A watch that belonged to the German dictator Adolf Hitler has fetched 1.1 million dollars (1.075 million euros) at an auction in the United States. That was considerably less than the 2 to 4 million euros that was expected.
According to the auction house, the watch was Alexander Historical Auctions given to Hitler as a birthday present in 1933, the year he became Chancellor of Germany. The watch shows the Nazi symbol of an eagle and a swastika. Below it are Hitler’s initials engraved.
It is not certain whether Hitler ever actually wore the war log. The bell was found in 1945 by French soldiers when they stormed Hitler’s Berghof country residence. Since then, it has been resold several times, until it ended up at the Maryland auction house.
The buyer of the watch wished to remain anonymous. Other Nazi artifacts were also auctioned, such as a dress by Hitler’s partner Eva Braun and autographed photographs of senior Nazi officials.
The Jewish community had previously objected to the auction of Nazi artifacts, including a yellow Star of David that Jews were required to wear on their clothes during the Nazi regime. They fear that the auction contributes to “the idealization of the Nazi regime and all the reprehensible actions that accompanied it”.
The auction house states that the pieces are part of history and therefore should not be hidden. The vast majority of auctioned objects end up in private collections of collectors or are donated to museums.