It is to be held this Friday, November 10 at the auction house on rue Chaptal, in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique). Organized by the company Salorges Enchères, this auction saw its catalog modified following the publication of a press article. Saturday, our colleagues from West France revealed that the outfit of a deportee from Nantes sent to the Dachau concentration camp during the Second World War would be put up for sale. The sale, entitled “Militaria and toy”, initially offered pants and a jacket worn by Francis Richard. This resistance fighter from Nantes was arrested in 1944 and sent to the Dachau concentration camp, in Germany. The man escaped alive and was able to return at the end of the Second World War but suffered serious after-effects. He died in 1959 at the age of 46.
Several associations were outraged by the auctioning of these clothes. The Friends of the Foundation for the Memory of the Deportation have, in particular, written to the auction company to argue that “the memory linked to the clothing of the deportees is not tradable”.
“The outfit will be donated to an organization”
Given the excitement caused, the outfit, which had been priced “between 300 and 400 euros”, was finally withdrawn from the catalogue, the auction company announced on Tuesday, confirming information from West France. “We spoke with the customer. The outfit will ultimately not be put on sale. It will be given. The customer thinks about which organization,” says Alexandre Kaczorowski, sales administrator at Salorge Enchères.
The Dachau concentration camp was the first to be set up by the Nazi regime in 1933. It remained open until April 1945 and the arrival of American soldiers. According to recorded records, more than 30,000 people died in this camp. When American soldiers arrived, 35,000 people were detained there. Around 40,000 others worked in 183 external Kommandos.