There are very few things I’d pay $5,500 for, mostly because I don’t have $5,500. But for one lucky(?) Third Reich stan, that was just enough to secure a piece of history: Adolf Hitler’s old linen boxers.
Yes, they had been used.
The International Business Times reports that the “surprisingly large” boxers (gag, puke, vomit)—striped, white linen drawers—had “A.H.” stitched on the top right of the fly and were in pristine condition.
“It is no secret, of course, that Hitler was in general an atrocious dresser and preferred the loosest clothing,” the auction item description read.
According to the New Zealand Herald, the boxers had been left behind in a luxury Austrian hotel after Hitler stayed there in April 1938—a year before the start of World War II. The dictator’s loose drawers were likely sent to be washed by the hotel and never picked up by Hitler’s entourage.
Happens to the worst of us, I guess.
Bill Panagopulos, who owns the auction house, says there are two kinds of people who buy items previously owned by the man who orchestrated the Holocaust.
“People tend to either buy fearsome Hitler memorabilia, or things that make him look like a buffoon, such as this,” he said. “To minimize a monster, you make people laugh at him.”
“It’s as close as you can get to Adolf Hitler, literally,” Panagopulos added, as if that were a thing a reasonable person would want to do.
The underwear was auctioned on Sept. 14. Not much is known about the buyer, except that they are American. Naturally.
Do you know who’s sniffing Hitler’s drawers? Drop us a tip, or just speculate wildly in the comments.
Read more at the International Business Times and the New Zealand Herald.