Jewish groups condemn auction held by Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland
A watch said to have belonged to the dictator of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitlersold for $1.1m (£900,000) at auction in the US, BBC News reports.
Watch Huber, which was sold to an anonymous bidder, shows a swastika and is engraved with the initials AH. Jewish groups condemned the auction held by Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland.
However, the auction house, which has sold Nazi artefacts in the past, told German media that its aim was to preserve history.
Adolf Hitler led Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, orchestrating the systematic murder of up to 11 million people.
The product catalog for the watch states that it was probably given as a birthday present to Hitler in 1933, the year he became Chancellor of Germany. An auction house estimate says the watch was given as a souvenir when about 30 French soldiers stormed the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat, in May 1945.
Other auction items included a dress belonging to Hitler’s wife Eva Braun, signed photographs of Nazi officials and a yellow fabric Star of David with the word “Jude” in German.
An open letter co-signed by 34 heads of Jewish organizations called the auction “abhorrent,” calling for it to be scrapped, which it was not.
The rabbi Menachem Margolinpresident of the European Jewish Union, said the transaction offered “relief to those who idealize what the Nazi party stood for.”
“Whether it’s a good story or a bad story, it has to be preserved,” the company’s Vice President Mindy Greenstein told Deutsche Welle. “If you destroy history, there is no proof that it happened.”
Documents provided by the auction house state that it cannot provide proof that Hitler actually wore the watch. But an assessment by an independent expert concluded that it “in all likelihood” belonged to him.
Although the watch fetched more than $1 million, it fell short of the auction house’s estimate of $2 million to $4 million, Deutsche Welle reported.
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