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Originally Posted by GH85Carrera
It is interesting he carried a Smith & Wesson revolver. What little I know about guns I do know that the 38 or 357 S&W revolver is a very reliable point and click works every-time gun. Why a top German would not carry a German gun is an interesting question.
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American made arms were a big status symbol among German (and Italian, and Russian, and...) officers. We take them for granted, but they were extremely difficult for those people to get during wartime.
The guy says it is probably a .357 magnum or .38. My vote is for the latter, a .38/44 "Outdoorsman". The .357 mag was not introduced until 1937. I think that would have made it unlikely one would have made it to Germany before the start of the war. Who knows, before hostilities started, Göhring may have had connections. He was still just a foreign dignitary at that time.
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Originally Posted by pmax
I bet that has been used to kill lots of innocent folks.
Please toss it into the furnace.
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I will absolutely guarantee you that once Göhring gave up his seat in a fighter and took a seat on Hitler's staff, he never personally killed anyone. That, and he gave these away to fellow dignitaries, likely not even keeping one for himself. I bet every one of those ten remain unfired today.
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Originally Posted by herr_oberst
Yeah, because Hermann Göring was just misunderstood, a victim of circumstance.  |
One of history's true monsters, no doubt about that. But that's not the point here...
Quote:
Originally Posted by herr_oberst
Those should be sold at auction with the clear understanding that the profit will be used for the Holocaust museum and these trinkets ceremoniously destroyed.
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As long as the collectors who legitimately purchased these are compensated, I agree - sell them at auction and donate the proceeds to something worthwhile. Not necessarily the Holocaust Museum (it is quite well funded anyway, so I believe these proceeds would just get "absorbed" there without doing much good), but to something that maybe raises awareness of this kind of thing.
Which leads me to my disagreement on the last point. I think we need to preserve significant historical artifacts. Even those that represent the darkest points of human history. It is part of how we remember.
One last, insignificant point, just because I'm a gun guy - that "takedown tool" shown at about 2:10 isn't. It is a magazine loading tool, used to depress and hold down the magazine spring and follower while loading. A collector of this guy's means should know that.