Did Hitler ever eat an Avocado? Need answer fastish (by friday)

Cafe Society
1

So, I was at a little shindig a friend of mine threw over the weekend. I brought along some of my famous guacamole.

One of his guest was eyeing the guac suspiciously, while noting that others were quite enjoying it.

I asked if he had tried it yet, and he said “No. I’m not sure… It looks kinda like snot.”

I shrugged, and I’m not entirely sure why but I went ahead and godwinized the gauc, and said, “Well, you know who else has never had Guacamole?”

He looked at me blankly, and said, “Who?”

In my spooky voice I said, “Hittttllllleeeerrrr.”

He nodded, tried some, found that he liked it, and made a pretty huge dent in the bowl.

Immediately after saying this, I realized I had no idea whether or not this was true. I don’t think that avocados were grown in that area at the time, but it’s hard to track down. I’ve done a bit of googling, but cannot find any examples of him actually eating one, but it’s hard to prove a false negative like that.

So, any examples come to mind or that any of you all know of?

I think I will be seeing him again on Friday, so I’d like to know if I need to apologize for misleading him by then.

2

Of course he did. You know, when he moved to Argentina, where he lived to at least age 95. Try discussing this at your next shindig.

3

I have nothing to add other than that I look forward to hearing from IT about running a “hitler guacamole” search on my work computer. And that someone out there created a Google profile with the name Guacamole Hitler.

Carry on.

4

Avocados are subtropical fruits, so the only ones in Germany would be imported.
Also, they were not at all popular in North American cuisine until the 2nd half of the 20th century.
I’m not sure how popular they are in Europe even today.

So, it’s a pretty safe bet Mr. H. never had one, but who cares - let your friend prove you wrong.

5

I am imagining a real “need answer fast-ish” scenario - there you are, facing Adolf Hitler, trying to figure out how to get that poison pill down his gullet.

  • Dissolve in wine? Doesn’t dissolve.
  • Grind up into other food? No, no grinder around.

Suddenly, you are struck by a thought: guacamole! You can stash the pill in the guac!!! Now - will Hitler eat it?!?

<Soon to be a major motion picture: The Avocado Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise>

6

Isn’t there a children’s rhyme about Hitler having only one avocado?

7

The avocado was a food item in Europe centuries before Hitler was born, so he had the opportunity to eat them. It wasn’t as common as it is today, but they were around.

In truth, it seems unlikely he never ate avocado. It cannot be possible to prove he DIDN’T eat them. Prior to becoming Fuhrer, Hitler was never wealthy, wordly or well-travelled, so he might not have. After he became the big cheese (but before the war, when his diet became increasingly monotonous) Hitler had a personal chef who provided him with what was described by eyewitnesses as a very impressive array of novel vegetarian dishes; Hitler may not have been a strict vegetarian, but he certainly made an effort to be one. If his chef was working hard to come up with a lot of tasty vegetarian meals, it would seem strange, even at that time and place, that he would NOT try avocado, while is an awfully useful ingredient in a vegetarian diet, since it’s one of your few fatty options.

8

Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking at the time.

Yeah, and that’s what I feared may be the case. I wasn’t actually aware that he was vegetarian… Hmmm, now I want to say to someone, “You know who else was a vegetarian?..” but I don’t know if I wanna go there.

Ah well, I will provisionally apologize to him, but it got him to try something new, which he liked, so he probably won’t be too upset.

9

Just to be clear, you told the other guest that Hitler specifically never had guacamole, not just avocado, right? B/c that would make it a bit more likely that you were right, and harder for someone else to prove you wrong.

10

You’re that k9bfriender?

Wow.

11

Edward VIII, while Prince of Wales in the 1930s, purchased several “alligator pears,” as avocados were then known. He gave them as a present to his father, George V, who tried them but didn’t like them.

I mention this as an indication that avocados were available in Europe during Hitler’s years in power so it’s not impossible that the Nazi dictator sampled the delicacy.

This story comes, IIRC, from Frances Donaldson’s bio of Edward VIII.

12

The Duke of Windsor and his ugly American wife were big fans of the Nazis and visited Hitler before the war:

So it’s not inconceivable they presented some of those avocados King George V didn’t like to Hitler as a gift. Whether or not he actually sampled them, who can say? Maybe Goebbels made some note of it in his infamous diary, or Eva Braun took some home movies of the occasion.

Since Hitler’s ordinary diet consisted of things like vegetable soup, mashed potatoes, oatmeal stew, and cottage cheese drizzled with linseed oil, it seems unlikely he was culinarily adventurous.

He also apparently ate one helluva lot of beans, which gave him bad stomach cramps and powerful flatulence, something noted by more than one unsympathetic observer. Ew!

13

His favorite snack/dessert, BTW, was a plateful of apples.

14

He’d never had guacamole? In this day and age? Weird.

The song said Hitler has only got one ball.

15

He claimed he became a vegetarian after his niece, with whom he had something of an unhealthy fixation, committed suicide in 1931. He also said he swore off alcohol forever.

Before that, there are accounts of him enjoying things like Christmas turkey and wine, and he was already a cranky vegetarian by the time he got into politics. A friend of mine who was also into the history of the Third Reich once told me Hitler continued to love certain sausages after 1931, but I don’t know what his source was for that.

Hitler’s father, whom he loathed, was a heavy drinker, so he had also basically been a teetotaler from a young age. (He claimed to have gotten drunk once in his life, and was sick afterwards.)

He was served ham and Pilsner when he arrived in Prague in 1939; I know for sure he didn’t like the beer (he thought it was too bitter).

16

Work with us, Johnny L.A..

17

As good as the song is, there’s no medical evidence to back up the claim. :frowning:

Sung to the tune of “Colonel Bogey”:

*Hitler
has only got one ball!

Goering
has two, but they are small!

Himmler
is somewhat sim’lar!

And Goebbels hasn’t
got any
at all!*

The last verse is definitely not true: The good Doctor had six children that we know of, and was a notorious womanizer. As Minister of Propaganda, he had a casting couch that put Hollywood’s to shame!

18

Of all the people you know who have ever eaten avocado, have any of them done all the shit Hitler did? No.

So there it is, no, Hitler never ate avocado.

19

I think you’re safe. Even if Hitler did have an avocado sometime in his life, the chances of that avocado being prepared as guacamole are vanishingly small.

20

Did he try to eat it like a pear? Classic rookie mistake.