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Hitler-mocking dog enraged Nazis

Germany’s Nazi government was so angry about a dog trained to imitate Hitler that it started an obsessive campaign against its Finnish owner, according to newly discovered documents.

During the Second World War, Berlin’s foreign office commanded its diplomats in the Nazi-friendly country to gather evidence on the dog and his owner.

The dog, Jackie, was a mutt owned by Tor Borg, a businessman from the Finnish city of Tampere.

Borg’s wife Josefine, a German citizen with anti-Nazi sentiments, dubbed the dog Hitler because of the way it raised its paw high in the air, much like the Nazi salute, according to the documents recently found be a researched at the German foreign office’s political archives.

On January 29, 1941, German Vice Consul Willy Erkelenz in Helsinki wrote 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, who died in 1959 aged 60, was ordered to the German embassy in Helsinki and questioned about his dog’s unusual greeting habits.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .