A Montreal auctioneer has put four sketches by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler up for sale, sparking outrage and condemnation in Canada's Jewish community. 

Iegor de Saint Hippolyte said on Tuesday that the private auction, which also includes two Christmas messages from the Nazi leader, would take place on July 19 and last only for a few minutes.

Asked about the morality of selling articles by and from Hitler, he said: "I am simply doing my duty, which is to transmit history to other people and to preserve objects that are important for humanity."

The Canadian Jewish Congress said the sale of the sketches and of the two messages from Hitler was offensive.

"This is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the end of Hitler's regime, and there are still ... 15,000 in Canada who will be legitimately outraged by this desecration of the memory of what they suffered and of those who died," Max Bernard, an honorary vice president of the Congress, said in a statement.

The four architectural sketches on auction in Montreal were made in charcoal, colored pencil and ink. One includes corrections Hitler is believed to have made to the design for an opera house in Linz, Austria, near where he was born, Saint Hippolyte said.

(China Daily July 15, 2005)