Even by the standards of the Second World War, 1941 proved to be a somewhat eventful.
The U.S. joined the war after Pearl Harbor, Germany invaded the Soviet Union – and back in Berlin the Nazis were preoccupied with a Finnish dog called Jackie.
Papers just released by the German Foreign Office reveal Adolf Hitler’s regime was increasingly angry that the animal, which had been taught to raise its paw mimicking the Nazi salute, was mocking the Fuhrer.
The mutt named Jackie, seen here with Finnish businessman owner Tor Borg, was dubbed Hitler by Borg's wife as it raised its paw for the Nazi salute. The Nazis were so outraged they started an investigation
Third Reich officials started a campaign against the dog’s owner, with the Foreign Office in Berlin commanding its diplomats in Nazi-friendly Finland to gather evidence on Jackie and even coming up with plans to destroy its owner’s pharmaceutical wholesale company.
Historians had not been aware of the strange footnote to the Nazi era before a researcher recently found 30 files containing correspondence and diplomatic cables in archives.
Author Klaus Hillenbrand, who examined the files for a German newpaper article to be published today, branded it ‘completely bizarre’, adding: ‘Just months before the Nazis launched their attack on the Soviet Union, they had nothing better to do than to obsess about this dog.’
Jackie’s owner was Tor Borg, a businessman from the Finnish city of Tampere. Mr Borg’s wife Josefine, a German citizen known for her anti-Nazi sentiments, dubbed the dog Hitler because of the strange way it raised its paw high in the air, like German soldiers saluting their Fuhrer.
Here Hitler gives the Nazi salute in 1934 in Germany, about the time Jackie was mimicking the salute with her owner in Finland
On January 29, 1941, German viceconsul 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.’
Mr Borg was ordered to the German embassy in Helsinki for questioning.He denied ever calling the dog Hitler, but admitted that his wife did. He tried to play down the accusations, saying the paw-raising had happened only a few times in 1933 – shortly after Hitler came to power.
The Finnish merchant ensured the Nazi diplomats that he never did anything ‘that could be seen as an insult against the German Reich’.
However they wrote back to Berlin that ‘Borg, even though he claims otherwise, is not telling the truth’.
German ministries, including Hitler’s chancellory, meticulously reported all their findings about the dog.
It is unclear if Hitler, seen here in 1940, knew about the dog
The economy ministry announced that the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben, which had supplied Mr Borg’s firm with pharmaceuticals, offered to eliminate it by ending their co-operation with him.
The foreign office wanted to bring Mr Borg to trial for insulting Hitler, but in the end, none of the potential witnesses was willing to repeat their accusations in front of a judge.
There’s no evidence that Hitler was ever told of the case, Mr Hillenbrand said.
Mr Borg died in 1959 aged 60. His company, Tampereen Rohdoskauppayhtiö, eventually became Tamro Group, the leading wholesale company for pharmaceuticals in the Nordic countries.
A spokesman for Tamro Group, Margit Nieminen, said the company had not been aware of the story surrounding Mr Borg’s dog.