Hitler’s watch sells for $1.1 million at controversial Maryland auction

A Maryland auction house has sold a wristwatch that once belonged to Adolf Hitler for $1.1 million.

Alexander Historical Auctions in Chesapeake City had estimated the value between $2 million and $4 million, describing the watch as a « World War II relic of historic proportions. »

News organizations report that Jewish leaders and others opposed the sale this week, saying it had little or no historical value.

Auction house president Bill Panagopulos defended the auction and said the buyer was a European Jew.

The watch features the initials AH and a swastika. The auction house said a French soldier seized the watch as spoils of war on May 4, 1945, when his unit became the first Allied force to arrive at Hitler’s retreat at Berchtesgaden. The Nazi leader died in Berlin on April 30, 1945.

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