Nazi memorabilia auction cancelled after French minister, Jewish groups protest
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A French auction house has scrapped a sale of objects that belonged to Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering after Culture Minister Aurélie Flipetti joined Jewish groups in calling for its cancellation.
The Vermot de Pas auction house told RFI on Monday that it had called off the sale, set for 26 April, although it had previously ignored protests by two Jewish groups.
The decision followed Filipetti's declaration to Le Monde newspaper that she did not wish the sale to go ahead.
Earlier the umbrella group Crif and anti-Semitism campaign, BNVCA, called on the minister to oppose the auction, describing it as "obscene" and an "insult to the memory of the victims of Nazi barbarism".
The objects due to be sold included pa ssports, books, tablewear and furniture, some of them decorated with swastikas.
They were taken from Hitler's hideout in the Bavarian Alps, the Berchtesgaden, and a neighbouring property belonging to Nazi minister and military chief, Goering, by France's second tank division, which was the first detachment of allied troops to arrive there after the houses had been bombed by allied air power.
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