Hitler was a prolific reader. His library numbered in the thousands, and was distributed throughout his main residencies in Berchtesgaden, Munich and Berlin.
At the end of the war, many of his books found themselves stuffed into soldiers’ duffel bags and taken home as legitimate war booty. Even today, they turn up at rare book shows and the occasional flea market.
Here are two books taken from Hitler’s Berghof library on May 9 1945 – both bearing his ex libris (“from the library of”) bookplate. The larger of the two, bearing the GI’s inscription from the time, is a collation of Das Illustrierte Blatt – a national illustrated newspaper published weekly from 1913 to September 15, 1942, by the Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei publishing house. Its subtitle was: “The young magazine for home and family, comfortable joy, for leisure, youth, and entertaining knowledge.”
The second of the two books has no inscription and is a home kochbuch, or cookbook, published in 1922.
For JUST the large blue book: $2,000
