Why would those pictures be offensive? Pictures are facts and history. The Third Reich coins, stamps, the swastika are all history. True, many people don't like those items due to the past, but in my interests, I collect them for their history.....being a coin collector for 50+ years.
I despise the swastika and all it stood for during that time. The Nazis hijacked what had been traditionally a good luck symbol in Native American, Asian, and some Nordic cultures and made it their own - and made it a symbol of evil.
But there are paradoxes, I collect paper money with attractive women as vignettes, and this one really made me think long and hard before I bought it - but then when you know the whole story about the design being stolen from Austria it all makes sense and a good reminder of the bigger historical picture:
In 1938 Germany absorbed Austria into the Third Reich, all previously issued Austrian money was called in and redeemed for Reichsmarks. Austria had previously printed but not yet issued a 100 Schilling note in 1938 with a young Austrian woman holding an Edelweiss flower, this design impressed the powers that be in the Reichsbank enough that they selected the design for the 20 Reichsmark note issued the following year in 1939. This note circulated along side the 20 Reichsmarks note with Von Siemens on it P-181 up until 1948 when the Reichsmark was replaced with the Deutschmark.
