Hitler memorabilia goes under the hammer in controversial auction
Last updated on: 21 November,2019 07:49 pm
The collection is expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of euros.
MUNICH (Reuters) - A German auction house on Wednesday put under the hammer a trove of Nazi memorabilia, including Hitler’s collapsible top hat and a cocktail dress worn by his companion Eva Braun, drawing calls from the Jewish community to stop a sale it deems immoral.
The collection features items such as the cigar case of beefy Nazi air force commander Hermann Goering, Nazi military accolades, banners and knives, and a silver cased copy of Hitler’s political treatise "Mein Kampf."
The collection is expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of euros. The asking price for Hitler’s chapeau claque is 50,000 euros and the price tag for the deluxe edition of "Mein Kampf" that belonged to Goering is 130,000 euros.
Bernhard Pacher, managing director of Hermann Historica, said the auction house have been flooded with e-mails from angry individuals condemning the sale.
"We have had one friendly e-mail saying they see it the way we do, meaning these are historical objects," said Pacher. "But 99% of the e-mails we received included very bad insults where history is reduced to claiming we are just greedy neo-Nazis."
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association, urged Pachter in a letter earlier this month to withdraw the auction, saying the artifacts would be bought by individuals seeking to glorify Nazism.
"This is not a legal appeal to you, but very much a moral one," wrote Margolin. "What you are doing is not illegal, but it is wrong."
Pacher said most buyers from the auction house were museums, especially in Asia and the United States where cultural institutions have deep pockets.
"The remaining 20 percent of customers are private collectors or authors of historical books who need the objects for their books," he said. "The fate of each good collection in the long-run is to end up in a museum."
Three years ago, trousers with leather pockets worn by Hitler and a brass container that held the cyanide used by a top deputy to commit suicide were among a trove of Nazi memorabilia sold by Hermann Historica.