A German politician has admitted selling illegal Nazi relics, including concentration camp money.
Rudolf Müller, 65, is an antiques dealer turned leading member of Germany’s nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. He is due to take up one of three seats won by the AfD in the 51-member parliament of Saarland, Germany’s smallest state which borders France, following an election on Sunday.
Müller told Stern magazine that he was unaware it was illegal to sell lagergeld currency from Theresienstadt, a ghetto in the Nazi-occupied Czech city of Terezin where thousands of people died in the Second World War.
He also sold artefacts featuring swastikas, which he claimed are popular with foreign buyers. He is facing a fine if police launch an inquiry and he is convicted.
Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said: “There should be no trade in objects from concentration camps and no profit to be made from them. It is disrespectful to the millions of people who were killed there. Such things belong to museums and memorials.”
The AfD opposes immigration and has enjoyed a boost since Angela Merkel’s decision to allow about one million immigrants from Africa and the Middle East to settle in Germany since 2015.
