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Nazis In The News
More than sixty years since the end of the Second World War, and Germany's Nazis are still making the headlines. This week sees two bizarre auctions of Nazi memorabilia, while in Australia, a former refugee now in his seventies recalls his life as a "Nazi mascot."
First, the auctions. Under the hammer in Shropshire on Thursday are a selection of rare childrens board games from the Nazi era. The games, variations on classics like Snakes and Ladders and pinball, were given Nazi themes: In one, players have to try to bomb British cities and infrastructure, while in another the aim is to sink the British fleet at Scapa Flow and make it back to the Fatherland.
The games are rare finds, not just because of the post-war devastation in Germany but because children are notoriously bad at looking after their playthings. They are expected to bring around £300 at auction.
Onto more adult pursuits. On Monday, a bottle of 1937 Moet & Chandon Champagne reputedly seized from Hitler's Reich Chancellery in Berlin after it was stormed by the Allies in 1945 was sold for £1,688. It was kept as a souvenir by the soldier, who passed it to a solicitor in the early 1990s. "Hitler's Champagne", as it came to be known, is unlikely to be opened as there are rumours it may have been injected with poison in an assassination bid.
It was bought by a Swedish television company.
The BBC reports on the life of Alex Kurzem, who came to Australia in 1949. It was only ten years ago that Kurzem told his family that he had been "adopted" at the age of five by Hitler's SS and became "the youngest Nazi", used in newsreel footage by the German propaganda machine and set small tasks by the unit he "joined."
Kurzem published a book about his experiences. In it, he told of how as a five year old he hid out while the SS exterminated the entire population of his Belarus village. He hid in the woods and watched as his mother was shot. He lived by scavenging and eating berries for months afterwards. When he was handed over to Latvian soldiers nine months later, one Sergeant Jekabs Kulis took pity on him, gave him a Russian name and allowed him to join the brigade. Only the officer who adopted Kurzem knew he was Jewish.
Kurzem wrote that he saw action on the front and witnessed SS atrocities first hand. When the war turned against Germany, his SS officer sent him to be adopted by a Latvian family, and he made his way to Australia five years later. He had married an Australian and started a family before he revealed his past.
He and his son decided to look more closely into his past. He discovered that Kurzem wasn't his real name - he was born Ilya Galperin. He revisited the scene of the atrocity in Belarus, where he says he was able to lay a rose on his mother's grave at last.
