Auctioned yellow star sparks outrage

JERUSALEM, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An Israeli auction house has drawn criticism for selling two yellow stars used to identify Jews during the Nazi era.

The Star of David-shaped yellow badges, marked with the word "Jew," were among 1,344 items sold Sunday at the private Ben Ami Anders Auction House in Tel Aviv, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

Avner Shalev, chairman of the directorate at the Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance museum, said sales of Holocaust items should be discouraged in Israel.

"Commercializing items from the Holocaust, such as the stars Jews were forced to wear, is disrespectful and wrong, and particularly should not take place in Israel," Shalev said. "The place for such items is either with the survivors or their families, or in archives and museum collections such as the collection of Yad Vashem."

Labor Knesset Member Ophir Paz-Pines said selling survivors' Holocaust-related items for profit "is a shameful and disgraceful action" that should be condemned and not repeated in Israel.

Paz-Pines said he plans to introduce legislation to the Knesset that would prohibit the sale of items related to the Holocaust and owned by living survivors or inherited by their descendants, a spokesman in Paz-Pines' office told the newspaper.