When he was a young man, President John F. Kennedy believed that Adolf Hitler may have survived the end of the Second World War, a diary entry has revealed.
The diary, which JFK kept while he travelled a war-torn Europe as a correspondent for Hearst magazines, shows that Kennedy had a fascination with Hitler writing that he had ‘the stuff of which legends are made’ about him.
While in Europe, JFK travelled to a number of Hitler’s bunkers in Berlin, and even visited the Eagle’s Nest, the Fuehrer’s mountaintop retreat that was gifted to Hitler on his 50th birthday, The Independent reports.
In the book he wrote:
[Hitler] had boundless ambition for his country which rendered him a menace to the peace of the world, but he had a mystery about him in the way he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him
After visiting the bunker where Hitler took his life, JFK speculated that the leader may have survived his death explaining that the room where Hitler supposedly had scorched walls and traces of fire.
He went on to claim that there’s no evidence that the body found was that of the dictator.
JFK eventually gave the diary to one of his research assistants who’s decided to auction off the book to mark the 100th anniversary of the president’s birth.
The auction house that’s selling the book has denied that the President ever had any admiration for the Nazi Party or Hitler.
The executive vice president of RR Auction Bobby Livingston claimed that there was no glorification, and that Kennedy was a historian whose writings demonstrate an understanding of Hitler’s place in history.
The diary goes on auction next month in Boston and is expected to fetch around $200,000 (£160,000).
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.