Campaigners have voiced strong criticism following the discovery of Nazi flags, SS armbands, and swastikas available for purchase at the annual Lytham 1940s Weekend in Fylde, Lancashire. The event, organized by Fylde Council, aimed to commemorate the 1940s wartime era with historical displays, vehicles, and entertainment.
Photographs from the weekend revealed items such as replicas of armbands and symbols associated with Nazi officers. One image showed a band bearing the skull and crossbones, the symbol of the Totenkopf or Death's Head Division, a Nazi paramilitary unit involved in operating concentration and extermination camps. Another image depicted a sign featuring a Nazi eagle, used by the Kripo, the regime's criminal police force which was instrumental in Nazi persecution. While the sale of such memorabilia is illegal in some European countries, it is not prohibited in the UK. However, major auction houses and online marketplaces generally refuse to trade Nazi-linked items on ethical grounds.
The advocacy group Campaign Against Antisemitism described the items as "grotesque" and stated it would be lodging a complaint with the council. A spokesperson for the group emphasized that these items represent a military apparatus responsible for the genocide of six million Jewish people, and questioned why the event permitted the sale of these hate symbols, especially given a visitor information request not to wear "anything associated with the more extreme elements of the Nazi regime." The group asserted that such items belong in museums, not in the hands of collectors profiting from symbols of genocide.
This incident echoes past controversies involving the sale of Nazi memorabilia. In 2021, BBC Bargain Hunt expert Tim Weeks faced backlash for selling Nazi memorabilia, including a Third Reich banner and swastikas, at his auction house. He subsequently apologized and withdrew the items. Similarly, a Scottish auction house, McTear's, defended its sale of Nazi memorabilia for historical importance before reversing its decision and vowing not to sell such items in the future. The items had included paper bunting bearing the swastika emblem, an 'SS type Dress Dagger,' and silverware purportedly owned by Hermann Goering.
Sam Armstrong of the Henry Jackson Society warned about the dangers of selling such products, noting that they are sought after by far-right extremists. The Board of Deputies of British Jews also expressed distress and called the sales "hugely disrespectful."