Grand
Forks Herald / Ralph Engelstad, a Las Vegas casino owner, is a potential
buyer for Hitler's limousine.
|
Grand
Forks Herald / Ralph Engelstad, a Las Vegas casino owner, is a potential
buyer for Hitler's limousine. |
Mr. Granatstein wants to sell the shiny black roadster, which is displayed in the museum next to a dummy wearing an SS uniform against of Bavarian streetscape backdrop.
He doesn't think the car belongs in the museum, and argues it could fetch up to $20 million for the establishment -- but fears if it were sold it could fall into the wrong hands.
"I still worry about the power of this car," he said last week. "If we put it up at auction, we can't control who buys it. This car would be such a powerful icon for a neo-Nazi or extreme group. If it fell into the wrong hands, we would feel very foolish, and worse."
Mr. Granatstein, in a television interview, revealed a Las Vegas concern was a potential buyer. "I actually saw this in an e-mail not half an hour ago," he told an interviewer on CBC Newsworld. "I'm told that there is an automobile museum in Las Vegas that has another one in the same series of Hitler limousines. There are collectors in Canada, the United States and Britain, who I'm told -- I'm no expert in this -- would be interested in acquiring automobiles like this."
While he did not mention casino owner Ralph Engelstad by name, a War Museum employee has confirmed it is the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino's automotive museum that has expressed an interest. Mr. Engelstad owns the luxury gambling facility.
Given Mr. Granatstein's concerns, the background of Nevada millionaire Ralph Engelstad can't be reassuring.
While he has been honoured by former U.S. president George Bush for his efforts to employ disabled people and donated $100 million to his alma mater, it is his admitted "poor taste" in historical memorabilia that has earned him notoriety.
Much of the attention followed a 1988 Nazi-themed party at his Imperial Palace, where he also displays some 200 of the vintage cars in his collection in his own automotive museum. He was fined $1.5 million by the Nevada gaming commission.
The party decorations included a picture of Mr. Engelstad wearing a Nazi uniform. Bartenders wore T-shirts bearing Hitler's picture and the slogan "Adolf Hitler -- European Tour 1939-45," and a cake was decorated with a swastika.
Mr. Engelstad later said the party was staged for employees to improve morale and admitted that it was "not only stupid, but in bad taste."
But Mr. Engelstad's obsession with all things Nazi extends beyond an ill-thought party.
Las Vegas's Jewish community was outraged when employees of his casino came forward with tales of a secret room filled with Nazi memorabilia.
Mark Shindell, the casino's head of corporate security, filed a complaint against the hotel, saying he received a bumper sticker declaring "Hitler was right."
Joe Dickie, a former body shop manager for the car collection, said he helped build the private room that housed the Nazi memorabilia.
Mr. Dickie said the room also contained a portrait of Hitler inscribed "to Ralphie from Adolf," and another photo of Mr. Engelstad in Nazi uniform with the words "to Adolf from Ralphie," written on it.
He added that Mr. Engelstad's car collection includes a six-wheel Nazi staff car and a Mercedes once owned by Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler. One car was full of mannequins dressed in Nazi uniforms, including one of Hitler giving a Nazi salute, Mr. Dickie said.
Reporters were invited to tour the room, where the car collection, murals, weapons and recruiting posters were on display.
Mr. Engelstad said he had taken down some swastikas and banners and insisted that he despised Hitler and "everything he stood for."
He paid the fine, saying it was "cheaper than to fight."
"It's clear that my historical interests were channeled in the direction of very poor taste," he said.
Mr. Engelstad accepted nine restrictions on his Nevada gaming license -- including a ban on any more Hitler parties. The gaming commission said Mr. Engelstad had "damaged Nevada's image by glorifying Hitler and the Third Reich."
Dateline: Toronto -- The Canadian War Museum has decided not to sell Adolph Hitler's limousine. The museum had voiced interest in selling the car at auction to raise funds for a new war museum. Public opinion to selling the black Mercedes-Benz was strongly in the negative, however, and the museum's director expressed reservations about letting the vehicle into the public sector where it might become an icon for neo-Nazi groups. According to the Ottawa Citizen, Ralph Engelstad, owner of the 2,700-room Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, had expressed interest in the car. Engelstad -- who was fined $1.5 million by the Nevada Gaming Commission in for holding a Nazi theme party -- currently owns a six-wheeled Nazi staff car and a Mercedes-Benz once owned by Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler.