Hitler-signed 'Mein Kampf' copies sold for $65,000

Los Angeles, Feb 28: Two copies of "Mein Kampf",

of German autocrat Adolf

, signed by the young Nazi leaderhimself, was sold for $64,850 Thursday at an auction in Los Angeles.

The first and second editions of the future German Fuehrer's political manifesto are both signed by Hitler and dedicated to Josef Bauer, an early Nazi party member and a leader of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch bid to overthrow the Bavarian government. The copies went sold for $20-25,000 in a sale organized by Nate D. Sanders Auctions.

Eleven people bid for the volumes, auctioneers said. History says that Hitler gave them to Bauer as Christmas gifts in 1925 and 1926, expressing best wishes for the holiday season, they said.

They called the books "an ominously signed set of books that futilely warned the world of Hitler's intentions," adding they were more rare in that they were dedicated to a fellow Nazi leader, said an AFP report.

Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle") in prison. The book explains his political doctrine and blaming Germany's woes on an array of groups including Jews and Marxists.

After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, millions of copies were published. As of 1936, the Nazi state gave a copy to all newlyweds as a gift. Thursday's auction also sold a leather jacket owned by Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect and minister for armaments and war, which fetched $10,068.

After the war, the jacket was seized by an Allied soldier named Ralph, who wrote in a letter to his mother in May, 1945: "Looked around today in a huge chalet of a high-ranking Nazi.

"For you I have a gold necklace. And for Dad, I have a great leather jacket...I took a coat with no Nazi symbols on the outside. Unfortunately, the name of Nazi Albert Speer is stamped in the jacket..."

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