Candlesticks owned notorious Nazi Hermann Goering up for sale at Northamptonshire auction
hermann goering
A PAIR of silver candlesticks once owned by notorious Nazi, Hermann Goering are due to be sold in a Northamptonshire auction.
The antiques will be sold at Towcester-based JP Humberts auctioneers later this month.
The auction house has become well-known for selling items from World War Two, with lots sold during the past few months including a set of drinking glasses believed to have once been owned by Hitler and a pair of Churchill’s reading glasses.
Auctioneer Jonathan Humbert admitted many people would find selling Goering’s candlesticks distasteful, but argued that such items meant the atrocities committed by the Nazis would not be forgotten.
He said: “We have tremendous sympathy for those who suffered at the hands of this regime, but I think we need to keep the memory alive of humanity’s blackest hour.”
Goering was commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe and rose to the position of Hitler’s deputy. He was captured at the end of the war and convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials. He was sentenced to death but committed suicide the night before he was due to be hanged.
It is believed the silver candlesticks were presented to him at the outbreak of the war by his colleagues in the Luftwaffe. Mr Humbert said: “I think they were a hastily put together present from his comrades. I presume they adorned the dining table at his home and the condition of them is remarkable.
“They’re actually very pretty candlesticks, they just have a very macabre past.”
While the candlesticks are only believed to be worth about £400, they are expected to fetch up to £2,000 at the auction because of their previous owner, with interest expected from across the world.
They will be sold along with about 400 military items in the sale at Humberts, which is due to take place from 6pm on Tuesday, September 20.
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