The bid included cut glasses, a silver plate, one silver cigar box and matchbox and Eva Braun's powder compact. Each item was explicitly marked with a combination of swastika, Reichsadler (the 'Imperial Eagle', used as a symbol by Nazi Germany) and Hitler's initials'AH'. The powder box, which reportedly belonged to Hitler's companion Eva Braun, was marked with her initials 'EB'. The buyer of the items remains undisclosed, perhaps due to the sensitive nature of the bid itself, but it's known all the lots were sold for quite high prices.
The silver cigar box - apparently part of the Fuehrer's personal table service - went for โฌ25,000, thus being the most expensive item. Eva Braun's powder box was sold for โฌ6,000 Euro with two wineglasses and a silver plate being snapped up for โฌ3,600 and โฌ2,500 respectively.
News: Unterm Hammer - Hitlers Nachlass wird versteigert https://t.co/zyTvlDWCTQ #Nachrichten
โ BILD_aktuell (@BILD_aktuell) November 1, 2015
All the items sold at the auction belonged to Adolf Hitler and were found at his residences in Berghof and Obersalzberg, as well as at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, according to auctioneer Andreas Thies. Auctions of such sort frequently spark controversy among the German public, as the Nazi past is still a sensitive issue. In Germany and Austria public demonstration of Nazi symbols is forbidden by law and unwelcomed by society.
Bild's contributor, Stefan Hauck, believes that auctioning items such as these - given they belonged to the leader of the Third Reich - is not illegal but 'disgusting' whatsoever. He adds it is an issue of respect towards victims of the Nazi regime 'to enact a legislation that would prevent beneficiaries from making profit in this perverted way.'
Hitler's cigar box? Hitler hated smoking, cigarettes, pipes and cigars. It is highly unlikely he would have allowed a cigar box on his table, and he certainly would never have allowed anyone to take a cigar and light it in his presence. Eva was not just his "companion," she was his wife. There may have been a box as part of a set, but it is a cinch it never appeared, stocked with cigars, in the same room with Hitler.