Auction house says it sold Josef Mengele journals

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut auction house says it has sold the journals written by Nazi death camp doctor Josef Mengele. The sale is drawing criticism from a leader of Holocaust survivors who says the business was profiting off the sale of one of the worst mass murderers in history.

Alexander Autographs, of Stamford, says it sold the journals Thursday for nearly $300,000 to an unidentified Jewish buyer who is building a private collection for a museum.

Menachem Rosensaft of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants says the sale could benefit Mengele’s heirs.

Bill Panagopulos, Alexander’s president, says an American company was the consigner that put the items up for sale. He says his profit would be $15,000 to $20,000 and that he would make a donation to a war memorial.