Five albums once belonging to the teenage Holocaust diarist Mary Berg have been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, bringing an end to an episode that mixed elements of “Antiques Roadshow” with concerns over the ethics of selling Holocaust-related material on the open market.

The material had surfaced at an estate sale in Pennsylvania last spring and was subsequently listed for sale at the Doyle auction house in Manhattan. Then, last month, Doyle abruptly canceled the auction after some of Berg’s relatives, who had been unaware of the sale until contacted by a reporter for The New York Times, called the auction house to voice concern.

Now, the albums have been bought by the museum, which expressed both satisfaction at the acquisition and worry that the purchase might fuel a market in Holocaust-related materials.

“Our focus is on building this collection, which we prefer to do by donation,” said Michael Grunberger, the museum’s director of collections. “Obviously, there are some instances when we do have to purchase something, but our view is that this material should be available to scholars and researchers and preserved for future generations.”