Measuring 10 1/4 inches wide, 3 3/4 inches tall and 7 7/8 inches deep, this chest is constructed from iron, with heavy rivets adorning the front and legs, a pair of simple hinges on the back, and thick square feet with spaces for round pads (absent). On the front is an engraved and cut-through Nazi eagle, and the edges of the lid have a recurring pattern of 3 serrations on all four sides. On top of the lid are the words "Meine/Ahnen" (My Ancestors) in quarter inch thick three dimensional iron lettering, a 2 inch wide "double sig" circled rune in the lower left, and a 2 3/4 inch wide and tall irminsul column backed by a sunwheel swastika in the upper right corner. The irminsul or "mighty pillar" was associated with ancient Germanic practices and was a core element of Karl Maria Wiligut's Irminism or Irminschaft, the particular brand of Ariosophy that served as the fighting core of Himmler's neo-paganistic rituals and symbolism for the SS. The interior is lined entirely with hardwood. Notes from the consignor state that this chest was produced at the Dachau Concentration Camp for Heinrich Himmler. Originally an unused munitions factory converted to hold political prisoners in 1933, Dachau served as the prototype for the entire concentration camp system and continue to operated until April of 1945. Housing a mixture of criminals (in both the "political" and "felon" senses of the word), groups oppressed by the Nazi Party (Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and so forth), prisoners of war and foreign nationals, running the spectrum from German princes down to common street criminals, Dachau was a hotbed of forced labor, with a variety of sub-camps established to put prisoners to work for the Nazi war machine, including an elaborate plot to build an underground factory for the production of Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter jets. While no documentation is included, the symbols on the chest would be of relevance to the SS chief, who toured the camp on more than one occasion, Dachau would have the tools and men to make the item, and the camp was operational for several years before Wiligut was discovered to be an institutionalized schizophrenic megalomaniac and kicked off Himmler's staff, which lends credibility to the proposition.

Very good, with some scattered brown spotting overall. A lock or latch was once present and was forcibly removed, cracking the front panel of the inner lining and requiring a glue repair, and a small chip is absent from a corner of the lid panel. A well constructed chest attributed to the prototype concentration camp of Nazi Germany.