(Jewish Group) Jewish businessman offers to buy and blow up 800lb eagle and swastika crest from ship [View all]
Jewish businessman offers to buy and blow up 800-pound eagle and swastika crest from Nazi ship
PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay (JTA) A Jewish businessman has offered to buy an 800-pound eagle and swastika crest from a former Nazi ship that is sitting in a Uruguay warehouse and explode it into a thousand pieces.
A private expedition recovered the 6-foot-tall Nazi swastika and eagle crest in 2006. It had been affixed to the front of the Admiral Graf Spee Nazi warship, which was scuttled by British ships in a Montevideo harbor in December 1939.
After its recovery, the eagle was briefly shown to the public in Montevideo, sparking controversy. Germany criticized the display of Nazi paraphernalia and the eagle was moved to a naval warehouse. It was nearly put up for auction, but the head of the Uruguayan Jewish Committee and others objected, arguing that it could end up in the wrong hands. It was reportedly offered to Israels Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, which rejected it.
In 2019, a Uruguayan court ruled that the government must auction the crest, and that the proceeds must go to the investors behind the team that recovered it. Past reports claimed that buyers had floated offers in the tens of millions of dollars.
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