Real estate tycoon Harlan Crow is facing renewed scrutiny over his expansive collection of Nazi artifacts after he was identified as one of several GOP benefactors who have heaped lavish gifts upon Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Crow, who was reported by ProPublica to have gifted Thomas undisclosed luxury vacations with rides on his private yacht and plane, was profiled in a 2014 Dallas Morning News article that resurfaced this weekend. It highlighted his immense assembly of items from the Third Reich, including two of Adolf Hitler’s paintings, a copy of “Mein Kampf” signed by the dictator himself and dozens of Nazi medallions, swastika-embossed linens and other objects.
New reports of the collection and Crow’s relationship with Thomas have quoted former guests who took issue with his Nazi memorabilia and further sparked debate online over whether or not it’s appropriate for the real estate mogul to maintain them.
“I still can’t get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia,” one person who has been to Crow’s home told The Washingtonian in a story published Friday. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room.”
Many on social media called it tasteless and inappropriate at best to keep a private Nazi collection — and potentially dangerous at worst.
“Most folks exposed to Harlan Crow’s ‘collection’ of Nazi s–t will be repulsed,” wrote writer-producer David Dault. “But a few will be curious. ‘Well, what do you think about it?’ Harlan will ask. It’s rare these days that Nazis can openly recruit. That doesn’t mean they’re not recruiting.”
Elsewhere in his collection of historical memorabilia, Crow keeps an array of statues in his garden that he calls the “Garden of Evil,” which includes statues of infamous authoritarians like Josip Tito and Josef Stalin. When asked about all these artifacts by the Dallas Morning News, Crow was reluctant to speak in detail about it but said that the statues were taken from public areas where they were toppled by a freedom-seeking public and that his collection serves as a reminder of the evils of authoritarianism.
Meg Pillow, co-editor of Roxane Gay’s newsletter The Audacity, rejected arguments that placing items like Nazi artifacts and his Garden of Evil out in public alongside artifacts from other figures such as George W. Bush had notable historical or cultural value.
“Consider Crow’s decision to have Nazi memorabilia alongside other powerbrokers. Then consider how Germany chooses to remember the Holocaust. They memorialize the victims, not the aggressors,” Pillow wrote. “We need to stop valorizing people who protect the stories and artifacts of the rich and the powerful and valorize the people who protect the stories of the people who the powerful have murdered and tried to erase.”
Read Pillow’s full thread below:
The Nation correspondent Elie Mystal was also among those raising concern over Crow’s collection, implying that ownership of the Third Reich items make him a Nazi sympathizer. “There is a serious discussion happening in the year 2023 about whether being friends with a Nazi sympathizer is a good thing,” Mystal wrote. “Republicans literally can’t even be bothered to pretend anymore about what they’re about.”
But others defended Crow against such accusations, with Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, heatedly responding to Mystal: “You have no clue what you’re talking about and I will always remember that you joined a mob like this. Harlan Crow is no Nazi sympathizer and you should be ashamed of suggesting it. Disgusting, ignorant, and shameful.”
Weighing in with his own argument, former Trump Administration counsel Mark Paoletta pointed out that Crow hosted several leading House Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, at his office complex earlier this year.
