08 January,2011 07:46 AM IST | | Agencies
Newly discovered WWII documents show that Germany's Nazi government was so furious over a dog trained to imitate the Heil Hitler! salute that it mounted a campaign against the mutt's Finnish owner and even tried to destroy his company.
Klaus Hillenbrand, an expert on the era, writes about the bizarre diplomatic row based on documents recently found by a historian.
The dog, name 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 odd way it raised its paw high in the air like the famous Nazi salute.
Hillenbrand says the German Foreign Office ordered its diplomats in Nazi-friendly Finland to gather evidence on the dog and that the Economic Ministry plotted to cut off German chemical supplies to Borg's wholesale pharmaceutical company.
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"Just months before the Nazis launched their attack on the Soviet Union, they had nothing better to do than to obsess about this dog,"u00a0 said Hillenbrand.
In one document dated January 29 1941, German Vice Consul Willy Erkelenz in Helsinki writes that "a
witness, who does not want to be named, said ... he saw and heard how Borg's dog reacted to the command Hitler by raising its paw."
Borg was even ordered to the German embassy and questioned about his dog's habits.u00a0
Hillenbrand says, the Foreign Office failed to bring Borg to trial for insulting Hitler when none of the potential witnesses would agree to testify in court.
Hitler exhibit
Germany's first postwar exhibition devoted to Hitler has been extended by three weeks due to popular demand. More than 1,70,000 visitors have flocked to the exhibit.
