By Amit Epstein | 23/12/2010
I really didn't think that my decision to reorganize my living-room would cause so much confusion. Who could have thought that a search for a closet would raise moral questions? The power of context and perspective is never to be underestimated...
photo: Amit Epstein
For some reason, I have spent seven years here without having a proper clothes' closet – just some shabby 2-door Ikea cabinet which was left behind by the former tenant. Whoever knows me even a bit, must be laughing now. It's been impossible – I always had to keep my laundry basket full, my suitcases unpacked and every surface covered by layers of folded clothes.
A mess - I had to do something about it.
Not that I'm a stranger to flea markets, or to second hand shops – it's actually between being my hobby and a profession. I always liked old things, they mustn't be antique, just objects and garment with a history. Even old people I used to like - but then I moved to Germany and it became somewhat complicated. I did try not to make a big deal out of it, even take it lightly, as a joke; I always tell the anecdote of how I found the portrait of a Wehrmacht soldier on a flea market, and the Arab merchant who was selling it shamelessly (usually the German merchants who sell Nazi objects and photos hide it, or cover it half way, make some kind of effort to smoothen the act) wanted 10 Euro – I said shameless, didn't I? – Well, I offered 3 Euro, after a while he was willing to compromise for 5, I was pretending to walk away and then he asked me "Araber?" (Are you an Arab?) And I said "Aiwa" (almost the only word I know in Arabic, meaning yes). He then suggested I'll get it for "Arba'a" (4) and so I bought it. The friend who accompanied me was quite shocked and asked me if he just watched me selling my identity as an Israeli for 1 Euro, to which I replied with "Aiwa".
Not always it was funny – I did get upset in Munich when I saw a porcelain statue of Himmler and his dogs at the window display of an antique shop, as albeit white on white it was clear to see the swastika symbol (which is illegal, not in all European countries, but in Germany). I wanted to accidentally break it, but it was out of reach. I was inquiring about purchasing it but it was way too expensive, 300 Euro. I didn't think that looking like an Arab would help with this guy, so I've sent an Austrian friend with permission to go up to 180 Euro. The statue was gone. I've seen belts with the swastika on the buckle, I've seen coins and cards with all the notorious symbols and contemptible personas and even "educational" children's books. I've seen numerous of the photos that were taken out of the photo albums or never made it in, the framed portraits which were hanging on the walls and then hidden in attics and cellars (one of which ended hanging on my wall…) endless amount of relics which floats still all around.
As I was surfing through Ebay.de the more innocent looking articles surfaced; when you look for old closets and you do not like Biedermeier, you usually find a certain kind of closets, which do not carry any Nazi symbol, but do bear the design, the style of the era – those pieces of furniture which were produced in the early 30ies and took part in these households. They are massive, very practical and (as stated in most ads) have been in the family since a long time. The problem does not ends there – even if you avoid all ads with 1930 in their title, unless you go for the 50's, 60's or 70's style, each beautiful old piece of furniture which was standing at somebody's grandma's house and now that she moved to a home he wants to sell, might have belonged shortly before it became this family's property, some Jewish family's property. How can you know? Unlike with Art, where usually the details of buyer and seller including dates are stated (and if they are not stated in between 1933 and 1945, it's anyway clear) it's a risk.
Therefore, moral questions were raised. Moral aside, I do need a closet, I am cursed with a good taste and I do have a soft spot for antiques (maybe just because of the furniture my family left behind – in my family "antique" stands for something from the 50ies…) I've decided to look at it this way; German people did not live in empty houses until 1933 – some of them did have property of their own which was truly in the family since ages, some of them bought their furniture for reasonable money, some inherited things from former tenants, just like me, with no bad intention. Even if some moved into fully furnished apartments which belonged to Jewish neighbors who were forced to leave, even if some took, robbed or were given under vile laws something which was not rightly theirs, and even if a piece of furniture like that ends up to be what I buy – maybe it's a happy end?
