Richard Littlejohn tries his hand at my game:
This is the BBC Home Service. Here is the news for today, May 1st, 1945, read by Alvar Liddell. Confusion continues to surround the last moments of Adolf Hitler, who died yesterday in his bunker in Berlin.
Incredibly, the world’s most-wanted man had been living in the heart of the capital of the Third Reich, in plain sight of millions of Germans who maintain they were not supporters of the Nazis and had no knowledge of the Fuhrer’s crimes again humanity.
It’s not bad, but the biggest problem with it is that we actually had no knowledge of Hitler’s fate that early. I don’t think that the west discovered what had happened to him until November, and in the interim there were many rumors that he was alive and regrouping with other diehards in some last bastions in Germany (this also helped feed the Werwolf movement). My version has the history much more accurately.
Post Hitler’s demise, in the interim there were rumors, until November? Oh it went on WAY longer than that. I remember this being questioned throughout my early years, well into the 60’s.
And then there was…
My older son is about to retire from the military, he’s been over there on a cruise since last August. Since Sunday night we’ve been sending e-mails about bin Laden (mostly jokes) and in one set we were talking about bin Laden rumors…dead, not dead, captured, escaped to Paraguay, Uraguay, Bolivia or NYC. It started because he was reminding me of a Weekly World News, or some such rag, and the lead story was about Hitler living in NYC, under a assumed name as a Holocaust Survivor, selling diamonds. He says he was in 3rd or 4th Grade then.
That would have been the early to mid 80’s.
And I realize that it was the WWW, and I realize it’s not truly a rumor. But I also remember that spurring conversations between MY parents and my Aunt and Uncle differing on whether Hitler was actually killed in 1945. I can’t imagine this bin Laden thing will be any different.
They should have had him STUFFED and mounted like a trophy deer, toured him around to State Fairs! I would have paid $5 to see him.
I remember this being questioned throughout my early years, well into the 60′s.
Yes, but in the months immediately following, there wasn’t even an official story. No one among the allies knew what had happened to him.