Wittmann Militaria Update - The Anti-Hitler Antiquities Debate After the People's Corner Vacation Home Tour A collection of anti-Hitler paintings haunts some on the annual Ballymore Cooks Tour, but was it out of proportion?
Thomas Wittmann is well aware of the dangers of dealing with Third Reich antiquities after years of avoiding people who misunderstood how he made his living.
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But the latest round of criticism has left the lifelong Moorestonian scratching and shaking his head.
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Wittmann house on Main Street by Curtis Hospital Auxiliary in Virtua, . By most accounts, Wittmann's home was a hit, with guests appreciating the Christmas decorations and the impressive collection of historical antiques on display.
Shortly after the trip, however, news came to Wittmann that someone passing through the house had disturbed a certain collection of items: three anti-Hitler figures in an antique in the hallway.
Wittmann said the pieces were manufactured in the United States during World War II. One has Hitler's face on the skunk body, another - with needles stuck in the Führer's back - acts as a cucumber, and the third has a Hitler likeness at the bottom of the ashtray. The items in question are on the top shelf of antiques, which includes decorative daggers from various European countries and other antiques, including some German war helmets.
Wittmann, who has been in the veterans business for 30 years, often deliberately overlooks what others might find offensive. There are no swastikas or obvious Nazi references anywhere on the first floor that all Cooks Tour guests see. Among the many other antiques prominently displayed throughout the house - paintings of historical figures, ceremonial pipes given to German soldiers in the early 20th century, war helmets - Hitler's satirical pieces are relatively inconspicuous.
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A reader who emailed Moorestown anonymously described the content in Wittmann's home as "extremely offensive" and said the Cooks Tour was "disgraceful". However, when asked to comment on the recording, the reader declined.
Curtis Auxiliary said, in part, "We are deeply sorry for any member of our community being offended, and we want everyone to know that we certainly did not intend this."
"I didn't mind showing them," Wittmann said. “There is nothing wrong with the nature of historical works. It's just one thing… If you want to get excited about it, I don't think it's fair.”
Born at the end of World War II, Wittmann has learned to let go of criticism of his actions, but is still very sensitive to people's feelings about references to Nazism or Hitler.
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He goes to great lengths to explain—in person and on his website—that his collection does not support or glorify the Nazi regime. Those who buy them from him are not radical rightists or neo-Nazis, but professionals - doctors, lawyers, teachers - who have been his customers for years.
"I'm not interested in people like that," Wittmann said grimly. "And they don't have any money to give. These things are expensive."
Wittmann buys most of the World War II items from the families of the fallen soldiers after discovering the items in their late grandfather's attic.
"When we were occupied by Germany at the end of World War II, our soldiers went out to look for weapons," he explained. “Our men stole everything that wasn't put on the ground. They 'liberated' him. People don't throw things away like that."
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But they sell it for a tidy profit, this is where Wittmann comes in. Sure, he makes a living from it and gains: "These things only make sense in terms of value ... Really earned in the recession" - but he also sees his job as preserving history.
“For me, I don't think there is anything to look at but history, like a flag. It is a historical period,” he said. "If you like history, you can imagine everything that goes on around it."
Denis Mercier, a former professor of mass media and popular culture at Rowan University, can understand Wittmann's plight. Mercier drew a lot of heat upon himself when he began collecting politically inaccurate images depicting African-Americans from the post-Civil War era to the Civil Rights era for a doctoral thesis on the subject in the '80s.
"I was unprepared for the lack of empathy this topic would create," Mercier said. "The Blacks said these things had to be destroyed... I said, 'No, you can't go over history because you don't like it'."
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Through his research, Mercier gained valuable insight into "how racial discrimination persisted and persisted" in America throughout the late 19th and first half of the 20th century.
Wittmann stands on the same side of the fence as Mercier. These are pieces of history, but the details behind that history are ugly.
Wittmann doesn't understand the mentality of those who vehemently oppose his collection: "The artifacts found here today, are we supposed to destroy them because you don't like that period of history?"
References to Nazism angered many people, essentially all members of the Jewish community, Mercier said, and that the word "Nazi" meant much more to them.
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The Jewish community in Moorestown became sensitive after a series of events that began with a Jewish resident receiving a large letter from another resident, which then went viral. Partly in response to these events, the Anti-Defamation League held a meeting in Ballymore on Monday night.
However, Mercier believes that "we are really making a mountain out of a molehill by waving our finger over the Hitler cartoons in Wittmann's curiosity."
In fact, the United States, before and during World War II, had the Three Stooges' "You Nazty Spy!" For the Looney Tunes cartoon "Herr Meets Hare" starring Bugs Bunny and the classic Charlie Chaplin movie The Great Dicator.
Wittmann may not understand all the anxiety, but he learned long ago that there wasn't much he could do about it.
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