Adolf Hitler’s former wristwatch fetched $1.1 million at an auction in Maryland.
The watch is a “World War II relic of historic proportions,” according to Chesapeake City’s Alexander Historical Auctions, which placed the watch’s estimated value between $2 and $4 million.
This week, Jewish leaders and others opposed the sale, claiming it had little to no historical significance.
34 Jewish leaders issued an open letter calling for the Nazi artefacts to be removed from the auction, calling the sale “abhorrent.”
Bill Panagopulos, the president of the auction house, defended the auction and said that the bidder is a Jew from Europe.
The AH initials and a swastika are visible on the watch. According to the auction company, it was taken as a war booty by a French soldier who was part of the first force to approach Hitler in his Berchtesgaden retreat in May 1945.
The European Jewish Association’s leader, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, stated in an open letter that the purchase “gives succour to those who idealise what the Nazi party stood for.”
While it is evident that history must be understood and that authentic Nazi artefacts belong in museums or educational institutions, he added, “the ones you are selling certainly do not.”