HOW EMPATHY A FEELING OF LED TO 60 MILLION DEATHS

Throughout history, seemingly mundane events have triggered major upheaval. Sometimes, however, such an event has had the opposite effect and prevented radical changes from taking place. An excellent example of this is found in Adolf Hitler, whose fate seemed to be sealed numerous times, whether it was through imminent drowning, a time bomb, or a bullet. And yet against all odds, fate appears to have reshuffled the cards again and again to save his life— as occurred in an incident said to have taken place on the Western Front in France in September 1918. In the British trenches, a young corporal named Henry Tandey is holding out against the Germans. The air is filled with the blasts of exploding shells and the cries of dying soldiers— but suddenly Tandey blocks them out to focus on what is unfolding before his eyes. The British soldier peers through clouds of smoke to see a German soldier standing directly in his line of fire. Before Tandey has time to react, the young German looks up, staring him directly in the eyes.

Tired and wounded, the German does not even attempt to raise his weapon. After what seems like an eternity, Tandey lowers his gun. The German man just gives him a quick nod of gratitude— then he stumbles out of view. Years later, the British corporal finds out the identity of the soldier he spared: That young German, a member of a Bavarian infantry unit, was none other than Adolf Hitler. If Tandey had not hesitated that day, Hitler would never have come home from the front. Therefore he would also never have become the leader of the National Socialist Party, nor the German chancellor. And: He’d never have unleashed the Second World War, which claimed nearly

CHANCE WAS HITLER’S BEST BODYGUARD. BANAL TRIVIALITIES MAKE WORLD HISTORY.

60 million lives. Was it the power of chance or the irony of fate that Adolf Hitler met a man on the battlefield whose sense of humanity had prevented him from executing a wounded opponent?

Such a question comes up in two other incidents that happened under similar circumstances. The first occurred in January 1894: Hitler was not yet five years old when he slipped on the banks of the Inn River and fell into the water. The boy could not swim and seemed certain to drown— but Johann Nepomuk Kühberger, who was six months younger, had been standing nearby and pulled Hitler from the water before he could be swept away. Another incident seems still more unlikely. On the evening of November 8, 1939— two months after World War II had broken out— Hitler was delivering a speech at Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller beer hall. But as luck would have it, the city was blanketed by a thick fog that had closed the airport. To get back to Berlin, Hitler was forced to take the night train, which meant he had to conclude his speech 30 minutes earlier than planned. Mere minutes after he’d left the Bürgerbräukeller, the beer hall was rocked by a powerful explosion. The force of the blast caused the ceiling to collapse, killing 8 people and wounding around 60 others. But by then the dictator was already on his way to Berlin.

These landmark events in the life of Adolf Hitler would ultimately become decisive turning points in history—and yet they went largely unnoticed for a long time because their significance became apparent only later. (Assassins attempted to kill Hitler more than 20 times—all to no avail.) A study of the dictator’s biography, however, reveals that, in addition to the other factors at work, it seems the whims of nature and a series of unfortunate events had particularly enabled his rise to power. “Chance was Hitler’s best bodyguard. Banal trivialities make world history,” proclaims historian Will Berthold. And Hitler appears to have suspected as much. According to historian David Johnson, when Hitler met Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938, he showed his British counterpart a painting of a post-battle scene from the First World War. Among the British soldiers depicted was Henry Tandey, who had gone on to become the most decorated soldier in the conflict. Hitler pointed to his savior and is said to have told Chamberlain: “That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again. Providence saved me.” But was it providence, an act of human empathy, or the wings of a butterfly at work?