If you feel a particular stigma from ownership of the Nazi paraphernalia, destroying or discarding it would be an absolute travesty.

Should you sell them? Many surplus/recreational stores salivate for period equipment in 'wearable' condition. You'd have no trouble finding stores that deal with the large re-enacting scene in the United States in that regard.

What museum would take them? Almost every State has some form of museum, especially given how many National Guard units were federalized in WWII. Your options are endless; do some research! Make some calls; museums dedicated to American units would still be interested in taking and preserving everything you've found - despite it being German. If I may ask, what State do you live in?

By the sounds of it, you have alot of heavy stuff, hope you find a good home for it - but the garbage is certainly not an option.

Collectors will buy that stuff for a lot of money if it's in good condition.

Look around for people looking to buy it, or give it to a museum.

As another posted stated, don't destroy them for the sake of historical value. The WW2 artefacts may be from a terrible regime, but there's no replacing them once they're gone.

About that carbine. Be careful who you tell about that (actually, that goes for the whole collection -- a healthy chunk of burglaries are committed by individulals that know the victim or at least about their posessions). In my state, regardless of its historical value or history within the family, a firearm is a firearm.

Check your local laws as to whether you need some sort of permit.

I can only speak for the german side of things, but you will find a lot of museums, especially in Europe, who could be willing to take and display those things, along with a small compensation.

Since the market for this is flooeded with replica, you can fetch a decent amount of money for those pieces, if they prove to be legit. Some form of documentation to support it would not hurt, like pictures or family history.

May I ask how your family got those items? Especially the letter, the photos and the magazines may be something to offer a archive or a museum in particular.

If you are in for the money, try to legitimize those items and sell them one by one, if you are in for the greater good, offer them to museums, especially in Germany. You could write a email to bojahr@dhm.de and contact the german historic museum. Even if they are not willing to take those things, they could help you find a museum that might. (http://www.dhm.de/en/about-us/team/collection-department.html)

There are a lot of collectors out there who will pay good money for this set with provenance. Dont throw it out. If you wont keep the money, donate it to charity.

As long as you dont destroy them i would recommend museums if you feel you want others to share in the history of the pieces. and selling if you want money

You may try the WWI memorial/museum in Kansas City. It's has two national designations and I believe is the National WWI memorial. It's a very cool museum and displays tons of stuff.

Should we sell them? What museum would take them?

Try contacting local museums. Your state historical society might be interested. Even if they're not, they could direct you to someplace that is interested. For some of the Nazi stuff, there are other Jewish/Holocaust museums/exhibits besides the big one in Washington DC - some of them might be interested in the artifacts.

There are some Holocaust museums in Texas that might be interested

Dallas http://dallasholocaustmuseum.org/

Houston http://www.hmh.org/

San Antonio http://hmmsa.org/

El Paso http://www.elpasoholocaustmuseum.org/index.sstg

I hope you can find a good home for your artifacts.

You may want to approach your local county historical society or your state historical society (or even better, whichever county/state historical society your great-grandfather lived in). I work at a county historical society in Minnesota and I know we would be absolutely thrilled to have such a complete and well-documented collection.

You might also want to check out any antiquarian book fairs happening in your state this year (the NY book fair is coming up in April, for example); many of the dealers there specialize in autographs and important documents (specifically the signed Hitler letter) and could be of great help. But start sending emails with photos and descriptions to any museums you're interested in donating to!

For the WW1 items you could contact the National World War 1 museum located in Kansas City, MO. I don't know if they would be interested, but especially on items like the pins and propaganda pieces they might be this is the site https://theworldwar.org/

Look for smaller museums in your area. My family donated many of my grandfathers WWII artifacts, including a nazi flag to the Cantigny Fist Division Museum (their website is broken). That kind of stuff would be wonderful additions to a smaller collection.

Wooden Carbine? Got any pics?

Even if they're not put on display in museums, they can still be of value to people doing research. You never know what's going to suddenly become useful when someone notices that half the notes after certain dates have jittery signatures or invisible ink writing or something like that.

Could you upload some pictures? I don't really know how to help you but I love looking at military memorabilia!

The pointy helmet is called a pickelhaube. It was helmetwear for German soldiers early on in the war. They were pretty popular as souvenirs among entente troops. Today you can get one on Ebay for about 100 bucks.

For WWII items, the national world war ii museum is located in New Orleans LA. http://nationalww2museum.org/visit/mobile.html. my family donated items from our veterans.

Auction the hand signed letter from Hitler, that could be worth thousands of dollars.

I know i'm a bit late, but also consider contacting research universities. Most have vast archives of material and will take almost anything as long as it has some historical value.

If you don't mind me asking, why do you have this stuff? I mean i can kinda piece it together but a firsthand account would be more satisfying.

OP, I am curious as to what you ended up doing with the items?

I think I speak for everyone when I say if you could get pictures that would be awesome. I am a militaria collector and wouldn't seeing the stuff or even buying some of it!

I'd say you should try and return anything personal, anything with inscriptions and medals.