IF YOU KNEW
WHAT WAS TO COME,
WOULD YOU
HAVE KILLED ADOLPH HITLER
GIVEN THE
OPPORTUNITY?
This
story of a British soldier sparing the life of Adolph Hitler during World War I
has been around for a long time. It is believed by most to be true.
At the end of the first
year of the war, the Allies (UK, France, and Belgium) met the German Army near
the town of Ypres, Belgium during October and November of 1914. A major battle
ensued causing over 260,000 casualties. As the Germans withdrew, a wounded
German soldier limped out of the smoke and into the gun sights of British Private Henry Tandey.
Tandey
took aim, and with a squeeze of the trigger he would end the life of this
enemy. But he didn’t shoot. He was unable to complete the deed. The two men stared
face to face at each other, then nodded. The injured German crawling back into
the shadows was
Corporal Adolph Hitler of
Braunau, Austria. He never forgot the kindness of the British soldier who
spared his life; and the face of Henry Tandey haunted Hitler for the rest of
his life. Years later Tandey was quoted, “I took aim but couldn’t shoot a
wounded man, so I let him go.”
Henry
Tandey went on the become the most decorated British enlisted man of World War
I, winning multiple medals for bravery including the Victoria’s
Cross. The young German was recognized
for bravery
by his country too, being awarded the Iron Cross. Tandey retired
from the Army in 1926 and lived the quiet life in Leamington, England.
By
the 1930’s, Adolph Hitler had risen to power in Germany as the leader of the
National Socialist Party (NAZI). He clearly remembered Tandey. Hitler
interpreted the incident as a prophetic sign of what he was destined to do. He
carried with him the newspaper article about Tandey being awarded the
Victoria’s Cross; and after becoming Chancellor of Germany, he ordered officials to
get a copy of Tandey’s service record.
By 1938, war was imminent in Europe. British Prime Minister, Neville
Chamberlain, travelled off to meet Hitler in an effort to head off the
conflict. While there, Hitler invited Chamberlain to his new retreat in
Berchtesgaden. While touring the residence, he came upon a painting by Italian Fortunio
Matania which clearly depicted Henry Tandey carrying a wounded soldier to
safety during the
Battle of
Marcoing in 1918. Both Tandey and Hitler were also present at this
battle, but they had only met once before years earlier at Ypres.
Chamberlain
asked why the Chancellor had a painting (it was a copy) of British
soldiers at
his home. Hitler replied, “That’s the man who nearly shot me. That man came so
near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again, providence
saved me from such devilishly accurate fire as those English boys were aiming at
us.” Adolph Hitler then asked Chamberlain to pass on his gratitude to Tandey
upon his return to England; which he did.
Henry Tandey was
nonchalant about the message at first; but as World War II began, he would say,
“If only I had known what he would turn out to be. When I saw all the people
and women and children he killed and wounded, I was sorry to God I let him go.”
Tandey outlived Hitler by
thirty-two years but carried the weight of his action, or non-action, to the
grave in 1977. Would you have felt the same way Henry Tandey did? What do you
think would have given you the moral justification to decide who lives and who
dies? If you knew that the man in your gun sights was Adolph Hitler, would you
have pulled the trigger?
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