'Hitler Watch' Auctioned for 1.4 Billion Won... Jewish Community Expresses 'Anger'

Hitler's personal items, including his wife's dress, go up for auction
Jewish community condemns it as a "disgusting deal ignoring others' memories and pain"

A wristwatch presumed to have belonged to Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany. Photo by Alexander Historical Auction website capture, Yonhap News Agency

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Se-eun] The Jewish community strongly opposed the auction of a wristwatch presumed to have belonged to Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany.

According to foreign media including The Washington Post (WP) on the 30th (local time), the 'Alexander Historical Auction House' located in Chesapeake, Maryland, USA, sold Hitler's wristwatch for $1.1 million on the 28th. This amount was less than the initially expected $2 million to $4 million.

The watch is believed to have been a commemorative gift received after Hitler won the election in 1933 and became the Chancellor of Germany. The back of the watch is engraved with the Nazi symbol, the swastika, along with the initials 'AH' for Adolf Hitler. The auction house described the watch as a "historic World War II artifact" and "an unprecedented honor in German history."

According to the auction house, a French soldier acquired the watch in 1945 from Hitler's mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps, Germany. The watch was auctioned alongside Eva Braun's dress, photos of Nazi officials, and other items belonging to Hitler.

Upon news of the auction, the Jewish community expressed outrage. Earlier, 34 Jewish leaders issued an open letter urging that Hitler's watch and related items not be auctioned. They criticized, "The auction house is conducting a hateful transaction that disregards others' memories and suffering for monetary gain."

Menachem Margolin, Secretary General of the European Jewish Association (EJA) and a scholar of Jewish law, commented on the transaction, saying, "It aids those who idealize what the Nazi Party advocated. The lessons of history must be clearly learned, and legitimate Nazi-related items should find their place in museums, but the items sold this time do not."

However, the auction house rebutted, stating their purpose is solely "historical preservation." Maryland officials said, "Our goal is to preserve history, and most collectors keep the acquired items as personal collections or donate them to Holocaust museums worldwide. Whether the history is good or bad, it must be preserved."

Previously, the Maryland auction house auctioned a dagger used by Hitler in his childhood in 2016, and Nazi-related items such as Nazi flags three years ago.

Meanwhile, Nazi Germany, led by Hitler, carried out the Holocaust (mass genocide) from 1941 to 1945, "to exterminate the Jewish race." During this period, approximately six million European Jews, about two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe, died.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.