Interest in the personal keepsakes and items of Adolf Hitler and girlfriend Eva Braun is white hot, with collectors this month blitzing an auction site to pay $2,250 for her pink lace underwear and $1,200 for one of his dinner table napkins.
“Third Reich ‘personality’ items are very popular,” said Bill Panagopulos, president of Maryland-based Alexander Historical Auctions, which sold the items.
Eva Braun’s lace lingerie sold for $2,250.
A highlight of Braun’s items sold by the international auction house was a matching lace pink bra and panties embroidered with the blond’s initials, “EB.” They sold for $2,250.
Also auctioned were Braun’s silk stockings for $420, a slip for $1,200 and a blue dress for $2,000.
The items were initially seized by an American military intelligence agent from the SS facility Schloss Fischhorn, a historical castle dating back to 1200. They initially came from Hitler’s Bavarian home where Braun spent much of her time.
Four pieces of Heinrich Himmler’s table silverware sold for $2,250.
The auction also featured personal items from Hitler, like a dinner napkin that sole for $1,200, a monogrammed napkin ring that went for $1,000, and many others from the fuhrer’s ruthless associates including Heinrich Himmler, the SS boss who created concentration camps, and Hermann Goring, who started the Gestapo and was boss of the Luftwaffe.
Panagopulos, whose auction house is a global leader in the sale of historical artifacts, especially from World War II, told Secrets that the demand for items linked to Hitler is extremely high.
Eva Braun’s “Edelweiss” porcelain soup bowl, decorated with her butterfly “E B” monogram, sold for $1,400.
“It’s just a curiosity, a relic, nothing to admire or venerate. There’s just a ‘wow factor’ to owning it,” he said of the items sold, including $1,400 paid for Braun’s Edelweiss porcelain soup bowl.
Sometimes museums and influential collectors buy the items, and other times it can be just the curious who want something even of horrific value to put on their walls.
Two pairs of nylon stockings owned by Eva Braun sold for $420.
Panagopulos added that there is also a more important factor to keeping items like Braun’s underwear and Hitler’s table napkins.
“It actually makes these people seem more incomprehensible because they seem human,” said Panagopulos.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
