Personalised pencil gifted to Adolf Hitler by Eva Braun may fetch £80,000 in auction

A silver-plated pencil that belongs to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler will go up for auction in Belfast next month. The ancient pencil is estimated to fetch around £50,000 and £80,000 in the Belfast auction, The Guardian reported. As per the British news outlet, the pencil is believed to have been a gift to the erstwhile Nazi dictator from his long-term partner Eva Braun. Barun apparently gifted the pencil on Hitler’s 52nd birthday on 20 April 1941. 

According to The Guardian, the pencil was originally bought by a collector at an auction in 2002. The silver-plated piece of history is inscribed with the name “Eva” in German. The bottom of the pencil is inscribed with Hitler’s initials, “AH”. The pencil will be among the wide-ranging historical items that will be presented at Bloomfield Auction, The Guardian reported. The sale is scheduled to take place on June 6 and will also include an original signed photograph of Hitler. 

'The pencil reveals the deception behind Hitler’s public facade'

During a conversation with the British news outlet, the Managing Director of the auction house Karl Bennett explained the significance of the historic pencil. “The importance of Hitler’s engraved personal pencil lies in the fact that it helps to unravel a hidden piece of history, giving a unique insight into Hitler’s personal relationships, which he scrupulously kept hidden from the public eye,” he told The Guardian. “This love token of a personalised pencil from Eva on his birthday helps reveal the deception behind Hitler’s public facade,” he further added. 

Bennett threw more light on the public persona of Hitler during his draconian reign. “Much of Hitler’s personal appeal during his dictatorship derived from his carefully constructed identity as the father of the German nation, who rejected personal connection in favour of loyalty to his country,” he said. “But for me, as a high-end collector of militaria items, they preserve a piece of our past and should be treated as historical objects, no matter if the history they refer to was one of the darkest and most controversial in recorded history,” he concluded. 

The highly anticipated auction will also comprise a hand-written pardon letter by erstwhile British Monarch Queen Victoria. The letter is dated back to 1896 and was written to pardon Irish rebels who were convicted of treason.