The box that came to me has some german wehrmacht patches, belt buckles, coins, and their version of a purple heart. All war trophies my grandfather collected from his time with the US 5th Armored Division.
I have absolutely no interest in selling them. As making money off that seems down right evil. I'd like to donate them but as they aren't worth very much I'm unsure who would even want them. Would a museum or local college historian want them?
I don't have the heart to destroy historical items. Any advice would be appreciated.
Look to your local historical society. There’s likely one of these nearby that will assess the collection and decide if they’d like to preserve what’s in it. They’re more likely to do so if your grandfather left any of his own descriptions with the items (letters to a family member about them?), since that helps anchor the objects into the local historical narrative more easily. If your grandfather went to college nearby, the university/college archives for his own alma mater might also be a good place to donate.
I’d also echo what a previous commenter says about preserving your family history for your own purposes. If you don’t want the objects themselves, consider whether you want a high-quality photograph or two of each item, stored both locally and in the cloud in a common format that will be accessible for a long time. The Smithsonian recommends TIFF for long-term digital preservation (https://siarchives.si.edu/what-we-do/digital-curation/recommended-preservation-formats-electronic-records)