Hitler and the Lives of the Monster Dogs.

[Sallow]

Maureen Dowd had an excellent piece on what was a fascinating look into the lunacy of Hitler's regime. Seems they were trying to get dogs to talk and develop them into human/dog hybrids so they could be super soldiers. Additionally there were plans to have agents cause all sorts of trouble if the Nazi's failed. I was aware of the "Werewolves" movement..but I didn't know that they had plans to have spies poison the allies.

“The Werewolf organization, a network of Nazi saboteurs who would fight to create a Fourth Reich in the event Hitler’s empire crumbled, were to leave tins of instant coffee powder and other foods laced with toxins where they could be found by British and American soldiers,” The Daily Mail of London wrote, describing the declassified dossier.

Four German spies captured after they parachuted into France in 1945, including one woman, spilled some of the assassination plots. Female agents were given purse mirrors with microbes hidden inside them, so they might infect top Allied occupiers with deadly bacteria.

British military officials at the time considered the agents’ stories “somewhat fantastic,” but were worried enough to prohibit “the eating of German food or the smoking of German cigarettes” by advancing Allied troops.

A new book, “Amazing Dogs,” by Dr. Jan Bondeson, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University School of Medicine in Wales, reveals that Hitler supported a German school that tried to teach large, muscular mastiffs to “talk” to humans. This story set off a panting spate of “Heel Hitler,” “Furred Reich,” “Wooffan SS” and “Arf Wiedersehen” headlines in British tabloids and plenty of claims that Hitler was “barking mad.”

“There were some very strange experiments going on in wartime Germany, with regard to dog-human communication,” Bondeson writes, wondering: “Were the Nazis trying to develop a breed of super-intelligent canine storm troopers, capable of communicating with their human masters of the Herrenvolk?”

He discovered a 1943 Nazi magazine piece about the headmistress of the canine school, a Frau Schmitt, claiming that some of the dogs spoke a few words. “At a Nazi study course, a talking dog was once asked ‘Who is Adolf Hitler?’ and replied ‘Mein Führer!” Bondeson writes of these claims, noting that “the Nazis, who had such conspicuous disregard for human rights, felt more strongly about the animals.”

Nazi propaganda dwelled on Hitler as a dog lover. He owned two German shepherds named Bella and Blondi. He tested a cyanide capsule on Blondi and killed her just before he committed suicide.

The Nazis took their dogs seriously. As The Guardian reported in January, the Nazi government was so furious about a dog in Finland that had been trained to imitate Hitler with a Nazi salute that the foreign office in Berlin started “an obsessive campaign” to destroy its owner.

Bondeson writes that in Germany in the early 20th century, some people had a strong belief in the potential of super-intelligent animals. He said that along with Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse, an Airedale terrier named Rolf was considered one of the leading German intellectuals of the time. Rolf’s owner said she taught him his own alphabet with a system of taps of his paw on a board and, Bondeson notes drolly, “he successfully dabbled in mathematics, ethics, religion and philosophy.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/opinion/13dowd.html?_r=1&ref=columnists

This reminded of the book "Lives of the Monster Dogs".

Lives of the Monster Dogs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Sallow]

Here's a piece about that Finnish dog..

BBC News - Nazi Germany pursued 'Hitler salute' Finnish dog

A Finnish dog which gave Nazi salutes so annoyed Germany's World War II government that it launched a campaign against its owner.

Tor Borg's wife had reportedly given Jackie the nickname Hitler - saying the dog's strange way of raising its paw and barking reminded her of the Fuhrer.

Newly discovered documents show Mr Borg was interrogated by the Germans on suspicion of insulting Hitler.

Attempts were also made to sabotage his business, the papers show.

Researchers at the German Foreign Office uncovered a cache of documents and diplomatic cables concerning Jackie

Was Jackie the Hitler-Saluting Dog a Threat to the Nazis? - TIME NewsFeed