Convicted Holocaust denier David Irving is running an online auction of Nazi memorabilia, including what he claims is one of Hitler’s bones.
Irving was declared bankrupt in 2002 after failing to pay any of the £150,000 costs awarded against him in a lost libel case against American academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books.
It is thought the items will be targeted at the US market, where Nazi collectibles sell for substantial prices.
Among the pieces Irving is selling are a walking stick used by Hitler, which is expected to fetch around £7,000; a christening goblet given by Heinrich Himmler to Hermann Goering’s daughter, advertised at £4,000; and a signed 1939 postcard picture of Hitler, worth around £700.
On his website, Irving claims to be working to authenticate a lock of hair and rib bone fragments from Hitler’s body, as well as part of one of Eva Braun’s vertebrae. They were obtained, he says, from KGB archives in Moscow.
Irving does not own the items, but is acting as an agent and intends to collect commission for the sales, organised from his home in Windsor.
Trading in Nazi items is illegal in France, Austria, Poland and Germany, where the offence carries a three-year prison sentence.
