“The photographs had to be taken by someone who was very close,” Mr. Tredwen said. “All photographs of Adolf Hitler were very much controlled because obviously they did not want photographs coming out that made him look bad. They would not have been made for the general public.” 
 
 There were no signatures in the book to suggest ownership, or the identity of the photographer, he said. 
 
 He described the bidding as “very competitive,” with telephone bidders from Britain and the United States, as well as interest online from Germany, China, South Africa and other countries. 
 
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 Mr. Tredwen, a specialist of more than a dozen years in military history items, said buyers of Nazi memorabilia were generally historians. “I have never in my life met anyone who shared the political views of the Third Reich,” he said. “They are literally only there to collect. World War II was one of the biggest events to affect the world.” 
 
 “People are fascinated by how evil the Third Reich were,” he added. 
 
 The description of the item online traced its journey from April 1945, when a British Fleet Street photographer, Edward Dean, “obtained” it from a Russian soldier whom he had watched find the album in a drawer in Braun’s bunker bedroom, shortly after the couple committed suicide. The item changed hands several times after Mr. Dean auctioned it. 
 
 In one photograph, Hitler salutes as he walks toward the camera down a path at his Berghof headquarters in the Bavarian Alps. His guards are also depicted on duty and in relaxed poses in the images, which date mostly from the early to mid-1930s. 
 
 Ownership of items related to Nazi history poses ethical questions. Some art collectors have stepped forward to try to find out whether their art was looted from Jews. A replica of a gate that was believed to have been stolen from the Dachau concentration camp in Germany was recovered last year. 
 
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 And an attraction in Berlin that recreates the interior of Hitler’s bunker and opened last year suggests an uncomfortable phenomenon — that Hitler sells. 
 
 Memorials dedicated to preserving the historical context of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed, have often called on collectors or people with personal items from survivors to donate the artifacts. 
 
 In January, in commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the memorial director, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywinski, issued a statement calling for donations. 
 
 “We kindly ask the public to hand over any documents, photos, personal letters, diaries, or other materials that are in private hands,” he said. 
 
 “I am absolutely convinced that only mutual effort can lead to a fuller understanding of the mechanisms of hatred, and analyses from the perspective of the victims, given the course of events, cannot fully serve the purpose,” he added. “Today, we need new sources for a comprehensive picture of the history of Auschwitz and the Holocaust.” ||||| "Eva Braun was the "first lady" of the Third Reich and without question this was with her at the last stages of the war in the Fuhrer Bunker in Berlin in 1945. 
 
 "Very few significant artefacts liberated from the Fuhrer Bunker in 1945 exist today in the open market, especially with such concrete provenance dating all the way back to the time of liberation. 
 
 "Photographs of Hitler were very carefully controlled to ensure they fitted in to the image the Nazis were trying to project of him. 
 
 "So it is rare to come across easy-going photographs of him that wouldn't have got through the censorship, especially during the height of the Second World War. 
 
 "The one of him walking down the path outside the Berghof in a kind of a jocular pose giving an almost Charlie Chaplin-type salute is quite striking.
– A photo album featuring candid shots of some of the most evil people ever to walk the Earth has been snapped up for $41,000 by an anonymous buyer at an auction in England. The album, found in the bunker bedroom of Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's mistress, features Hitler and henchmen including Heinrich Himmler and Josef Goebbels in lighter moments, the Telegraph reports. Some of the 73 photos can be seen on the auction site, including one of Hitler relaxing in the Alps. C&T Auctioneers says the photo album was taken in April 1945 from the bunker as a souvenir by British wartime photographer Edward "Dixie" Dean, who sold it to a collector in 1983. Per the auction house, "Very few significant artifacts liberated from the Fuhrer Bunker in 1945 exist today in the open market, especially with such concrete provenance." Auction house owner Matthew Tredwen tells the New York Times that it is clear that the photos were taken by a member of Hitler's inner circle, though the book gives no indication of who that might be. "The photographs had to be taken by someone who was very close," he says. "All photographs of Adolf Hitler were very much controlled" to show him in the best light. These "would not have been made for the general public." Tredwen adds that in his years of dealing in Nazi memorabilia and other military history items, he has never met anybody who actually supports Nazi ideology. "People are fascinated by how evil the Third Reich were," he says. (There is a dispute over whether "Hitler's personal phone" is the real thing.)