London Auction Withdraws Supposed Nazi Surgery Kit From Sale

LONDON — A surgical kit advertised as belonging to a Nazi concentration camp commandant has been withdrawn from sale, and questions have been raised about its origins.

Grace Cloke, a spokeswoman at Villa Hall Auctions, said Thursday it was withdrawn "on the recommendation of police" after the auction house received "nasty" phone calls.

The auctioneer said the box contains blades, scissors, a saw and straps apparently used for tourniquets – and is printed with the name Anton Burger.

The auctioneer had identified it as belonging to Anton Burger, an SS commander of the Theresienstadt camp. However, the German newspaper Die Welt has questioned that, reporting it was manufactured by the Anton Buerger company in Dresden.

The Dresden mayor's office confirmed to The Associated Press that a company named "Anton Buerger" – spelled "Burger" with the two German umlaut dots over the u, which translates to "ue" in English – manufactured surgical and orthopedic instruments in the city in the 1940s.

Cloke said she was unaware of the German newspaper report, and didn't know who connected the box with the commander.

Comments

[MichaelPetty]

11:11 PM on 02/09/2012

It seems like a concentration camp commandant had the same name as the manufacturer of the surgical kit. The manufacturer's name is on the kit.
Perhaps I should try to sell my Hoover as belonging to President Herbert?

[WaveRhydr]

10:27 AM on 02/10/2012

Well now, lets not get too hasty...Yah see, President Hoover suked so badly, that they named a vacume cleaner after him:)

[MichaelPetty]

09:01 PM on 02/10/2012

Funny, funny, funny

[deluk]

05:18 PM on 02/09/2012

The headline is wrong, the auction was in Bude, a town in Cornwall, (not everything in the UK occurs in "London")  As I grew up in the aforementioned town and indeed vaguely know the auctioneer lady, I'm not surprised they found it all a bit confusing....

[liberal steve]

04:01 PM on 02/09/2012

I don't get it. Why would you want to own some thing *possibly* owned by such a monster? What would you do with it? Proudly display it for the neighbours to see or take it out to show your relatives at Christmas? Would you get some thrill from owning it (in which case you seriously need help)? If this did belong to a concentration camp commander then the only place for it would be a museum and even then I'm not sure it its historical value.

[netzwerg]

01:42 PM on 02/09/2012

Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead would love it.
Long live Lemmy!

[KIVPossum]

11:59 AM on 02/09/2012

Something like this needs to be put in a Holocaust musem.