How the Nazi Telegram that Helped Drive Hitler to Suicide was Nearly Forgotten in a S.C. Safe

By Published on July 10, 2015

It is one of the most crucial documents from the most pivotal moment in the most terrible war.

A treasonous telegram from No. 2 Nazi Hermann Goering to none other than the fuhrer himself.

A message that, along with the advancing Allied troops, helped drive Adolf Hitler to swallow cyanide and shoot himself inside his underground Berlin bunker.

Despite its influence on World War II, however, the memorandum ended up inside a South Carolina safe, nearly forgotten for more than a decade until a college student made it his senior thesis.

On Tuesday, the itinerant but now infamous telegram sold at auction for $55,000.

Not bad for a scrap of paper plucked at random in the pitch dark.

This is the story of how a Nazi note changed the course of history, only to slip through the cracks thanks to an American soldier’s ignorance of German.

Read the article “How the Nazi Telegram that Helped Drive Hitler to Suicide was Nearly Forgotten in a S.C. Safe” on washingtonpost.com.

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