A remarkable album featuring never-before-seen photographs of Adolf Hitler has sold for more than $40,000 in the U.K.
The album originally belonged to Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun, and was discovered in Hitler’s bunker at the end of WWII.
It featured a total of 73 photographs in various sizes, with many depicting Hitler in ‘light hearted’ moments – offering an unusual personal insight into the most evil figure in 20th century history.
These candid photographs included shots of the Fuhrer stood next to a group of smiling school children; sat reading alone on a balcony; and even giving a playful Nazi salute, which makes him appear almost ‘Chaplainesque’ in stature.
Other photographs in the album featured high ranking Nazi officers such as Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering, along with Hitler’s personal guards in relaxed poses.
Many of the images were captured by Braun herself, who was a keen photographer, with others taken by Hitler’s close bodyguards.
The album had been retrieved from Braun’s bedroom drawer by a Russian soldier, as they ransacked Hitler’s personal apartments just hours after he and Braun had committed suicide.
This discovery was witnessed first-hand by Fleet Street photographer Edward ‘Dixie’ Dean, who, along with Richard Dimbleby and Rex North, were amongst the first journalists to visit the bunker after the fall of Berlin.
He acquired the album directly from the soldier, and it remained in his personal collection for 40 years before selling at auction in the early 1980s.
It had since passed through the hands of two further collectors, before hitting the auction block in the U.K this week at C&T Auctioneers in Kent.
Offered with a direct line of provenance from the exact moment it was discovered in April 1945, the album was offered with an estimate of £12,500 – £18,500, achieving a final price of £34,000 ($42,000).
