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Paris bans Hitler auction after Jewish protest

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Paris bans Hitler auction after Jewish protest
A French Jewish group has objected to Adolf Hitler's personal effects going under the hammer next month. Photo: William West/AFP

Authorities in France have scrapped a planned auction of personal effects belonging to Hitler and Hermann Goering after the country’s largest Jewish group, backed by the Culture Minister, lodged a complaint.

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The auction was due to take place on April 26th but authorities stepped in after it drew the ire of Jewish groups in France.

The umbrella organisation CRIF said the sale was "a form of moral indecency" and disrespectful to "the victims of Nazi barbarism" and had asked the culture ministry to block the auction.

On Monday France ‘s Council of Voluntary Sales, which regulates public sales announced it would no longer take place.

The objects and documents set to go under the hammer were brought back by French World War II fighters from the Bavarian Alps homes of the two Reich stalwarts in May 1945 after Hitler's mountaintop retreat was bombed by Allied planes.

They included Goering's passport, a monogrammed mat with the Nazi eagle belonging to Hitler bearing the letters A H, and a wooden chest presented to the Nazi leader and emblazoned with swastikas.

One of the older pieces was a 17th century manuscript presented to Goering in 1935.

Another organisation, the National Office of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, had on Saturday called for a ban on what it said was an "obscene" auction.

On Monday France’s Minister of Culture Aurelie Filippetti welcomed the decision she described as “necessary in the light of history and morality.”

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