Auction of Nazi devotional items: Hitler's top hat and Eva Braun's cocktail dress

An auction of more than 800 items from the hands of senior National Socialists has created a strong buyer interest. Bernhard Pacher, managing director of the hosting auction house, said: "We have never had so many customers bidding on the internet and in the hall."

The auction had triggered fierce criticism in advance. "Some things just do not trade," wrote Rabbi Menachem Margolin of the European Jewish Association (eja) in Brussels in a letter to the auction house. The Association of Jews of Europe called for the cancellation of the auction.

Pacher resisted the allegations. "By far the biggest part of the customers who shop with us are museums, state collections and private collectors who are really meticulous about the subject," he said. "We do not want to lure cellar azzis."

"Mein Kampf", cocktail dress, cylinder

Due to the large rush, higher prices than expected were also achieved. For example, a luxury edition of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" for 130,000 euros changed hands - twice as much as originally estimated. Also, a cocktail dress by Eva Braun went with 4600 euros, twice the expected price. Hitler's folding cylinder, on the other hand, met the organizers' expectations with 50,000 euros.

It is not the first auction of this kind. The Munich auction house has been controversial for several years because of its auctions of Nazi items. In 2016, for example, Hitler's uniform jacket went to the highest bidder for € 275,000. At the beginning of 2019, shortly before the auction, 63 pictures allegedly painted by Hitler were confiscated because of doubts about authenticity.