In 1894, a four year old boy was playing near the icy waters of the River Inn in Passau, Germany. The young boy fell into the river and was drowning when another boy, Johann Kuehberger, leapt into the river and saved the boy.
Kuehberger, who jumped into the river to save the boy, grew up to be a priest. 
The little boy who was saved was named Adolf Hitler and he grew up to be the Fuhrer.
Yup. The Daily Mail today reports that old newspaper archives have now seemingly confirmed this long rumored incident. They’re calling it “the most devastating act of mercy in history.”
It’s a pretty wild find, I must admit.
The story was never verified by Hitler during his lifetime. But now a small cutting from the Donauzeitung – Danube newspaper – of 1894 has been found in Passau.
It describes how a ‘young fellow’ fell through the thin ice of the river in January of that year.
The report described how a ‘determined comrade’ – the paper at the time was left-wing – went into the freezing water to save the child who would grow into mankind’s biggest monster.
So for anyone who wants to blame the Holocaust on the Catholics, now you can. Hey, they were doing it anyway.
January 6, 2012 at 10:12 am
Actually, it is worse than that, in the spirit of anti-clericalism which has emerged from the abuse crisis, perhaps we can say that it was a PRIEST who is responsible for the Holocaust!!
January 6, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Oh, thank goodness… before they were saying it was the POPE'S fault! Now, apparently, it is only a priest's fault… whew!
January 6, 2012 at 3:44 pm
at the time, adolph hitler was an innocent child, perhaps not even having reached the age of reason. Without right reason the world becomes insane. Gary Krup's PAVE THE WAY FOUNDATION may have something interesting to say about the holocaust.
January 7, 2012 at 5:31 am
That is a very strange story. But of course we do not know what would have happened if Adolph Hitler had drowned that day. From chaos theory and related study of complex systems, the most minor change, over time, will result in a very different result (hence the "Butterfly Effect" which says a beating butterfly's wing in Africa can create a series of events that results in a hurricane hitting North America).
It remains a mystery.
January 7, 2012 at 4:38 pm
The oils of ordination don't confer prescience.
January 7, 2012 at 5:38 pm
There was an old story/urban legend about a kindly doctor who came to a home to deliver a baby. When he gets there he discovers that the mother is in danger and her twins will die in the womb unless he takes heroic measures. He saves the mother and one child but one twin dies. The parents thank him and say that they will take comfort in that they at least have their little Adolph. That story used to give me the creeps when I was a kid.
But seriously if little Adolph had died or if someone had stepped into his miserable childhood and saved him a variation of WWII still would've happend. Perhaps not a mass murder of Jews but the war still would've come. Germany was just in too bad a shape for their not to have been an explosion.
January 9, 2012 at 10:11 pm
@Dymphna:
This story seems to be indeed a urban legend, as Hitler's own youth has been widely researched.