The wristwatch, said to have once belonged to Adolf Hitler, has been auctioned at Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland, USA, for more than $1.1 million.

An eagle, a swastika and the initials of the leader of the German Nazis are engraved on the gold case of the product. The amount for which the lot went under the hammer turned out to be significantly lower than its starting price: they expected to get from 2 to 4 million dollars for the accessory, DW reports.

A number of other Nazi-era artifacts were also sold at the auction. So, according to the site of the auction house Alexander Historical Auctions, $ 200,000 was paid for the imperial eagle, presumably located in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The bronze pad on which Hitler is said to have signed the 1938 Munich Agreement to annex the German-populated border areas of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany was purchased for $290,000.

According to the auction house, the gold watch that went under the hammer was presented to Hitler in 1933 by members of the NSDAP. They were discovered on May 4, 1945 - four days after Hitler's suicide in Berlin - by a certain French soldier at Hitler's former Alpine residence in Berchtesgaden. The watch is said to have been in the possession of the soldier's family for decades.

Even before the start of the auction organizers of the auction were subjected to sharp criticism. The European Association of Jewish Organizations (EJA) even called for the auction to be cancelled.

The heritage of Nazism has a place in museums, if it is so necessary, but certainly not at auction, Margolin emphasized. Selling items that belonged to the mastermind of the genocide, Hitler, in no way contributes to learning from the horrors of the Nazi era, he said, referring to the six million Jews who became victims of the Nazis.