'Hitler's pencil' sells for fraction of estimate at Belfast auction

The silver-plated pencil was sold for £5,400, much lower than its £50,000 to £80,000 estimate

A personalised pencil reputedly once owned by Adolf Hitler has sold for a tenth of its estimated value, despite objections to its auction in Belfast.

Bloomfield Auctions claimed the silver-plated pencil was given as a gift to Hitler by his long-partner, Eva Braun.

It sold for £5,400 on Tuesday, a fraction of its pre-auction estimate which ranged from £50,000 to £80,000.

The European Jewish Association had criticised the auction and had called for the item to be withdrawn from sale.

It went under the hammer in east Belfast during a specialist auction of "militaria, police and important Irish historical Items".

The lots also included a signed photo of Hitler and a number of other items purportedly linked to leading Nazis, some emblazoned with swastika symbols.

'Macabre trade'

Ahead of the sale, Bloomfield Auctions' managing director, Karl Bennett, defended his firm's decision to include such controversial memorabilia.

"I understand why some people may struggle to understand why items like these are sold and collected," he said.

But he argued that they "preserve a piece of our past and should be treated as historical objects, no matter if the history they refer to was one of the darkest and most controversial in recorded history".

Auctioneers George Ribben (left) and Karl Bennett during the sale at Bloomfield Auctions in Belfast.

Hitler came to power in Germany in the 1930s and led the Nazi regime which was responsible for the murders of millions of Jews during World War Two.

Last week, the European Jewish Association wrote to Mr Bennett, urging him to remove the Nazi listings on moral grounds.

It chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin warned that the buying and selling of such items was "dangerous on a number of fronts".

His letter stated that it created "a macabre trade in items belonging to mass murderers" and could "glorify the actions of the Nazis".

Rabbi Margolin added that such sales were "an insult" to the millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust.

In its auction listing, Bloomfield claimed that Eva Braun gave the pencil to Hitler to mark his 52nd birthday.

Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were lovers from the 1930s until their deaths in 1945

It was engraved with his initials, AH, her name and the date - 20 April, 1941.

Hitler and Braun are believed to have died together in a suicide pact in a Berlin bunker towards the end of World War Two in 1945.

However, the authenticity of the pencil's origins were publicly questioned by a Dutch investigative journalist in the lead up to the sale.

Bart Droog, who has written extensively on counterfeit Hitler memorabilia, suggested more proof was needed.

"No photos of Hitler with this pencil exist," Mr Croog told the Jewish Chronicle last week.

"In my opinion there must be rock solid evidence for the authenticity of any alleged Hitler object."

The European Jewish Association said Nazi-linked memorabilia "should not and must not be traded"

However, Mr Bennett said Bloomfield Auctions undertakes a lot of research and work with vendors before placing items for sale to ensure they can be confident that they are genuine.

'We do not seek to cause hurt'

The sales listing stated that the vendor originally bought the pencil at an auction in 2002 and for the past 21 years it remained in the collector's family.

The framed photo, which is said to have been autographed by Hitler, also went under the hammer and was expected to fetch between £8,000 and £10,000.

It also failed to reach its estimate, selling for £6,200.

In a statement addressing the controversy last week, Bloomfield Auctions said: "We do not seek to cause hurt or distress to any one or any part of society."

It added that their historical items "have a story and tell of a particular time" and insisted that their customers were "legitimate collectors who have a passion for history".

The firm added: "All items are a part of history, and we shouldn't be writing history out of books or society."