I have been reading a collection of interesting letters, collected from various places and periods of history. The collection is called “Letters of Note.” One of the letters was from William Patrick Hitler, and was written to Franklin D. Roosevelt. William Patrick was the half-nephew of Adolf Hitler. He was born in Liverpool, and had moved to Germany to try to make money out of his half-uncle’s rise to become dictator of the country in the 1930s. But he became dissatisfied with the jobs he was offered in Hitler’s Germany, and returned to Britain in 1939. He was visiting America to give a lecture tour when the war started, and was stuck in the country. After the United States declared war on Germany, he decided to join the U.S. armed forces to help in the war, but was refused because he was not yet a full American citizen. In this letter, he appeals to the American president for help in enabling him to join the U.S. armed forces. He was able to do this successfully in 1944. William Patrick Hitler later changed his name to William Stuart-Houston. He died in 1987, having settled in America. None of his four children had children of their own, and the line of the Liverpool Hitlers no longer survives.
Here is an extract from his letter to the U.S. president:
Dear Mr. President:
May I take the liberty of encroaching on
your valuable time and that of your staff at the White House? Mindful of the
critical days the nation is now passing through, I do so only because the
prerogative of your high office alone can decide my difficult and singular
situation.
Permit me to outline as briefly as possible
the circumstances of my position, the solution of which I feel could so easily
be achieved should you feel moved to give your kind intercession and decision.
I am the nephew and only descendant of the
ill-famed Chancellor and Leader of Germany who today so despotically seeks to
enslave the free and Christian peoples of the globe.
Under your masterful leadership men of all
creeds and nationalities are waging desperate war to determine, in the last
analysis, whether they shall finally serve and live an ethical society under
God or become enslaved by a devilish and pagan regime.
Everybody in the world today must answer to
himself which cause they will serve. To free people of deep religious feeling
there can be but one answer and one choice, that will sustain them always and
to the bitter end.
I am one of many, but I can render service
to this great cause and I have a life to give that it may, with the help of
all, triumph in the end.
All my relatives and friends soon will be
marching for freedom and decency under the Stars and Stripes. For this reason,
Mr. President, I am respectfully submitting this petition to you to enquire as
to whether I may be allowed to join them in their struggle against tyranny and
oppression?
Vocabulary:
to encroach
– to inappropriately enter or limit something, such as a person’s territory or
rights or liberty
(eg. “A
Soviet spy plane encroached into our air space, and we sent a plane to intercept
it.”)
a
perogative – a very special right, power or privilege, not shared by most
people
(eg, “In
the Roman Empire, it was the perogative of the Emperor to wear the colour
purple.”)
singular –
remarkable or extraordinary
(eg. “He
had the singular good fortune to survive four years of fighting in the First
World War trenches.”)
an
intercession – an act of becoming involved, or the use of one’s authority, to
help someone
(eg. “When
the bank was in financial trouble, it was saved through the intercession of
government ministers.”)
a creed – a
system of beliefs which guide one’s actions
(eg “That
terrorist group follows a dangerous creed.”
a petition –
a formal written request appealing to an authority
(eg. “The
campaign for nuclear disarmament presented a petition to the government, signed
by hundreds of thousands of people.”)
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