A wristwatch believed to have belonged to Adolf Hitler was sold on Thursday, July 28, at Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland, USA, for more than US$1.1 million (1.08 million euros). The product’s gold case is engraved with an eagle, a swastika and the initials of the leader of the German Nazis. The value at which the lot went up for auction turned out to be significantly less than its starting price: they were expecting to get between $2 million and $4 million for the accessory.

Several other Nazi-era artifacts were also sold at the auction. So, according to the website of the Alexander Historical Auctions auction house, $200,000 was paid for the imperial eagle, presumably located in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The bronze pad on which Hitler reportedly signed the 1938 Munich Agreement to annex the German-populated Czechoslovak border areas to Nazi Germany was purchased for $290,000.

According to the auction house, the gold watch that was up for auction was presented to Hitler in 1933 by members of the NSDAP. They were discovered on May 4, 1945 – four days after Hitler’s suicide in Berlin – by a French soldier at Hitler’s former Alpine residence in Berchtesgaden. The watch is said to have been in the possession of the soldier’s family for decades.

Sharp criticisms of Jewish organizations

Even before the auction began, the auction organizers were heavily criticized. The European Association of Jewish Organizations (EJA) even asked for the auction to be cancelled. “Selling items like this is disgusting,” said EJA president Rabbi Menachem Margolin in an open letter to auction organizers.

The heritage of Nazism takes place in museums if need be, but certainly not at auction, Margolin emphasized. Selling items that belonged to Hitler’s “genocide brain” does nothing to learn from the horrors of the Nazi era, he said, referring to the six million Jews who fell victim to the Nazis.

The letter was signed by over 30 representatives of Jewish organizations in Europe and Israel, including the German-Israeli Society in Berlin.

In 2017, Alexander Historical Auctions had already listed Hitler’s red phone found in the Führer’s bunker in Berlin after the end of the war for $243,000, which also generated controversy.