The Huber watch, which dates from the 1930s, features engravings of a swastika and the initials AH. Auctioned in the US by Alexander Historical Auctions, the watch is described on the auction website as a “World War II relic of historic proportions.” The watch is a gold Andreas Huber reversible wristwatch that was probably given to Hitler on April 20, 1933 on his 44th birthday, when he was named, along with former Chancellor Paul von Hindenburg, an honorary citizen of Bavaria. This was the “first such price in German history,” the auction house said. The clock has three dates – the date Hitler was born, the date he became Chancellor and the day the Nazi Party won the election in March 1933. The watch was commissioned by the Nazi Party (Alexander Historical Auctions) The watch was commissioned by the Nazi Party or NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party) and assembled and engraved by the German watch company Andreas Huber, in Munich. According to the auction house, the watch was taken as a souvenir when about 30 French soldiers stormed the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat, in May 1945. The watch is then believed to have been resold and passed down through several generations. During Hitler’s rule of Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 11 million people were killed, six million of whom were murdered because they were Jewish. The auction of the watch has been condemned by Jewish leaders (Alexander Historical Auctions) The auction of his watch has been condemned by Jewish leaders who wanted the sale cancelled. An open letter signed by 34 Jewish leaders described the sale as “abhorrent”. “This auction, whether unwittingly or not, does two things: one, it helps those who idealize what the Nazi party stood for. Second: To offer buyers the opportunity to gift a visitor or loved one with an item belonging to a genocidal murderer and his supporters,” said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, president of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association (EJA). The auction house, however, said the sale was aimed at preserving history. “Whether it’s good or bad history, it needs to be preserved,” Alexander Historical Auctions senior vice president Mindy Greenstein was quoted as telling Deutsche Welle. “If you destroy history, there is no proof that it happened.”
