NAZI memorabilia sold for thousands of pounds when it went under the hammer at a Swindon auction.

The star attraction at Dominic Winter Book Auctions in Maxwell Street was a signed photograph of Adolf Hitler.

The picture, taken in 1938, was part of a lot of 250 World War Two-era German photographs which fetched £940.

A signed photo of Hitler's second in command, Rudolph Hess, also went for £940.

Three letters written by broadcaster Richard Dimbleby on Hitler's personal notepaper sold for £1,000.

The journalist picked up the notepaper after being the first BBC correspondent to enter Hitler's bunker.

And a book written by Nazi architect Albert Speer called Inside the Third Reich sold for £540 five times its expected price . The signed book was sold as part of the collection of broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy who until recently lived in Avebury.

Dominic Winter said: "World War Two is about the only history taught in schools and perhaps that says something about today's sale.

"People are collecting major figures from recent history up to the beginning of the 20th Century.

"When you get back into the nineteenth century there are fewer buyers of that material.

"There was a lot of interest in the sale and for a lot of people alive today the war is a part of their lives."

The most expensive purchase of the day was an archive of historic material collected by a former Luftwaffe pilot.

Alfred Kruger, 88, sold a collection of 70,000 photographic images and 1,700 files.

The collection raised a total of £30,000.

An archive of more than 13,000 photographs collected by former RAF pilot Jack Bruce sold for £12,000.