One of the belongings of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler It was auctioned for US$1.1 million to an anonymous bidder in Maryland, United States. However, during the process some Jewish community leaders condemned the sale.
For its part, the Alexander Historical Auctions auction house justified the fact by saying that this sale is aimed at “preserve history” and that most of the items that were sold will go to private collections or donated to Holocaust museums.
It should be remembered that Adolf Hitler was in charge of power in Germany between 1933 and 1945, where he systematically murdered 11 million people, including six million Jews.
In the words of Alexander Historical Auctions, the object could be a possible birthday present in 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Also, the auction information ensures that the watch was taken as a souvenir of about 30 French soldiers who stormed a refuge of the Nazi leader, Berghof, in May 1945.
Apparently the watch was resold and passed from generation to generation until now.
Some details of this particular gift is that it has several important dates engraved for Hitlerbetween them his birthday, when he was elected to the Nazi party and when he became Chancellor.
On the other hand, there were also belongings of his wife, Eva Braun, of whom a dress was auctioned and also some autographed photographs by Nazi officials.
However, based on the documents delivered by the auction, they cannot guarantee that the watch was used by Hitlerbut that according to the assessment of a specialist “in all probability” belonged to him.
The object sold for over $1 millionnot reaching the price expected by the auction, which was between 2 and 4 million.
One of the objects that caused disgust in people was that among the auctioned objects was a yellow fabric with the printed word “Jude”, which in German means Jew.
What is this garment? During the holocaust, the Nazis used yellow armbands or badges to identify Jews in order to isolate them.
For this reason, 34 Jewish community leaders described the auction as “abdominable” and called for the Nazi items to be removed.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, president of the European Jewish Association, commented that carrying it out was a “refuge to those who idealize what the Nazi party stood for”.
“While it is obvious that the lessons of history must be learned, and legitimate Nazi artifacts belong in museums or educational venues, items for sale clearly are not“, plot.
“Whether a story is good or bad, it must be preserved”, assured Mindy Greenstein, vice president of the company in a conversation with the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “If you destroy the story, there is no proof that it happened”, he added.