A red telephone owned by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was sold for $243,000 at an auction on Sunday to an unnamed buyer who bid by phone. According to Alexander Historical Auctions in Chesapeake City, Maryland, where the phone was auctioned, the phone was originally a gift to Hitler from the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany, to be used in vehicles and trains as well as Hitler's field headquarters. The Seimens W38 red telephone is embossed with the Nazi party eagle and swastika, and has Hitler's name engraved on the back. The phone was discovered by Soviet soldiers after they stormed Hitler's Berlin bunker in 1945. Soviet officers gave the phone to a British officer, Sir Ralph Rayner, during a visit to Hitler's bunker in Berlin. The device was put up for auction by Rayner's son. Bidding started at $100,000, and the auction house expected it to fetch $200,000 to $300,000. Bill Panagopulos, of Alexander Historical Auctions, said he considers the phone a "weapon of mass destruction," noting that the orders Hitler gave over the phone cost many lives. The auction house said a porcelain figure of an Alsatian dog owned by Hitler also sold on Sunday. It went to a different bidder for $24,300.
