Heinrich Himmler's car is to be auctioned off
But just WHO would want to run around in the WW2 vehicle used by Nazism's S.S. chief Heinrich Himmler which took him to the death camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek and the killing fields of Russia?
The Wanderer W11/1 was the service vehicle of Himmler that he used for much of the war to oversee the genocide of the Jews, gypsies, communistv and other foes of the THird Reich.
He was pictured in it at Auschwitz, the premier extermination camp where over a million people were liquidated.
Heinrich Himmler was the head of the SS
At war's end, knowing that he would hang for his terrible crimes, Himmler set off on foot with a band of brigands to hike across Germany in the uniform of a lowly serviceman.
He shaved off his moustache and wandered around with no real goal until he was caught by a British army patrol.
Recognised as being Hitler's top butcher, he bit on a cyanide pill before he could be interrogated and was dead within a minute.
His body was buried in an unmarked grave on Luneburg Heath.
Himmler was Adolf Hitler's right hand man
Now his car is up for sale and for Nazi and militaria enthusiasts, it is a rare treasure.
The Wanderer W11/1 appeared on the market for the first time in 1928 with a 2.5-liter six-in-line engine.
In 1933 the W11/1 model like this one was developed for German army use with a three litre engine designjed to be an all terrain vehicle.
The car was once in a museum in Latvia then sold to a private collector
After the war the Wanderer ended up in a museum in Riga, the capital of Latvia. When communism collapsed there the vehicle was sold to a private collector in the west.
The company Fantastic Fahrzeuge of Germany is offering it for half a million euros - over 360,000 pounds.
"It will probably go to a fabulously wealthy collector," said one trade observer. "Its historical value is immense - but what a history....."
