Autographed editions of Nazi leader's manifesto, dedicated to German SS officer, expected to fetch $25,000 in Los Angeles
Copies of Adolf Hitler's manifesto Mein Kampf signed by the Nazi leader will go under the hammer in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The rare autographed copies of the two-volume work steeped in antisemitism are inscribed as Christmas gifts to Josef Bauer, an officer in the German SS during World War II and a participant in Hitler's failed Munich coup in 1923.
Bidding in the online auction for the signed books starts at $20,000 (£12,000) and they are expected to sell for about $25,000 when the auction concludes at 10pm eastern standard time on Thursday (0300 GMT on Friday), the auction house Nate D Sanders said.
The Bauer books fetched $25,000 in a sale at Bonhams auction house in London in 2012.
In Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler lays out his vision for a resurgent Germany after World War I along with his National Socialist ideology.
Nate D Sanders, who is Jewish, said his auction house does not shy away from selling memorabilia linked to some of history's most reviled figures.
"I think it's very heinous," Sanders said, "but it is an auction item, it is a memento, it's a piece of memorabilia, and a piece of history."
Mein Kampf – unlike Nazi insignia and some Nazi films and songs – is not banned in Germany. Its German copyright has been owned by Bavaria since the end of World War II, and the southern German state has prohibited sales and printing.
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