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Lebanese millionaire buys up Nazi memorabilia to stop it falling into hands of far-Right

The items bought by Mr Chatila include a collapsible top hat once worn by Hitler, with the initials AH embroidered inside - DPA
The items bought by Mr Chatila include a collapsible top hat once worn by Hitler, with the initials AH embroidered inside - DPA

A Lebanese millionaire living in Switzerland bought Adolf Hitler’s top hat and other Nazi memorabilia to prevent them falling into the hands of the far-Right, it has emerged.

Abdallah Chatila bought the items, which also include a cigar box and typewriter that once belonged to Hitler, for €545,000 (£466,000) at an auction in Munich last week.

“I wanted to buy these objects so that they would not be used for neo-Nazi propaganda purposes,” Mr Chatila told Switzerland’s Le Matin Dimanche newspaper. “My approach is totally apolitical and neutral.”

He said he originally planned to destroy the objects but now intends to donate them to Keren Hayesod, an Israeli fundraisiing organsation.

“Far-Right populism and anti-Semitism are spreading all over Europe and the world, I did not want these objects to fall into the wrong hands and to be used by people with dishonest intentions,” he said.

The items bought by Mr Chatila, which include a collapsible opera hat allegedly once worn by Hitler, an embossed special edition of Mein Kampf and a swastika that belonged to Hermann Goering, were among those on offer at a controversial online auction in Munich last week.

A framed portrait of Adolf Hitler is pictured on November 20, 2019 at the «Hermann Historica» auction house in Grasbrunn near Munich, southern Germany, prior to an auction of personal belongings from German dictator Adolf Hitler and other notorious World War II Nazi leaders. - An auction of Nazi memorabilia, including Adolf Hitler's top hat, raked in hundreds of thousands of euros in Munich Wednesday, November 20, 2019, in the teeth of German and international protest. The hammer fell on the Nazi leader's top hat at 50,000 euros ($55,310), according to the Hermann Historica auction house website, while items of clothing belonging to his partner Eva Braun each sold for thousands. (Photo by Matthias Balk / dpa / AFP) / Germany OUT (Photo by MATTHIAS BALK/dpa/AFP via Getty Images) - Credit: MATTHIAS BALK/DPA
Items offered at auction in Munich last week also included a framed portrait of Hitler Credit: MATTHIAS BALK/DPA

Jewish groups condemned the sale, and accused Hermann Historica, the auction house behind it, of trading in “Nazi souvenirs” and enabling people to “glorify the Nazis”.

Hermann Historica is one of a small number of auction houses around the world that trade in Nazi memorabilia, which are turned away by better known auctioneers such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

Hermann Historica insists it vets buyers carefully and does not sell to neo-Nazis. It says most of its customers are serious collectors.

But Felix Klein, the German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, said last week the auction had “trivialised the crimes of the Nazis”.

“These items should be burned, but historians think that they should be kept for the collective memory,” Mr Chatila said.

Born in Beirut to a family of Christian jewellers, Mr Chatila made his fortune in diamonds and property investments. He has lived in Geneva for decades and is one of Switzerland’s 300 richest residents.

“The example set by Mr. Chatila is one that deserves as much attention as possible,” Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the head of the European Jewish Association, said in a statement.

“We believe that the trade in such items is morally unjustifiable and it seemed, given the uproar and outrage that led up and following the auction and acres of media coverage, that we were not alone.

“We were not prepared, however, in this cynical world in which we live, to expect an act of such kindness, such generosity and such solidarity.”