Surgery kit said to belong to Nazi pulled from auction

LONDON?? A surgical kit advertised as belonging to a Nazi concentration camp commandant has been withdrawn from sale by an auction house in England.

Grace Cloke, a spokeswoman at Villa Hall Auctions, said Thursday it was withdrawn "on the recommendation of police" after the auction house received "nasty" phone calls.

The auctioneer said the box contains blades, scissors, a saw and straps apparently used for tourniquets ? and is printed with the name Anton Burger.

The auctioneer had identified it as belonging to Anton Burger, an SS commander of the Theresienstadt camp.

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However, the German newspaper Die Welt has questioned that, reporting it was manufactured by the Anton Buerger company in Dresden.

Cloke says she was unaware of the report, and didn't know who connected the box with the commander.

An earlier report in the Daily Telegraph said Cloke described information about the memorabilia as "scarce". It said the tools were being sold off by the unidentified widow of a Jewish man whose parents were Holocaust survivors.

A report published Thursday by Britain's Jewish Chronicle said the auction sale had been cancelled following protests.

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The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46327163/ns/world_news-europe/

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