Contact the Rock Island Auction Company or James D. Julia Auctioneers. They both deal in historic firearms and military items and I have seen numerous Nazi flags of the type you have over the years. They will auction it for you and add a premium percentage on top of what it sells for at auction that the buyer pays, so you really get the final hammer price rather than losing a percentage to them. Both places are very reputable and have been in business for decades. While I can’t guarantee it won’t ultimately be sold to a hate group, those auctions tend to be aimed at history collectors rather than your typical skin head clan.
A larger flag like that, I would guess, is a bit less common that your normal size ones from WWII, and I would guess depending on condition that it is likely worth several hundred dollars. If their resident experts at either auction house can authenticate it to a specific place based on your grandfather’s stories, that could make it worth quite a bit more. And they have an incentive to do that because a higher hammer price for you gets them a higher buyer’s premium as well.
Why sell this item? Why be ashamed of it? It was aquired by your Grandfather while he was a soldier serving in WWII. You should be proud of it and keep it in your family. It will be an interesting piece to show your children and grandchildren when they are older and learn about the war in their history classes. Your Grandfather paid for that flag with his service and I am sure that when he got it he was very proud and kept it to remind himself of his part in the war.
My Grandfather served in the Navy in WWII. While I don’t have any Japanese artifacts, I do have his campain ribbons from the war and they mean a lot to me. It is a connection to a man that I miss dearly.