ヒトラーゆかりの帽子など、落札した実業家がイスラエル団体へ寄贈

【ジュネーブＡＦＰ＝時事】ドイツ南部ミュンヘンで先週行われた競売で、ナチス・ドイツの総統、アドルフ・ヒトラーが使用したシルクハットなどゆかりの品々を落札したレバノン人実業家が、落札品をイスラエルの団体に寄贈する意向を発表した。こうした品々がネオナチらの手に渡ることを防ぐためだという。（写真はドイツ南部ミュンヘンで競売にかけられた、ナチス・ドイツの総統アドルフ・ヒトラーの帽子。内側に「AH」のイニシャルが確認できる）
　落札したのは、スイスのジュネーブでダイヤモンドや不動産取引で財を成したレバノン出身の実業家、アブダラ・シャティラ氏。同氏は週刊紙ル・マタン・ディマンシュに「こうした品々を買い取ることで、ネオナチのプロパガンダとして使用されなくなることを望んでいる」と語った。
　シャティラ氏は２０日の競売で、ヒトラーのものとされる折り畳み式のシルクハットを５万ユーロ（約６００万円）で落札。この競売ではナチスゆかりの品々が高値で取引され、国内外から非難が殺到していた。
　シャティラ氏はこの他にも、ヒトラーゆかりの品々を多数落札し、これらをイスラエルの資金調達団体「ケレン・ハイェソド」に寄贈するという。
　欧州ユダヤ教会のラビ（ユダヤ教指導者）長を務めるマーゴリン師は２４日、シャティラ氏の行為に「大変驚き」、「利己的な世界において、真の思いやりや寛容さ、団結を示す行為だ」とコメントした。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/11/26-08:18）

A Lebanese businessman has decided to donate Adolf Hitler's top hat and other objects linked to the Nazi leader to an Israeli foundation in order to keep the items out of the hands of neo-fascists.
Abdallah Chatila, who has made a fortune from diamonds and real estate in Geneva, told the Matin Dimanche weekly that he had wished to buy this objects so that they could not be used for the purpose of neo-Nazi propaganda.
My stance is totally apolitical and neutral, he added
A collapsible top hat, believed to have belonged to Nazi leader Hitler sold for 50,000 euros ($55,300) at a controversial Munich-based auction on Wednesday.
Chatila scooped up as many other Hitler-related articles as he could at the auction and has donated them to the Keren Hayesod association, an Israeli fundraising group.
European Jewish Association head, rabbi Menachem Margolin, said he was bowled over by the gestures from the businessman.
In a cynical world, a real act of kindness, of generosity and solidarity, he said in a statement Sunday.
Margolin added that Chatila had accepted an invitation to join a visit by 100 European parliamentarians to the site of the World War II Auschwitz death camp in January to receive a prize.
- Nazis' crimes 'trivialised' -
Wednesday's auction in Munich was organised by Hermann Historica, one of the auction houses to have picked up business in Nazi memorabilia the main houses have steered clear of.
Other items that went under the hammer on Wednesday included a silver-plated copy of Hitler's antisemitic political manifesto Mein Kampf that once belonged to senior Nazi Hermann Goering. It was sold for 130,000 euros.
Ahead of the auction, Rabbi Margolin recalled that it is Germany that leads Europe in the sheer volume of reported antisemitic incidents, urging the German authorities to compel auction houses to divulge the names of those buying such articles and put them on a watch list.
The Nazis' crimes are being trivialised here, the German government's antisemitism commissioner Felix Klein told the Funke newspaper group following the auction .
Many of the items belonging to top Nazi leaders were seized by US soldiers in the final days of World War II.
Far-right and antisemitic populism is advancing throughout Europe and the world, Margolin told the weekly paper.
Born in Beirut in 1974 into a family of Christian jewellers, Chatila is among the top 300 richest people in Switzerland.
He suggested that the items of Nazi memorabilia should be burned but added that historians think they should be kept as part of the collective memory.