YESTERYEAR



Did Adolf Hitler ever visit Liverpool, and if so, why? THE STORY rests on the authority of his sister-in-law, Bridget. In a manuscript written in the 1930s, she claims that Hitler arrived in the city in November 1912 in order to stay with his half-brother, Alois, who lived in Upper Stanhope Street. Hitler remained for several months and Robert Payne (who recounts the story in The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler) speculates that the motive behind his visit was a desire to evade the Austrian authorities, who were hunting him because of his failure to register for military service. There is no other evidence for this episode in Hitler's life; Bridget wrote the manuscript when he was at the height of his power and, in the absence of any independent confirmation of the story, the suspicion must be that it was fabricated in order to cash in on her brother-in-law's fame. P. M. Ray, Harrogate, N Yorks. READ The Memoirs of Bridget Hitler, edited by Michael Unger, published by Duckworth in 1979 at #4.95. Alan Love, Pidley, Cambs. THE LIVERPOOL ice rink in Wavertree, for some perverse reason, kept a pair of his skating boots on display behind a glass panel. (Miss) M. Summers, Liverpool 4. HE WENT to Liverpool to study art. B. G. Hughes, Liverpool 23. APPARENTLY he spent his time watching the flow of sea traffic from the docks. Perhaps dreaming of empires? Jane Speare, Alton, Hants. ANOTHER rumour was that Haile Selassie, the Lion of Juda and Emperor of Ethiopia, spent the years of the Second World War in exile in Liverpool, in Alexandra Drive. Two golden-coloured lion statues were supposed to mark the house as recently as the 1970s, and the only Italian plane to bomb Britain was said to have dropped its load on Liverpool in an attempt to get the Emperor. What is undoubtedly true, but perhaps of interest only to a minority, is that Michael Bakunin, the noted Russian anarchist, and serious rival to Marx as an international revolutionary in the nineteenth century, passed through Liverpool on his epic escape from Siberia via Vladivostok, Yokohama, San Francisco, New York and London. He disembarked from a transatlantic liner at Liverpool, and took the train from Lime Street station to London. (Dr) Moss Madden, Liverpool. The noted hoax-buster Melvin Harris has said that the Bridget History memoirs are a hoax. In connection with another Liverpool hoax, the so-called Jack the Ripper Diary supposedly written by cottonbroker James Maybrick, Harris has written: Before 1992 there were many unrelated events that could jog the imagination and set off the idea of a hoax. Apart from the Hitler and Mussolini fake diaries, we had a specifically Liverpudlian scam in the form of "THE MEMOIRS OF BRIDGET HITLER". These claimed that Adolf Hitler had actually lived in Liverpool for some months in 1912-13. They were first dealt with in 1973 in a series of lengthy articles in the 'Liverpool Daily Post'. Book publication followed in 1979. These memoirs then inspired the novel "YOUNG ADOLF" by Beryl Bainbridge. More than one wily Liverpudlian noted that there was fun and cash to be gained from a gullible reading public. (From http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/maybrick_diary/mhguide.html ) Christopher T. George, Baltimore, USA Further to my last post mentioning Melvin Harris's contention that "The Memoirs of Bridget Hitler" is like the Maybrick Diary "a specifically Liverpudlian scam" there are obvious differences and the comparison does not hold up. The Maybrick Diary is handwritten and possibly never left Liverpool before it was taken by Mike Barrett to literary agent Doreen Montgomery in London in 1992. The Bridget Hitler diary is typed and appears never to have left the United States where she and her son settled in later years -- the typescript diary is now at the New York Public Libary. Christopher T. George, Baltimore, USA It is true. My great grandfather used to own a small grocery store in Stanhope Street in 1911-1916 and he remembers serving the young Hitler many times. He used to buy drawing pencils, paper and military magazines and spoke very few words but had a distinct German accent. He didn't say much but always seemed happier on days when Liverpool won a game. JD Hume John David Hume, Liverpool England Hitler did visit Liverpool, not sure why but my Mother's Mum cleaned a music shop in County Road, Walton that was owned by members of his family, during one time she was there Adolf Hitler visited the shop and my Nan was asked if she would clean his boots for him, this she did, apparently she found him a very polite and well mannered man. He repaid her by giving her a signed table cloth. My Nan lived through the blitz in London having moved there in the thirties with her husband looking for work, she must have cursed that polite man many times, but she kept the tablecloth all her life. She left it to my mother who, being short of dishcloths in the 1970s cut it up and used it for that use. True story. C Holmes, London U.K



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