Someone in Germany Just Paid $40,000 for One of Hitler's Handwritten Speeches

Manuscripts written by Adolf Hitler sold for tens of thousands of dollars at an auction in Germany Thursday, in case you needed a refresher on how the fight against fascism in Europe is going.

One nine-page speech written by the Nazi leader in 1939 was sold at auction for 34,000 euros, or $40,300, the AP reported. The speech was purchased by an anonymous bidder at the Hermann Historica auction house. The auction house defended its actions by saying the speeches were historically significant and belonged in a museum.

While German law bans Nazi symbols and imagery, Nazi memorabilia is legal so long as the symbols are covered, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

“If we destroy these things and they do not go into a museum for experts to work on them, you will leave the interpretation of what was happening to the right-wing Nazi apologists, who will say Hitler never said that,” Hermann managing director Bernhard Pacher told the AP earlier this week.

The Munich-based auction house has built a reputation for selling Nazi memorabilia over the past several years. Hermann Historica auctioned off items including one of Hitler’s uniforms in 2016 for more than $300,000, and last year it sold items including Hitler’s top hat ($55,000), a copy of Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto “Mein Kampf” ($130,000), and Eva Braun’s dress ($4,600). At the time, Pacher said the auction house didn’t “want to attract any closet Nazis.”

Jewish groups blasted the most recent auction, saying it only served to glorify the Nazis and encourage anti-Semitism.

“I cannot get my head around the sheer irresponsibility and insensitivity, in such a febrile climate, of selling items such as the ramblings of the world’s biggest killer of Jews to the highest bidder,” Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the leader of the European Jewish Association, said in a statement. “What auctions like this do is help legitimize Hitler enthusiasts who thrive on this sort of stuff.”