I like the firearms, but I would not collect any of the Nazi/German stuff (helmets, ribbons, uniforms, hats, flags, medals, gas masks, none of it)
Yes it is valuable, to other collectors and museums.
Not to me it's not. I would take no part in glorifying one of the most evil, murdering regimes in all of human history.
I've been through Mel's museum many times, and I'll admit the German section (he has a section for every war) has an eerie feel. But I'm glad that stuff is there to remind us of how evil man can be. When I hear the dems compare our southern border to Nazi concentration camps, I think they need to tour Mel's museum to get a feel of what the real ones were like. I don't want to head down the path where this part of the past is erased, like some are trying to do with the civil war monuments. Interestingly, Mel Bernstein is Jewish.
Mel has collections of things you might not expect to find in a military museum. There are gas masks dating to WW I, including a full body mask for infants, and a huge one that was worn by horses. He has dozens of radios and mine detectors. He has aluminum Jeeps that were dropped with parachutes. He has a WW II ambulance filled with uniformed mannequins and all the medical gear, even unopened glass bottles of plasma from the war. There are personal items issued to the soldiers, such as Lucky Strikes in the rare green package, booklets on safe sex, and even packages of GI condoms. He owns around 200 fully automatic Class 3 weapons. One of the most impressive is the anti aircraft gun with four .50 caliber Browning machine guns, fired from a chair mounted in the middle.
The collection extends beyond military items. There is an 'Americana' room filled with jukeboxes, pinball machines, and toys of all kinds. He calls it a 50s room but some of the stuff is considerably older. There are dozens of very old pedal cars and bicycles, some of which were never used at all. I could go on but nearly all of it can be found on YouTube.
