Hitler's book for sale
2005-06-15 19:39
London - A rare signed first edition of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, was to be auctioned in London on Wednesday.
The book, thought to have been removed from Hitler's personal offices towards the end of World War 2, was expected to fetch at least $36 000 (about R247 000) at Bloomsbury Auctions.
About 500 copies of Hitler's autobiography-cum-manifesto were printed originally in two volumes, with the first volume under the hammer on Wednesday.
Bloomsbury Auctions described their website as having a "portrait frontispiece, original half cloth, corners a little rubbed and spine slightly discoloured, preserved in a black morocco drop-back box".
Hitler's book means 'struggle'
Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in Landsberg Prison in Bavaria, southern Germany, after being jailed for his role in the Munich 'Beer Hall Putsch' of 1923.
The book spelt out his views on Jewry, Aryan purity and communism.
A lot was to be sold with a signed thank-you card from Hitler and a signed postcard of him.
Another two postcards showed Hitler with British then-prime minister Neville Chamberlain at their September 1938 meeting at Bad Godesberg in western Germany.
- AFP