It may seem like an old phone with chipped red paint, but it's known as the "death phone" for a reason. And now, it's going up for auction, where it may fetch over half a million bucks.

Hitler's phone was used to order the deaths of millions of Jewish people during the Holocaust, and it was recovered from Hitler's bunker in Berlin shortly after he committed suicide. The phone is engraved with a swastika, as well as Hitler's name. You can even see the scorch marks on the phone from when Hitler's aides set fire to the area on his orders.

Brigadier Sir Ralph Rayner, the British officer who got the phone, hid it within his suitcase and took it back to the UK, where he stored it for decades for fear of being charged for looting.

His son, Ranulf, is now the owner of the phone. Said Ranulf, 82, to the New York Post:

"I remember him returning from Germany with Hitler's 'hotline' red telephone hidden in his suitcase. Apart from proudly showing these two war trophies to his immediate family on his return, he didn't mention them again for many years. This was Hitler's personal instrument of death. It is a very sinister piece of equipment, when you think about what it was used for."

The phone, which is being auctioned on February 19 by Alexander Historical Auctions in Chesapeake City, Maryland, is just as important during this political climate as it was then.

"The orders Hitler shouted down the phone's mouthpiece, many of which are recorded in history, are a lesson we should never forget," Ranulf said.

(H/T New York Post)

From: Esquire US