Hitler’s watch sold in controversial auction for $1.1 million, #Hitlers #watch #sold #controversial #auction #1.1m Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
A watch believed to belong to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has been sold for $1.1 million (£900,000) to an anonymous bidder at an auction in the US.
The Huber watch from the 1930s features engravings of a * and the initials AH.
The watch was auctioned in the US by Alexander Historical Auctions and is described on the auctioneer’s website as a “World War II relic of historic proportions”.
The watch is a gold Andreas Huber reversible wristwatch that was probably given to Hitler on April 20, 1933 on his 44th birthday, when he was made an honorary citizen of Bavaria along with former Chancellor Paul von Hindenburg.
This was the “first honor in the history of Germany”, the auction house said.
The watch has three dates: Hitler’s date of birth, the date he became chancellor and the day the Nazi party won the elections in March 1933.
The watch was commissioned by the Nazi party
(Alexander Historic Auctions)
The watch was commissioned by the Nazi Party or NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) and assembled and engraved by the German watch company Andreas Huber in Munich.
According to the auction house, the watch was taken as a souvenir when some 30 French soldiers stormed the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain refuge, in May 1945.
Subsequently, the watch is thought to have been resold and passed down through several generations.
During Hitler’s rule in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 11 million people were killed, six million of whom were murdered because they were Jewish.
Watch auction condemned by Jewish leaders
(Alexander Historic Auctions)
The auction of his watch has been condemned by Jewish leaders who wanted the sale cancelled.
An open letter signed by 34 Jewish leaders described the sale as “abhorrent”.
“This auction, unconsciously or not, does two things: firstly, provide first aid to those who idealize what the Nazi Party stood for. Two: offering buyers the chance to tantalize a guest or loved one with an item from a genocidal killer and his supporters,” said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, president of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association (EJA).
However, the auction house said the sale was aimed at preserving history.
“Whether it’s a good or a bad history, it must be preserved,” Alexander Historical Auctions senior vice president Mindy Greenstein told Deutsche Welle.
“If you destroy history, there is no evidence that it happened.”