Achtung - PR blunder alarm!
October 10 2012
Picture: Mail/Newsteam
Regular readers will know that I take a very dim view of auctioneers who cash in on the highly distasteful Nazi memorabilia market. So let us applaud Northampton auctioneer J P Humbert's spectacular PR own goal, and say loudly 'serves you right'. Recently, Humbert's staged an auction full of Nazi items on the holiest day in the Jewish year, Yom Kippur. They even saw fit to festoon their rostrum with Nazi flags. It was all very Nuremberg. When the blunder made the news, Humberts tried to make amends by offering a donation to the Holocaust Education Trust. But this was rightly turned down. From The Daily Mail:
A spokesperson for the charity said: 'The Holocaust Educational Trust will not accept any donations from organisations which profit from the sale of items associated with the Nazi regime.
'It is our view that these items are best placed in archives, museums or in an educational context.'
Mr Humbert defended the auction house, based in Towcester, Northants, and said yesterday: 'Not being Jewish, how am I expected to know the dates of Jewish festivals?
