You will have to talk to Spain first.

History should be preserved so future generations have evidence of the horrible sins of the past

Now, now, the Commies never hurt anyone. And they left the Jews and other minorities alone.

It needs to be in a museum so that people can see just how easily we are led to evil.

Display it in a museum, sell it to a private collector or melt it down and turn it into a hundred Menorahs. It doesn’t matter.

However, destroying historical artifacts and artwork because they make you feel uncomfortable is something the NAZIs did.

Personally, if it were mine, I would put it on display along with the story behind the Graf Spree, her demise and the recovery of the artifact. I would also frame it in the historical context of the NAZIs and the Holocaust. Objects like this can be tremendously valuable in educating future generations.

Just apparently not the current sensitive generation who get their panties in a twist at anything they don't like.  

that's right, they killed millions of their own. But, I'd bet that the Ukrainians, Latvians, Poles, Lithuanians, and a whole lot of other Slavs would voice their displeasure also.

I say send it to the Holocaust Museum where it will be displayed in proper context.  Maybe surround it with all those shoes.

A russian once explained to me why Stalin is still so popular there. "He killed everyone equally".

Highest bidder gets it and does what they want with it.
If this guy is so intent on blowing up nazi symbols, he should just attend any gun show in America and buy the old guys out of their "memorabilia" and blow it up.

You're right.

Who is the rightful owner; those who sank her or those who salvaged her?

Never forget!

Forget what?

Really. It's just one artifact, but the erasure and obliteration mindset is ominous. It can go into a holocaust museum, people need that physical evidence for the future.

I'm not saying the Brits are the legal owners because they damaged the ship badly enough to cause the captain to scuttle her.  Sorry if I gave that impression.

I am saying that as a matter of history, the eagle belongs in the British War Museum-- the operation to corner Graff Spee was one of the first British victories in WW2. If they need to pay the salvage crew, so be it.  But letting Sielecki blow it up is ridiculous.  If Uruguay can't find a decent buyer, back to the warehouse it goes.  

There's a significant difference between cancel culture/erasing history and one guy saying he wants to buy something just so he can blow it up.

If it's for sale and he can afford it, more power to him.

For those that don't like it, outbid him.

Why do so many of you hate the idea of personal property rights?

You bring up another excellent point concerning personal property rights.

If the seller chooses not to sell to this person for any reason, that is their right.

Even if he offered 10x the value, they can simply decline.

Problem solved.

I think it is more of a statement to keep it as a war trophy, on display as a symbol of a defeated evil.

Destroying it is just weak, and helps cover up evidence of the Nazis.

German Pocket Battleships were cool.

Note:  Agreed ... Save history!

Isn't that a war grave?

Should have left it below the sea.

Not what I was saying at all, the buyer is really just satisfying himself by blowing his load of cash.

I'd buy it.

It would look cool as fuck hanging over my fireplace.

No different than the guy who built the classic car Stonehenge, really.

It's his money to burn.

I was the first one to report on the boiler being destroyed as to why the Graf Spee could not sail at all and had to be scuttled  (World and I magazine 1999) and the grand son of the Uruguayan ambassador who handles the negotiations between the British and Germans emailed the W&I saying finally someone got the story right

Langsdorff wrapped himself in the ship's ensign committed suicide saying a captain's fate is that of his ship's. He was not a member of the Nazi party

The German navy was anti-Nazi sort of. When Hitler took charge he demanded all branches dismiss all the Jews.
The Reichmarine refused
Fearing a naval mutiny they negotiated an agreement. The navy recognized the Nazis as the legitimate government and agreed to follow orders in war
The Nazis agreed to not bother all Jews in the navy including wives of gentile Germans.
The navy was nonpolitical and would not be required to use the Nazi salute (Note film of Prien's parade in Berlin. The men saluted Hitler to his face with the military salute)

There is and never was a class of ships known as "Pocket Battleships"
It is a made up name by the world press nothing more but since the same guys wrote the books they wrongly used it as if it were true
The Versailles treaty limited replacement ships for the old predreadnaught battleships to 10,000 tons and specifically stated armored ships (Panzerschiff) as their technical description
The allies assumed the Germans would build useless coast defense ships but never but German engineers in a box
They built a useful commerce raider a lightly armored cruiser with long range (Diesel powered) and over sized (11") guns and classed them as Panzerschiff to comply with the wording of the treaty and when the treaty was rescinded they were classed as Schwer Kruezer, heavy cruiser (Because all navies had to restrict cruiser guns to 8") and the press went nuts saying the Germans outsmarted the allies and built a pocket sized battleship

The prisoners captured from British merchantmen asked to attend the funeral of the Germans that died in battle calling them "shipmates"
The crew went to Buenos Aries, most making it back to Germany
2 guys went through the Andes made it to the USA hopped a freighter to Japan, took the Siberian railroad all the way to Germany and wrote a book about it

I went to the Graf Spee cemetery, the youngest was only 17.
Most of the Brits were buried in the Falkland Islands but a few were buried at sea and 2 washed up on Uruguay and were buried in the British cemetery (I also visited their graves)

Most Uruguayans are proud of their association with the Graf Spee and many of the crew returned to Uruguay to live. They can and do separate Germans from Nazis

lol

Wait, but weren't the British the first ones to try and blow it up. I dont see you lot telling a bunch of Royal Navy vets that they were destroying a future historic treasure.

Preserving Nazi icons does not improve our ability to tell the story of their barbarism. Blow it up, throw it back in the water, why anyone cares is beyond me.

lol. The auction could be lit too. Don't forget to hold that paddle.

Do you even Doctors' Plot bro?

Not equally. Look at the demographics of the NKVD in Ukraine during the Holodomor.

Blow it up?

Why not melt it down into dozens of bronze butt plugs?  Or dreidels?  Or dual use dreidel-shaped butt plugs...?

Just seems like a waste.

Many view the hammer and sickle as acceptable to display, yet the Soviets were rounding people up and sticking them in camps before the nazis, and continued doing so long after the war had ended.

Perfectly acceptable. Those people aren't around to say "zis, iz vhat zhey did to us"

I ask:

Would he be justified to do the same with Roman artifacts?

Egyptian?

Except the Nazis aren't equivalent to that...

There's a huge difference between this and destroying the symbols of a vanquished foe shortly after the battle is over.

Destroying the symbol, at the time, is a symbol unto itself.  It makes it clear to all who witness that the balance of power has changed, since it would have been an unthinkable act under the previous regime.

Destroying the same symbol over 75 years later accomplishes nothing.

Still, I do like the idea of melting it down and recasting it into something related to Judaism.

Is the guy wanting to buy and blow up Nazis?

I'm pretty sure the inanimate object is NOT a Nazi, regardless of people's feels on the matter.

+1.  Not sure why there is a discussion here.  If he can afford to buy it he can do what he pleases with it.  Those who want to preserve it can put a bid in and if they win, preserve it.  I personally think it's cool looking and an interesting piece of history.  Not gonna make a bid on it or get upset at what the owner does with it.

If he can afford them, why not?

If people are so worried about preserving them, perhaps they should be the ones to buy them and put them in a museum.

It's not that complicated of a concept.

Need to keep him away from the Nazi marked 1910 Browning my Grandfather brought back.  Not to mention the skull ring and other sundries.

Justified?  If he owns something who does he need to justify destroying it to?  Resentful people on the internet?

As a Jew, I support Holocaust jokes and I would proudly display that as a trophy, or use a hitler youth knife as a Shabbat challah cutter.

How many Holodomor or Great Leap Forward jokes have you heard?

Or you could just not sell those objects...



It's not like this is the latest National Treasure sequel, and the man is a super villain set on stealing and destroying the object.

He merely wants to buy it so he can blow it up. What's so wrong with that?

these governments can't do it again if everyone knows what to expect.

I'm actually OK with it in this case.

That was never relevant to what I said, you're just trolling since you can't be that stupid.