HISTORY BOOKS tell us that in early 1941, Nazi Germany had just one obsession: Operation Barbarossa, the plan to conquer the Soviet Union.
Now previously undiscovered files suggest the Nazis had another obsession that year: a Finnish dog nicknamed “Hitler” whose owner trained her to give the Nazi salute.
Foreign ministry files show how, 70 years ago, the German embassy in Helsinki received an anonymous tip-off that Tor Borg, a pharmaceutical dealer based in Tampere in Finland, had taught his dog, whose real name was Jackie, to give the salute after hearing the word “Hitler”.
For weeks the affair was the subject of diplomatic correspondence between Helsinki and Berlin and Mr Borg was summoned to the embassy to explain his dog’s behaviour on March 26th, 1941.
He claimed it was his wife Josephine, reportedly an anti-Nazi German, who had dubbed the dog Hitler and taught it the trick.
The file records that the businessman “denied involvement in anything that could be seen as an insult against the German Reich”.
The embassy was not convinced, however, and diplomats informed Berlin that Borg was lying.
An effort was made to bring the dog owner to court for insulting the Nazi leader but the plan failed as diplomats were unable to find any witnesses who were willing to testify.
German companies with interests in Finland, including chemical company IG Farben and pharmaceutical giant Bayer, allegedly offered to cancel their contracts with Mr Borg’s business in order to drive him out of business.
Mr Borg died in 1959 aged 59 but it is not known whether the canine Hitler survived her German namesake.
Jackie-Hitler isn’t the only canine caricature of the dog-loving dictator.
Two years ago a German man was given a suspended sentence for training his dog, also called Hitler, to give the Nazi salute — a crime in Germany.
The pensioner was known to wear Nazi T-shirts and claimed his dog had been born on Hitler’s birthday.
But he disputed the claim that “Hitler” was giving the forbidden Nazi salute, saying it was “anatomically impossible for a dog to raise its paw that high”.
“Hitler” was eventually given a new home and renamed “Adi”.