(JTA) — An auction of Nazi memorabilia in Munich includes underpants worn by Hermann Goering and socks worn by Adolf Hitler.
The auction scheduled for this weekend at the Herman Historica International auction house in Munich also includes dresses that belonged to Hitler’s lover Eva Braun and the case that held the cyanide capsule that Goering, second in command to Hitler, used to take his life the night before he was scheduled to be hanged in 1946 following his conviction on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials.
Jewish groups have condemned the auction, and the mayor of Munich has asked the auction house to cancel it, fearing the objects will be glorified by neo-Nazis, the Telegraph reported.
The memorabilia is part of a collection owned by John Kingsley Lattimer, an American doctor who served as a medical officer during the War Crimes Trials in Nuremberg, where he cared for the prisoners as well as members of the Allied forces staff. He collected many of the artifacts during his time at the trials, according to the auction catalog.
Goering’s underpants, silk with a blue monogram reading “HG,” will be offered at a starting price of $700. Bidding on his brass cyanide capsule case will start at about $3,500.
Other items up for auction include X-rays and reports on Hitler’s health after a 1944 assassination attempt; a collection of original secret wiretap transcripts of the prisoners at Nuremberg; more than 330 contemporary photographs of German secret documents from the property of an assistant U.S. chief counsel during the Nuremberg trials; the gavel given by the chief prosecutor at Nuremberg to his successor, and sections of the ropes used to hang the major war criminals convicted at Nuremberg on Oct. 16, 1946.
The auction house on its website described itself as “a reputable, internationally renowned auction house for historical objects of all ages and countries. “We are perfectly aware of our responsibility for objects of contemporary German history and have always been committed to the utmost care and caution in acting as an intermediary for them,” it said.
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