A Mercedes-Benz custom-built for Adolf Hitler and used in Nazi parades during World War II is about to hit the auction block, with 10 percent of the winning bid going towards one of the world’s largest Jewish human rights groups.
Hitler’s armored Mercedes-Benz 770 Grosser Offener Tourenwagen is expected to fetch at least $10 million when it goes under the hammer Wednesday, according to Worldwide Auctioneers, an Indiana-based auction house organizing the sale.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is lated to collect more than a million dollars earmarked towards Holocaust education efforts.
The so-called “Super Mercedes” was built for Hitler in 1939 and constitutes “the most historically significant automobile ever offered for public sale,” Worldwide Auctioneers said on its website.
The car was designed to the precise specifications of Hitler’s primary chauffeur, SS officer Erich Kempka, and was prominently featured in official Nazi motorcades during the war’s first half.
Notably the car carried Italian dictator Benito Mussolini during a state visit in 1940, and Hitler rode in it during a victory parade held in Berlin after the Nazis defeated France in 1941.
The U.S Army seized the car in 1945, making it a “definitive memorial of Allied triumph over evil,” according to the auction house.
“It’s a trophy,” said Rod Egan, chief auctioneer at Worldwide Auctioneers “Hitler lost and we took his flagship car, really is what it comes down to,” he told Jewish Journal.
The Mercedes-Benz 770K typically sells at auction at about $5 million, but Mr. Egan said that Hitler’s model may sell for double that amount when its auctioned Wednesday in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“We estimate that the car will probably sell in the $10 million or $15 million range,” added John Kruse, a principal auctioneer at Worldwide, Phoenix’s KSAZ reported.
In a statement, Mr. Kruse said he was “honored” to donate 10 percent of the sale to the the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights group named after one of the world’s most famous Nazi hunters.
“Adolf Hitler would turn over in his grave if he knew that 10 percent of the sale of the car he once used to glorify Nazism was donated to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in order to eradicate it. It will strengthen our efforts to stand up to today’s bigots and anti-Semites and to educate tomorrow’s generations about the horrific crimes and evils committed by Hitler’s Third Reich,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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