Who would want to buy Hitler's watch?
(That's if it really was his...)
SEVERAL years ago, when I was on one of my many trips to Colditz, I fell into conversation after a few several beers with a British auctioneer, whose name I forget. It emerged that he specialised in buying and selling wartime memorabilia, but his real focus was on Nazi memorabilia, which unsettled me. I held my tongue (uncharacteristically) for a while, but I snapped when he informed me that he was selling a whip that had supposedly been used in Auschwitz.
Leaving aside the question of the object’s doubtless iffy provenance, I told him that profiting from hawking objects that had been used in genocide was grotesque, and that he should really donate the whip to a museum. Things got heated, and the conversation ended when he asked me if I was Jewish, and when I said I wasn’t – and besides, it was irrelevant – he said that I seemed to ‘have some problem with Jews’. It was at that point that I went to bed.
The whole question of collecting Nazi memorabilia has risen again with the forthcoming sale of a watch that apparently belonged to Adolf Hitler. According to some reports, the auctioneers are anticipating that the watch will make some $2–4 million, which I don’t think is particularly unlikely, considering that a cap supposedly owned by Hitler sold for £360,000 back in 2019.
Such a price is typical for ‘Führer stuff’. A top hat once went for £43,000, while one of his brown shirts, complete with his Wound Badge medal, an Iron Cross and a gold Nazi party tie pin, went for a staggering £540,000. If you had £215,000 a while back, that would have secured you Hitler’s Blood Order medal. When you compare these prices to some of the more recent Victoria Cross sales of £30,000, £180,000 and £160,000, it’s obvious that Third Reich clobber can be big business indeed.
This isn’t the place to explore the provenance of the watch, but if you are interested then you can find a history of it here. I’m in no position to judge whether it did belong to Hitler, but let’s just assume that it was indeed his.
If that is the case, why would anyone want to buy it?
People who collect this stuff usually claim that they are doing so in order to preserve it for historical purposes, so that other generations can ‘understand’ what happened during the Third Reich. Although this sounds worthy, it’s hard to see what can really be gleaned from items such as caps and medals, or even from Eva Braun’s knickers – £3,700 since you asked.
In addition, as the vast majority of Third Reich memorabilia ends up in private collections, I’m not entirely clear how future generations will be able to see this stuff if it remains hidden away.
I suspect that the ‘historical purposes’ reason is just a smokescreen to obscure the real reason for collecting Nazi memorabilia – an unhealthy fascination with the Third Reich.
It’s at this point that you might reasonably argue that there is no such thing as a ‘healthy’ fascination with Nazism, and indeed I’ve written about this type of obsession before, when I was commissioned by the editor of The Spectator (at the time, one B. Johnson) to address the whole issue of Nazi fetishism. But, I would argue, and as the careers of far, far more august historians than myself – such as Michael Burleigh and Ian Kershaw – prove, you can have an interest and even a fascination with the Third Reich and yet still not be a weirdo. There is clearly a difference between writing and reading books like Burleigh’s, and buying Eva Braun’s underpants.
In a way, items of Third Reich memorabilia, and especially those that are associated with Hitler or any other senior Nazi, have become like medieval relics such as the bones of Christ and the saints. Own a lock of Christ’s hair, and you feel closer to him, and feel his power. Wear Hitler’s wristwatch (or Eva Braun’s pants) and doubtless for those who venerate the Führer, the thrill is much the same.
Ultimately, I think there’s a balance between Nazi memorabilia that is creepy, and items that are acceptable in polite society. My own example of the latter is the original railway sign from Colditz station, which I do not think is a particularly ‘Nazi’ item.
Some might argue otherwise, but I’ve yet to meet someone who finds it weird. Colditz was, after all, not Auschwitz, and a railway sign is not a whip.
Incidentally, I see a whip supposedly from a concentration camp is for sale at the same auction that lists Hitler’s watch. It is estimated to sell for $200 – $300. Perhaps it is being sold by my friend from all those years ago. If so, it was a bad buy.
Good article Guy. I have masses of WW2 items in my collection and have been to fairs and sales for years. I remember wandering around the old Beltring and seeing concentration camp pyjamas for sale, gas chamber crematoria stretchers, items purportedly made of human skin etc. It was vile and I complained to the organisers who shrugged it off. I walked into the RAMC museum at Keogh and the desk that the visitors book sat on was a concentration camp commandant's desk - I recoiled. Now I may be woke or timid and shying away from history but these things ARE important and should NOT be airbrushed or invisible - but for anyone to make a profit (killing) from them now is criminal in my view. They should be in museums along with the mountains of dentures, spectacles and shoes that once belonged to children and adults who wanted to live, who had hopes and didn't deserve to die in the terrible anguish filled hours or minutes it took them to die. If I had the money I'd buy that watch - and grind it under the heel of my boot. We don't need personal ephemera of him to remember - or learn - his watch is just a goulish artefact that the buyer will pleasure themselves to no doubt. Sorry, but this boils my proverbial.
Hi Walt. When I was in my mid teens, studying for exams at school, I became somewhat "fascinated" by the Nazis as I could not understand how it was possible for a country to surrender itself to such an evil ideology, to commit such attrocities as they did. I didn't admire but wanted to know "Why?". So, loads of reading of books about the party, the SS, the Holocaust, and seminars at the University of Glasgow for 6th year students studying history. My Mother was a touch concerned, but given that I was also a leading light in my local Labour Party and Socialist youth groups (and active in the Anti-Nazi League), didn't think I was in danger of indoctrination. Neither did my teachers. But these items are desperately inappropriate for private ownership, and private individuals wanting to own them deeply suspect. What would you do with the watch? Wear it on special occasions? I'm off to the local golf club Burns Supper. I'd better wear my good watch. No, there are Hitler lovers out there who will achieve all sorts of thrills from his, or any other Nazi's personal belongings. Museum ownership? Yes. Morbid monster loving millionaire ownership? No. Hope you are well and coping with the heat. Cheers, Wil.