Donna Yates contacted the Executive Vice-President for Communications at National Geographic. ‘Promises of looking into it‘ were accompanied by a comment that ‘the show wasnt for US audience so DC [HQ was] trying to catch up. Halfway sound[ed] like they didn’t know the show existed.’ How did they react to what they found…?
They deleted the thought-provoking video clip. But James Spokes had already saved it.
Detectorbloke observed: ‘Gone is… Mr Gottlieb’s quote that “I feel that by selling things that are Nazi related and for lots of money, I’m preserving a part of history that museums don’t want to bother with”.’ Is this a new dawn or an appropriately Orwellian rewriting?
National Geographic have also removed the listing for Gottlieb’s inestimable volume on History’s Jackpot: Investing in Antiques and Collectibles. A Guide to Buying and Selling Investment-Grade Antiques and Collectibles for Long-Term Profit (and his other books). As detectorbloke observed of the whole affair: ‘Dear god, what a fuck up.’
To reaffirm my professional concern for the preservation of history, I’ve screen-captured the original page in the Google cache, and conserved it here in html and jpeg:
CRAIG GOTTLIEB
Craig Gottlieb
Militaria Dealer“I feel that by selling things that are Nazi related and for lots of money, I’m preserving a part of history that museums don’t want to bother with”
Craig Gottlieb is a leading militaria and antique dealer, writer & lecturer. He is best known for uncovering military artefacts, including Hitler’s desk set used to sign the 1938 Munich Pact and Mussolini’s hat.
Craig was born in Miami, Florida in 1971. Son of a WWII veteran, he began collecting after his father gave him a German bayonet that he’d brought back from the war as a souvenir. After graduating from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a degree in philosophy, Craig went on to serve in the US Marine Corps.
Craig reached the rank of Major working as a Field Artillery and Civil Affairs officer and was stationed in Japan. He considers himself fortunate that his service fell between the fighting of the two Gulf wars.
In 1997 Craig married his wife who he has known since he was 17, and they moved briefly to Washington DC. In 2001, they resettled in San Diego, where they have lived ever since. Craig had been making money on the side, buying and selling militaria, so he decided to go into
business full time, and started what became History Hunter Military Antiques in 2001. Ten years later in 2011, Craig’s militaria business had become the biggest in the US, specializing in WWII Uniforms, equipment and weapons.
Craig has also written three books: History’s Jackpot: Investing in Antiques and Collectibles. A guide to buying and selling investment-grade antiques and collectibles for long-term profit (2010), SS Totenkopf: From Munich to Nurnberg. Using the SS Totenkopf ring as a point of departure, this book highlights the rise and fall of the the Nazi Shutzstaffel , (2009), and Gau Badges of Hitler’s Germany. A guide to the early years of the Nazi Party, seen through the lense of political decorations instituted by Hitler (2013).
Craig speaks conversational German and Spanish and holds a black belt in Taekwondo.
‘I feel that by selling things that are Nazi related and for lots of money, I’m preserving a part of history that museums don’t want to bother with’
(c) Craig Gottlieb, National Geographic, 26th March 2014
conflict antiquities 