A German auction house cancelled the "offensive" sale of more than 600 items following outcry from Holocaust survivor groups.

A planned auction in Germany of artefacts from prisoners of Nazi concentration camps has been cancelled following a public outcry, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister has said.

On Sunday, Radoslaw Sikorski thanked his German counterpart Johann Wadephul for agreeing “such a scandal must be prevented”.

A Holocaust survivors’ group and politicians had earlier called for German auction house Felzmann to cancel the sale in Neuss, which was reportedly scheduled for Monday.

Among more than 600 items for sale was a letter from an Auschwitz prisoner and a medical diagnosis about the forced sterilisation of a prisoner from the Dachau concentration camp, German media reports.