NEWS: Autographed Mein Kampf Fetches £23,000

CULTURE: Autographed Mein Kampf Fetches £23,000

A first edition print of Mein Kampf, signed by Hitler, has been sold to an anonymous buyer for £23,000.

The edition is one of 500 printed, and came with a signed photo postcard, and also a thank-you card. Auctioned by Bloomsbury Auctions in London, the book was part of a lot which included other signed items and Nazi stationery.

It is thought that the book was taken from the dictator's offices at the end of World War II.

A slightly friendlier offering, the earliest printed book on fishing (The Boke of Hawkynge and Huntynge and Fysshynge, c.1518) sold for £125,500.

Hmm, makes me wonder what an autographed book of his poetry would be valued at.

Ah, the justice.. To be outsold by a book on fishing.

that would be an immensely creepy, yet still totally awesome thing to have. i'm surprised it didn't sell for more.

Assuming I wasn't paying a Nazi for such a thing (it's not like Hitler gets the money for the sale), it would indeed be a very interesting thing to have, if you had that kind of cash to throw around. Your friends might look at you funny, though.

Some people collect skulls, photographs of dead people, whatever, but you can't beat the creepiness factor of a book written by the most evil man of the 20th Century that he actually held in his hand and signed.

[Edited on Jun 17, 2005 by Keith]

exactly. some small piece of the terrible power that man had is still alive in that book... you'd be able to feel the evil radiating off of it.

tens of thousands of dollars is a small price to pay for heebie-jeebies of that calibre.

Yikes.

Apart from the creep-factor of owning it, I imagine such an item is also of incredible historical value.

i would have bought it if I had the money. I am a sucker for WW2 items , imagine the historical value of that. damn.

I ahve a book of Hitlers paintings.........not so great a painter ans perhaps a better dictator........mass murderer.

I'd prefer the book on fishing myself.
I think the 14th century executioners sword I saw for sale a few years back far more creepy (and buy-worthy) than a book, even one of Hitler's/

Yeah, Some people are fascinated by stupid things such as serial killers and Hitler.

I find it interesting that we are to take Connolly's word for it that this was actually signed by Hitler. I mean, he just picked up a copy, wrote his name in it (much the same as people did at the time to state "this is mine, not yours" and carried it around? He didn't sign the book "to" anyone? A certificate of authenticity is only as good as the reputation of the person giving it, and how would Connolly know that someone didn't write Hitler's name in the book if he hadn't seen Uncle Adolf pen it himself? It could be a forgery.

Aside from all that... If I had known it was for sale, and could have been there, and had the money... I would have bought it. More than the historical value, more than who wrote the book and who signed it... it is limited in scope where you can buy and sell Nazi related items (i.e. you can not sell it to anyone in Germany, Austria or Poland, and you cannot ship it to anyone in those countries either).

To think that Hilter, Churchill and Eisenower will all painters. Hilter was the best painter out of the three of them. I did some work at the Pentagon on the Army's art collection. They confiscated every painting of Hitler they got thier hands on. These painings were very creepy especially the famous one of Hitler as a 14th Century Teutonic Knight. It still has the bayonet marks in his face that were put there by by the russian soldiers. Hiltler realy had a grasp on art and marketing to pull off what he did. The German people are still think that thye did not do it. It was those other Germans. I don't think so. I still have my top secret Pentagon Pass. You had to have high clearance to work on these paintings. The power of art.

Aren't there EU prohibitions on trafficking in Nazi objects?

There might be. As I stated before, you can't ship to/from/through certain countries. However, there are no prohibitions to buying and selling within any of the countries, meaning that this sale was in England and the product is staying in England.