Nazi Memorabilia on the Block, Again
It seems to have become a monthly ritual: A trove of never-before-seen Nazi memorabilia goes up for auction somewhere in suburban Britain. This time, it’s a collection of “previously unpublished photographs of Adolf Hitler” taken by his personal photographer before the start of World War II, according to the Scotsman newspaper.
The snaps are set to go under the gavel January 18 at JP Humbert, an auction house in Towcester, Northamptonshire, UK. The company’s web site euphemistically refers to the lot as “Specialist – Militaria”. “We’ve got somewhere around 800 negatives and maybe 600 stills, some from these negatives and other stills that don’t have a negative that they were developed from,” auctioneer Jonathan Humbert told the Scotsman. Heinrich Hoffmann, der Fuhrer’s photographer, is believed to have passed on the collection himself to an unnamed “elderly gentleman who I understand used to live in Germany,” Humbert said.
The images all date before the Second World War, according to the UK Telegraph, with images captured at “party days”, including one at Nuremberg in 1934. There are photographs of Paul von Hindenburg, the president from 1925 until his death in 1934, when Hitler took over as head of state. “There’s also images of a meeting with Mussolini in Munich and the winter and summer Olympics of 1936 and also more sinister images of Hitler attending an SS officers training school,” Humbert told the newspaper.
Bids are expected to come in from around the world, the Telegraph says. ”Various experts have looked at these and there are rumblings that maybe there could be a six-figure sum achieved,” Humbert told the paper. ”It really is a sinister but intriguing social history of the rise of the Nazi Party, never before been seen.”
In October, the Forward reported on an auction of lovely landscape paintings by Hitler deputy Rudolf Hess; in September, the Forward shared news that “romantic” landscapes by Hitler himself would hit the auction block. In 2009, another cache of art by Hitler netted $143,000 at a UK auction, MSNBC reported.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
