The woman who kissed Hitler: How the Fuhrer sacked his security team after Californian tourist managed to plant a smacker on him at the Berlin Olympics
Carla de Vries, from Norwalk, California, caught on camera kissing Hitler
The mens' 1500m freestyle event had finished when Ms de Vries approach Hitler
She asked him for an autograph and then goes in for a peck, but is rejected
Ms de Vries tries again and successfully plants a kiss on him.
Footage has emerged of the moment an American woman kissed Adolf Hitler - and left the Fuhrer so angry that he fired his security staff for the failing to stop her. Carla de Vries, from Norwalk, California, asks the Fuhrer for an autograph and manages to give him a quick kiss while sat at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Hitler looked less than impressed with the 40-year-old's efforts and managed to pull away from one kiss before she managed on her second attempt to kiss him on the cheek.
The footage was banned in Germany at the time as it was feared it would make the Nazi security look weak. Yet the footage was viewed worldwide and she was known as 'The Woman who kissed Adolf Hitler'. Speaking out after her kiss, Ms de Vries - who was married to a Dairy farmer called George - later said: 'Why, I simply embraced him [Hitler] because he appeared so friendly and gracious. 'I don't know why I did it. Certainly I hadn't planned such a thing. It's just that I'm a woman of impulses, I guess. It happened when I went down to take Hitler's picture with my small movie camera. Hitler was leaning forward, smiling, and he seemed so friendly that I just stepped up and asked for his autograph, which he wrote on my swimming ticket. He kept on smiling and so I kissed him.' She added: 'People sitting near Der Fuhrer's box began to cheer and applaud so loudly that I ran back to my husband and told him we had better leave.'
In newspapers after the kiss, she was referred as 'the woman who kissed Hitler' in two later events that had nothing to do with her Olympic feat. The first was when she returned home months later, when she prevented an asylum patient from committing suicide. The next year, her husband George De Vries, who owned a huge dairy farm, had to face unions and strikers. She managed to sneak a kiss just after the mens' 1500 metre freestyle race, where Hitler - who had banned Jewish athletes from competing at the Games - was watching the even next to General August von Mackensen. Ms de Vries was travelling through Europe at the time and used her chance to get a close-up picture of Hitler. Nazi guards attempted to pull Ms de Vries away but undetered, she managed to succeed in giving Hitler a kiss.
General Mackensen laughs as he pushes Ms de Vries away by the end of the 14-second video and the 20,000-strong crowd burst into applause as she made her way back to her seat. Several SS guards were demoted or fired for their inability to keep Hitler away from the woman.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5011527/The-tourist-kissed-Hitler-Berlin-Olympics.html
