A VISITOR to Machynlleth said she was “shocked” to discover paintings of Hitler and an SS officer in an antique shop.

Owner of The Emporium in Machynlleth, Ian Devoy, said the visitor was the first to comment on the paintings, which were created by a local artist and customer of the shop.

The visitor, who did not wish to be named, said the discovery of the portraits “tainted” their afternoon in Machynlleth: “I was pretty shocked to walk into a back room and discover in a corner a series of portraits of Hitler and other SS officers. At that point we decided to leave.”

At the time of the visitor’s trip to the shop, there were three portraits on show: two of Hitler and one of General Erwin Rommel, who was in charge of the German troops sent to North Africa to help Germany’s ally, Italy.

The first of the portraits, the Rommel painting, was sold on 19 August to a “happy military collector”, the shop owner said.

“On the way out, my husband asked the shopkeeper if there was much demand for portraits of Hitler, and said it was pretty disgusting that those portraits were on display,” the visitor added.

“The shopkeeper replied that they were done by a local artist and that it wasn’t so much about the subject matter, as the skill of the artist.”

Ian said the portraits are put in context of war memorabilia within the shop.

He said: “We’re an antiques centre, we sell a variety of things, one of the things is war memorabilia.

“It is a very small, niche thing we sell.

“We sell badges, caps, war relics, anything associated with the Boer War to the present day. But it takes up a very small part.

“Out of respect for people, they are tucked away around a corner in a shop. The reason we have them is because they are in context.

“The context is educating people about war memorabilia, what it means and what it refers to.”

The visitor added: “It’s disturbing in an area which welcomes numerous Orthodox Jewish families as a holiday destination.”

Ian said that the local artist painted a wide variety of war figures portraits and subjects.

“We obviously don’t set out to offend anybody, but we don’t censor anything either. We don’t make judgements on anything like that; we are sensitive to what people think,” Ian added.

“We’ve got a huge collection of paintings, over a hundred. These are put in the context of war memorabilia.

“If anybody asks, we’ll tell them exactly why they are there.”