After his father passed away in 2019, David Tabby was shocked to find a space filled with Nazi memorabilia at his father Gilbert’s home in a northwest suburb of Philadelphia, writes Zoe Greenberg for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The collection consisted of helmets, medals, uniforms, banners, and hundreds of other Nazi artifacts.
It also included several objects from concentration camps and Jewish ghettos during World War II.
The Tabby family, while Jewish, are not direct descendants of Holocaust survivors.
The question that has remained is why did Gilbert have such a collection?
“I don’t know how to say it any other way except that all the Nazi stuff kind of bothers me,” said David Tabby. “I can say now that it’s necessary to tell the story, but I don’t know how you distinguish between glorifying it and just cataloging it.”
Despite the questions, David has decided to build a makeshift museum in the basement of his father’s collection.
“I miss my dad. And it’s a tribute to him,” David said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense to me.”
Regardless of the reason for his collection, it’s here to stay and will be used to preserve a piece of history.
Read more about David Tabby’s effort to honor his late father at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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