The Irishman who saved Hitler

[My piece that ran in The Examiner, Independent, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail and a hat-tip to Northside People who broke it]

LONG-LOST documents have revealed the story of the Irishman who changed the course of history by saving the life of a young Adolf Hitler.

Recently rediscovered memoirs of an Irish soldier tell how he led a military operation to save the young fuhrer’s life during WW1.

The memoirs of Dubliner Michael Keogh, who inadvertently changed the course of history, mysteriously disappeared from his death bed over 40 years ago.

But now the files, recovered by his family, reveal how he met Hitler twice in his life and fought on both sides during the First World War.

The documents have been verified by Irish historians and detail how Keogh once rescued Hitler from an angry mob who were ready to beat him to death.

Michael Keogh joined the British Army in 1914 and won the George’s Cross for bravery before being captured by Germans and joining their side in 1916.

It was here he first met ‘Lance Corporal Hitler’ in September 1918 near Ligny on the French Border, where the pair were in the same Bavarian 16th Infantry Regiment.

However, it is their second meeting that saw the hapless Irish soldier change the course of history forever.

His memoirs explain “I had fought my way into Munich as a captain in command of the machine-gun company in the Frikorps Epp (1919).

“A few weeks later I was the officer of the day in the Turken Strasse barracks when I got an urgent call at about eight o'clock in the evening.

“A riot had broken out over two political agents in the gymnasium. These ‘political officers’ were allowed approach the men for votes and support.

“I ordered out a sergeant and six men and, with fixed bayonets, led them off on the double.

“There were about 200 men in the gymnasium, among them some tough Tyrolean troops.

Keogh explained that two political agents, who had been lecturing from a table top, had been dragged to the floor and were being beaten.

“Bayonets were beginning to flash,” he explained . “The two on the floor were in danger of being kicked to death. I ordered the guard to fire one round over the heads of the rioters. It stopped the commotion.”

The group of soldiers managed to haul out the two politicians, both were cut, bleeding and in need of a doctor.

“The crowd around muttered and growled, boiling for blood,” he added. “The fellow with the moustache gave his name promptly: Adolf Hitler. It was the Lance Corporal of Ligny.”

“Then he began to talk about his new party. The other man with him was Zimmer. They had come to the barracks as political agents for the new National Socialist German Workers’ Party.”

Keogh’s memoirs explain that the next time he saw Hitler he was standing on the fringe of a vast crowd at Nuremberg in August of 1930 and in need of no protection.

“Hitler was on a massive platform, furled in the Swastika flags of his National Socialist German Workers’ Party.”

Keogh’s family say they are thrilled by his legacy and have now published his long lost memoirs as a book.

His 84 year old son. Kevin, explained that the files were lost in 1964 while his father was on his deathbed.

He claimed that his father was in a very distressed state when he visited and told him that a man ‘dressed as a priest’ had taken his papers from under his pillow.

The files were recently discovered in the University College Dublin archives and were released to his family.

Tip of the hat to Northside People for originally breaking this.