BERLIN — 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.
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 Führer.
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 Borg’s pharmaceutical business. The plots all failed.
Historians were unaware of the scheme until about 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.”
