Correct me if I'm wrong - but I thought it was illegal to sell Nazi Memorabilia

I was checking out this antique store at lunchtime and they had a selection of Nazi memorabilia - mainly some helmets, a few hats and a few medals.

I thought it was illegal to sell that stuff

Or to sell it.

I never buy from a store or individual that sells that shit! It is a wallyworld type of pledge.

here in the US. It is illegal to sell or trade or show that stuff in Germany and France. And definitely illegal on Ebay.

First Amendment, and all that jazz.

Some day that stuff will be in a museum. I think it's historically important, even though it's disgusting.

I can tell you that some people are really, *really* into collecting Nazi stuff. Way too interested, if you get my drift.

I believe it is illegal in some European countries, such as France and Russia, however.


On edit:
In response to some of the other posters in this thread, I should say that I don't judge people who buy those things in general. Some people like to have a bit of everything. I don't have Nazi materials because I'm not willing to have them in my house, but if people want it as part of a legitimate collection of various militaria, I wouldn't object. What does bother me are some of the people I see who go far beyond that. I can envision some of them going home and sitting in the dim light stroking their SS dagger and admiring their pocket watch with a B&W portrait of Hitler on it. While I assume most collectors are just legit history buffs like me, I do get bad vibes from a significant minority of those who stock up on swastika gear.

to find Nazi products

I mean you couldn't fit much more than that in there.

Hell I pass 5 on the way to work each day

Remember the crowd you're dealing with...

if you know where to look. I'd personally never buy any, but I know two places where I could get some by the end of the afternoon, just because I know the places in my town that sell military antiques. If you want I could pick you up some old WWI helmets and bayonets :)

This was a bunch of knickknacks and furniture

Some places sell just that, and they're your best guess. If some of that stuff came into my hands, I'd sell it and donate the money to charity. But for somebody else who isn't as anti-Nazi as I am, I wouldn't blame them for selling it in whatever regular antique store they have. You can get a lot of money for some of it. When I was in Europe, I spotted an SS dagger for about 150 bucks. It turned out not to be real, but I talked to a dealer about it and he said it could have fetched between 250 and 3K dollars in the US depending on the model and it's condition. He showed me one worth over 1,200 dollars because it bore Heinrich Himmler's personal signature on the reverse side of the blade (the obverse side always bears the motto "Meine Here Heist Treue"). *That's* something to have, I'll grant you that.

They are historic artifacts of interest to people. Frankly, I am glad that Nazis have become a kind of benchmark of evil. We know the closer we get to that, the more wrong we are. Many people are fascinated by the Nazis because they are so alien to our way of thinking (at least before Dubya started WW III). Yes I know there are Nazi admirers, but their twisted views do not make the artifacts evil.