Makes you wonder if Hitler would have lied about his Second World War record if he had survived.
I can see him at Nuremberg.
“Fuehrer? Nein, I vasn’t the fuehrer! I vas chust the office manager! The real fuehrer vas Borman!”
Hitler’s favorite joke:
[shouted]
MAN 1: “MY DOG HAS NO NOSE!”
MAN 2: “HOW DOES HE SMELL?”
MAN 1: “AWFUL!”
[/shouted]
That needs to be an Angry Hitler Rant. Do it now.
That, or:
“O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb?
I am no baby, I, that with base prayers
I should repent the evils I have done:
Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did
Would I perform, if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul.”
But more probably:
“Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word.”
Anyway, I’m surprised this wasn’t more interesting to the historians here. Do you think the guy who published this result is just angling for a book deal or what?
Do you know who ELSE was ostensibly a career politician but made MOST of their money by writing books?
His military record was distinguished by him receiving the Iron Cross 2nd Class and Iron Cross 1st Class. During WWI the 1st class was somewhat uncommon, with the 2nd class being relatively common.
Hitler won (allegedly, at least) the 1st Class award for acts of bravery, and he was also wounded near the end of WW1. While German military awards are about as convoluted as it gets (their highest awards in the era were reserved for specific ranks, and there wasn’t an easy equivalence to the more merit-based medals given out by the American military), but I’d venture to say if you could convert his medals to their American equivalents he’d be considered a “decorated” WWI veteran.
Churchill?
I think its just a case of the headline sounding more interesting then the actual story. “Hitler lied about his war record” sounds like he made up his medals or about having served on the front. But instead the supposed lies are kinda subjective stuff about how popular Hitler was in his Regiment and how much his fellow soldiers disliked the Jews. And most of the evidence is stuff written by members of his unit a decade or more after the fact, after he had become a controversial politician. We certainly shouldn’t take Hitler and his cronies at their word about his war experience, but I’m not sure taking the word of the people that opposed his political ambitions makes much more sense.
So the whole thing is just a 90 year-old “he said-she said” argument about how popular Hitler was for four years during his twenties.
I don’t think he’s still angling for a book deal being as he’s promoting his new book.
Its speled Gaudere.