PARIS (AFP).- Nazi memorabilia that belonged to Adolf Hitler and air force chief Hermann Goering have been withdrawn from a Paris auction following objections from Jewish bodies.

Goering's passport and a wooden chest presented to Hitler emblazoned with swastikas were among the items that were to have gone under the hammer in a sale organised by the Vermot de Pas auction house on April 26.

Other items included a mat decorated with the Nazi eagle and monogrammed with Hitler's initials and a 17th century manuscript presented to Goering in 1935.

Catherine Chadelat, president of the body that oversees France's auction houses, The Council of Voluntary Sales (CVV), told AFP the items were by their very nature likely to shock and that Vermot de Pas had decided to withdraw them from the sale.

French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti welcomed the decision which she described as "necessary in the light of history and morality".

On Sunday, France's main Jewish body called for the auction to be cancelled calling it a "form of moral indecency" that was disrespectful to "the victims of Nazi barbarism".

Another organisation, the National Office of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, had on Saturday described the proposed sale as "obscene".

According to the auction house, French soldiers acquired the items in May 1945 as World War II came to a close at Hitler's "Berghof" mountaintop retreat in the Bavarian Alps.




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