Dateline: United KingdomA pair of underwear owned by Hitler’s wife were sold at a British auction for $4,619 last week. According to the New York Post, a pair of pink silk undergarments once owned by Eva Braun were sold by Humbert & Ellis Auctioneers. The underwear bears the initials “E.B.” and came from a private European collection of World War II memorabilia. Braun was the longtime lover and companion of Adolf Hitler. She officially married the Nazi leader a mere 40 hours before the couple committed suicide. The same bidder who purchased the woman’s undergarment also bought a stained, monogrammed nightgown owned by Braun for $3,245. At the same auction, a gold-plated bracelet engraved with a swastika and set with white and red stones was sold for $2,308. A locket attached to the bracelet was engraved to Emmy Göring Weinachten, wife of Nazi Hermann Göring. Inside the locket was a photo of Hitler. In 2016, a similar lilac pair of Braun’s underwear were sold at an auction for around $3,500. A gold ring, a silver mirrored box and a silver lipstick holder owned by Braun were also sold. Although the sale of Nazi paraphernalia is legal in the United Kingdom, most major auction houses reportedly forbid the practice. Experts say purchasing Nazi memorabilia could help fund white supremacist groups. Dateline: FinlandA group of organizations is attempting to develop an emoji for forgiveness. Positive News reports that the “Forgivemoji” campaign is soliciting ideas for an emoji that says “I forgive you.” Organizers hope to have the new emoji introduced to the official collection by Unicode Consortium—the agency who chooses which emojis appear on our phones—by the end of 2019. Tuomo Pesonen, communications director of the main group behind the campaign, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, reportedly said, “We were surprised to realise that the official emoji selection has dozens of different cats and even two designs of zombies, but there isn’t an emoji for forgiveness.” Antti Pentikäinen, a special assistant at the Deaconess Foundation—another group behind the campaign—said, “We urgently need to learn better how to reconcile … and this includes the social media environment.” Unicode updates its list of emojis once a year. It can take up to two years for a new emoji to be approved.Dateline: United KingdomLast week, British authorities arrested a man in connection with the theft of a solid gold toilet. NPR reports that the toilet, an art piece titled America, was on display at England’s Blenheim Palace. On Sept. 14, the palace’s Twitter account announced that it would be closing early due to an “unseen incident.” Blenheim Palace soon confirmed that the gold toilet had been stolen in a statement. “We are saddened by this extraordinary event, but also relieved no-one was hurt,” the statement read. “We are grateful to our staff and to Thames Valley Police for their rapid and brave reactions.” Detective Inspector Jess Milne said the functioning toilet was connected to the building’s plumbing, and the theft caused “significant damage and flooding.” He said authorities believe a group of perpetrators using at least two vehicles is responsible for the daring theft. There have been no reported leads in the case. America was part of a solo exhibition of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s work. Visitors were invited to book three-minute appointments to use the golden toilet. Its value is estimated at nearly $1.25 million. When asked about security at Blenheim Palace, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, brother of the Duke of Marlborough, told reporters: “It’s not going to be the easiest thing to nick … a potential thief will have no idea who last used the toilet or what they ate. So no, I don’t plan on guarding it.”Dateline: TanzaniaAn American man drowned last week while making an underwater proposal to his partner. According to BBC News, Steven Weber and his girlfriend, Kenesha Antoine, were vacationing at the Manta Resort, off Pemba Island in Tanzania. The couple were staying in an “underwater room”—a floating cabin with a submerged bedroom. Antoine captured Weber’s last moments in a video that shows the man diving into the water and approaching a glass wall of the cabin. In the video, Weber presses a hand-written proposal note against the glass. The note reads: “I can’t hold my breath long enough to tell you everything I love about you. But … everything I love about you, I love more every day!” He then turns over the paper to reveal the proposal and pulls a ring out of his swimming trunks. After this, he swims out of view. Antoine later confirmed on Facebook that Weber drowned while in the water. Resort staff were called to the cabin, but they were too late to save the man.“The best day of our lives turned into the worst, in the cruelest twist of fate imaginable,” Antoine wrote. She said Weber never got the chance to hear her answer, which would have been “a million times, yes.” The resort offered its condolences and said it stood “ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance.”
Compiled by Joshua Lee. Email your weird news to josh@alibi.com.
