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Community: Hitler's desk not welcome at upcoming arms fair


"It wasn't just going to be, 'Here's Hitler's desk, you wanna have a picture and sit in it?'" said David Petronis. (New Eastcoast Arms Collectors Associates)
"It wasn't just going to be, 'Here's Hitler's desk, you wanna have a picture and sit in it?'" said David Petronis. (New Eastcoast Arms Collectors Associates)
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (WRGB) - "It wasn't just going to be, 'Here's Hitler's desk, you wanna have a picture and sit in it?'" said David Petronis.

Petronis, the Saratoga Springs Arms Fair organizer, found his upcoming show at the center of controversy when it was revealed that Adolf Hitler's personal desk and other artifacts from his Munich apartment would be on display.

"I don't see a real problem with it. The presentation of it in such a way that it's offensive is not what we would be doing. To me, I guess I have a thicker skin, and I think other people ought to have a little bit of thicker skin, too,” he explained.

But Mayor Joanne Yepsen disagreed.

"I think the word 'Hitler,' I think his desk, I think any symbols that represent him or the hatred and the killings that occurred under his administration are not welcome here,” she said.

Yepsen says what is welcome is love, inclusivity and tolerance. At an "all are welcome here" vigil Thursday night, hundreds spread that same message.

"I often say, 'I'm a brown, lesbian immigrant,' and so I'm sort of checking off a lot of boxes that people don't like, and having vigils like these allows us to see the community coming together and it makes us feel safer,” explained resident Minita Sanghvi.

Spa City residents like Sanghvi say they were glad to hear that the Hitler memorabilia will now not be allowed on display at the arms fair, saying pieces of history like that have other, more proper places to be exhibited.

"I think you can place objects in a way that allows you to learn from history and a way that doesn't valorize it and I think the position that it held in the gun show was to valorize it and say this is so cool and interesting, not that this is a marker of our past that we don't want to forget and we don't want to repeat,” said resident Dominique Vuvan.

The arms fair is being held at the City Center on Sept. 2 and 3.

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