Adolf Hitler’s telephone auctioned for £196,000
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Adolf Hitler’s telephone auctioned for £196,000

The phone used by the former Nazi dictator is sold at an auction house in Maryland in America

Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler

A telephone used by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War has been sold at auction for 243,000 dollars (£196,000).

Andreas Kornfeld of Alexander Historical Auctions in Chesapeake City, Maryland, said it sold on Sunday afternoon to a person who bid by phone.

The auction house does not disclose the names of buyers.

Bidding for the phone started at 100,000 dollars (£80,500).

Occupying Russian officers gave the phone to a British officer, Brigadier Ralph Rayner, during a visit to Hitler’s bunker in Berlin.

The officer’s son is now selling the red phone with a Nazi party symbol and Hitler’s name engraved on the back.

The phone was used in vehicles and trains as well as in Hitler’s field headquarters.

The handset of the phone must be rotated almost 60 degrees before it can be lifted out of its cradle.

This feature kept the handset from shaking loose while being transported

Mr Kornfeld said a porcelain figure of an Alsatian dog, also owned by Hitler, was also sold on Sunday to a different bidder for 24,300 dollars (£19,500).

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: