True story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/07/hitler-mocking-dog-nazis_n_805695.html
QuoteBERLIN — Newly discovered documents have revealed a bizarre footnote to World War II: the Nazis' dogged obsession with a Finnish mutt who gave not a howl, but a heil. And, just as absurdly, the totalitarian state that dominated most of Europe was unable to do much about the canine's paw-raising parody of Germany's Fuehrer.
In the months preceding Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, Berlin's Foreign Office commanded its diplomats in the Nazi-friendly country to gather evidence on the dog and its owner – and even plotted to destroy the owner's pharmaceutical business.
Historians were unaware of the scheme until some 30 files containing correspondence and diplomatic cables were found by a researcher in the Foreign Office archives.
Klaus Hillenbrand, an expert on the Nazi period who examined the documents, called the episode "completely bizarre."
"Just months before the Nazis launched their attack on the Soviet Union, they had nothing better to do than to obsess about this dog," he told The Associated Press.
The Dalmatian mix named Jackie was owned by Tor Borg, a businessman from the Finnish city of Tampere. Borg's wife Josefine, a German citizen known for her anti-Nazi sentiments, dubbed the dog "Hitler" because of the way it raised a paw high in the air, much like Germans greeting the Fuehrer with a cry of "Heil Hitler!"
In one photo, Borg, a jovial businessman known for his sense of humor, appears with Jackie by his side wearing a pair of round sunglasses
Goddamn I love history.
:)
That
um
I-
Huh.
:lulz:
This is better than 'Allo 'allo :lulz:
I saw this on either the Daily Show or Colbert Report last week--don't remember which. Such a weird-ass thing to fixate on, but hilarious as well.
I love this dog. I recently read about a cat, as well, who was originally stationed on a german warship (or sub) to eat the rats and mice, but ended up sinking every ship (and surviving) it was ever stationed on, or rescued with when it was on another ship that sank. Eventually the cat was retired to land so as to not sink anymore ships.
Question: why didn't they just kill it?
"Six million Jews? We should just get rid of them... But if we could only find some way to deal with this dog!"
They may have been guilty of genocide, but they're not monsters.
Finland was a Nazi ally until 1944. While Germany had troops stationed there for Operation Barbarossa, I doubt the Wehrmacht's weird code of honour extended to killing dogs for mocking Hitler. Murdering Jews and Slavs was cool, but dogs...a step too far, old chap.
Plus, as it later turned out, the Finns were pretty good at killing things. Like, compare Finland's war record against the Soviet Union with Germany's. Yeah. It never pays to upset Finland.
:lulz: That's great.
For what it's worth, DO NEVER fuck with a Finn.