Hitler’s Toilet Stands In A New Jersey Auto-Repair Shop

Florence, NJ — Hitler’s toilet is in a New Jersey auto-repair shop, and has been for the past 60 years. When Greg Kohfeldt bought Sam Carlani’s auto-repair shop almost 20 years ago, it came with a bit of history: Adolf Hitler’s toilet.

According to Kohfeldt, the toilet came off of Hitler’s biggest private yacht, the Aviso Grille. Between 400 and 500 feet long, it was one of the biggest private boats of its time. “He wanted to ride it down the Thames in London and go live in Windsor Palace when he invaded,” Kohfeldt told Alexander Aciman ofTablet Magazine. After Hitler’s death and the end of the war, the yacht was taken to the United States. It ended up in the hands of shipyard owner Harry Doan, who illegally charged visitors 25 cents to take a tour of Hitler’s Yacht.

Eventually, Doan decided that Hitler wasn’t good enough to have a memorial of any sort, so the boat was scrapped and sold for parts in the early 1950s. Now, there are bit of Hitler’s former glory all over Florence and nearby towns. One man made a porch out of the wood paneling. Another has a port window installed in his wall. A local restaurant has one of the yacht’s table in their office, and use it as a desk.

At one point, one of Doan’s friends — a Sam Carlani — needed a new toilet for his auto-repair shop. Doan said he had one, just sitting around. Thus, Hitler’s porcelain throne ended up in the restroom of a New Jersey shop in 1952.

While 68 years have passed since the liberation of Hitler’s chosen death camp, Auschwitz, it is difficult for any one to truly comprehend the horrors of what millions of people suffered at the hands of one man and his psychotic government. It is difficult to comprehend Hitler as an ordinary man, with ordinary needs. A man who sat down to dinner with his family, who used the restroom and took baths and got dressed every morning like the rest of us. Perhaps that’s why there were no bidders on Hitler’s toilet when it was taken to London. It is as if having Hitler’s toilet makes him a person, not a monster. And for most of the modern world, Hitler will always only be a monster.

Hitler’s toilet stands in a New Jersey auto shop, and testament that his plans failed. He never sailed down the River Thames in his yacht. He never moved into Windsor Palace. It does, however, give us a small glimmer of triumph to know that Hitler’s toilet made it to the London stage, while he never did.

And while Hitler never made his trip to London, his toilet did. Last year, the British antiques show Four Rooms flew Kohfeldt and the toilet to London to appear on the show. While it was put on the show for sale, they couldn’t find a buyer for Hitler’s toilet. Kohfeldt said he was “happy to accept the free trip and relished an opportunity to mock the Führer by taking the toilet to places Adolf only dreamed of.”

Local experts say that Hitler’s yacht originally was armed, had a crew of 245 men, a private room for Eva Braun, and was bigger than J.P. Morgan’s ship Corsair.

It was on the decks of the Aviso Grille that Hitler’s Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz stood on May 1, 1945, and announced the Fuhrer’s death.

Would you go to New Jersey to sit on Hitler’s toilet?

[Featured image via Shutterstock]