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One of the most evil people in history, Hitler himself believed he enjoyed supernatural protection from God; or sometimes, from "the gods," if he was in a particularly neo-pagan mood. And as you will see from the list below, it seems the Fuhrer of Nazi Germany had good reason to think there were occult forces working to keep him alive.
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Arguably one of the evilest people in history
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Adolf Hitler believed he had supernatural, even divine, protection. In a bizarre series of events that
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wouldn't be out of place in an episode of The Twilight Zone, the insidious dictator managed to survive
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life-threatening situations, one after the other. Today, we're taking a look at the string of freaky coincidences
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that eventually led to Hitler's rise to power. OK, let's get started with this spooky history
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It might seem hard to believe, but Hitler was once a kid
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And much like kids do, he got himself into trouble once in a while. In January of 1894, the first freaky event to save his life occurred
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A then five-year-old Adolf enjoyed a game of tag with some kids near the Inn River
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located in Passau, Germany, which had frozen over that winter, but was pretty thin
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The ice, perhaps foreseeing the madman this kid would become, did what thin ice does best in these situations
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It cracked. A young man, Johann Kuehberger, who was the same age as Hitler at the time
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saved the icy Fuhrer. That young man would become a renowned priest
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The story would later be recounted by Max Tremel, Father Kuehberger's successor
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in 1980, and Anna Elizabeth Rosmus' out of Passau, leaving a city Hitler called home
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Next was an entirely different experience when Hitler was rescued by a strange voice
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which happened during World War I. Adolf served in the German military during that time
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Not only did the war usher in an era of new weaponry in a divided world
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but it also convinced the future dictator he had been touched by destiny. As a young soldier
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he managed to stay unscathed despite being frequently exposed to heavy enemy fire
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Although considered prudish and preachy, this did little to tarnish his reputation
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Years later, Hitler recalled an incident where an otherworldly force supposedly rescued him from certain death
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Although he couldn't recall the time or place, he remembered a mysterious voice warning him
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to leave a crowded dugout. Not one to ignore the random voices in his head
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the young soldier abandoned the dugout for the trenches. And then a shell hit the dugout, and it exploded
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Everyone died, except for Hitler. Speaking of the supernatural, it did seem like this guy had something watching out for him
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Either that, or he was just incredibly lucky. He survived many brushes with death during World War I
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One of the most well incidents occurred in late September of 1918 As the war was drawing to a close he had a chance run with a British soldier That soldier Private Henry Tandy served in the British forces for the entire war
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He even returned to the front lines after being wounded, twice. On that particular day, Tandy was busy shooting at German soldiers outside a small French village
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Tandy spied a wounded German soldier running from his cover in an attempt to flee the assault
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Tandy put the German soldier in his sights, who was close enough to make it. But for whatever reason, Tandy decided to spare his life
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Tandy wouldn't learn the real truth until much later. He simply said, I took aim, but I couldn't shoot a wounded man
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So I let him go. Tandy won the Victoria Cross for his bravery during the war
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Later, Hitler acquired a copy of an Italian painting from Fortunino Matagna
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that depicted Tandy carrying a wounded person to safety. He displayed the painting prominently in his offices
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When British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in 1938, he noticed the painting and asked Hitler about it
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The dictator told about what had happened and said, that's the man who nearly shot me
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In a run-in with the British army in Belgium, Hitler was exposed to mustard gas via a British shell
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Instead of succumbing to a horrific demise, he walked away with a mild case of temporary blindness
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Afterward, Hitler spent the remainder of the war in a Pomerania hospital. As he learned about the end of the war
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he grew increasingly furious. Instead of being eternally grateful for surviving the attack
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he decided to use his survival as propaganda. Touting himself as a war hero
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he purged all medical records related to the incident. And although it came out years later
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that his blindness might have been the result of mental illness and not the mustard gas
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His propaganda machine helped him gain a foothold on the path to dictatorship
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The First World War significantly damaged Hitler's already frail psyche. He became radicalized and embittered by Germany's defeat
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In 1919, his rhetoric displeased a group of 200 German soldiers considerably
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They formed an angry mob and attacked him. The attack turned into a riot that required a duty officer to step in with a squad of armed men
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The officer, an Irishman named Michael Keogh, joined the German army. It was his way of making a gesture to fight for Irish independence
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When he and his men arrived on scene, they found the mob viciously attacking Hitler and his friend
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Believing the mob was just about to murder the two men, Keogh ordered his men to fire a volley above their heads
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This action dispersed the mob leaving the young Corporal Hitler beaten and bruised but alive After World War I Hitler managed to obtain a leadership position in the fledgling National
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Socialist Party. On November 8th and 9th, 1923, they staged the Nazis' first attempt at a coup d'etat
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of the Weimar Republic in Berlin. They plotted to kidnap Bavaria's state commissioner, Gustav
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von Kahr, and two other politicians. They intended to lead a march on Berlin
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modeled after March on Rome. Hitler and hundreds of his followers surrounded the large beer hall
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where Carr planned to give a big speech. He and 20 others burst into the hall
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and fired a shot, declaring a revolution. Things seemed to be going well
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until Hitler left to address something else in the city. While he was away
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a general helped the hostages escape. The same general, Erich Ludendorff, convinced Hitler's followers
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to march on the Bavarian defense industry. But he wasn't the good guy here
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The march was an attempt to salvage the situation, but it didn't work
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The infamous Beer Hall Putsch failed completely, turning everyone involved into fugitives, now wanted for treason
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Many of them fled to Austria for refuge. Hitler experienced car trouble and went into hiding instead
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He stayed at the house of Ernst Putsi Hamsstangl in Uffing, just outside of Munich
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But the police were alerted to his location and headed over there to arrest him
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Feeling the heat, Hitler attempted to take his own life by revolver
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But he was thwarted by a house guest. With his attempt averted, Hitler ended up going on trial for the failed coup
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But he wasn't in jail for very long. By 1924, Weimar judicial policy changed
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Germany switched from a trial-by-jury system to a trial-by-judge system. Hitler decided to argue his case before the judges
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The presiding judge, Georg Neidhart, was sympathetic to Hitler's cause and even allowed him to give speeches about his plans for Germany's future
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This, combined with the resulting press coverage, turned him into a national sensation
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The panel of judges commuted his sentence from death to five years
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Out of that, he only served nine months. And guess what he did while he was there
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He wrote Mein Kampf. And his demonic luck would continue to hold out over the next few years
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As the 1920s became the 1930s, Hitler became known as a popular right-wing leader
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Already heavy into politics, he set his sights on becoming Germany's ruler. It seemed as if fate had other plans when he got into a car accident on March 13, 1930
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The information provided by Major General Otto Wagener. Wagener who was in the car at the time provided a first account in the book Hitler Memoirs of a Confidant Apparently a tractor truck collided with Hitler Mercedes The resulting accident nearly crushed him to death
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But again, Hitler managed to survive. Although he miraculously escaped death numerous times
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that didn't stop people from trying. On November 8, 1939, the Nazi party met at the same beer
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Hall, Bürger Breukkala, where Hitler attempted to seize power 16 years before. Johann Georg
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Ezer, a leftist who wanted to take the dictator out, had a plan. He spent months staying in the
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beer hall after hours to hollow out an area in which a bomb would fit. He set the bomb's timer
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for 9.20 p.m., a time that would have been nearly an hour into Hitler's speech. If things had gone
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as planned, the bomb would have wiped Hitler out. Unfortunately, the weather had different plans
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Heavy fog forced the cancellation of Hitler's Berlin flight, so he took the train. Due to this
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delay, he started his speech 30 minutes early, and he was gone by 9.07 PM. For those of you
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keeping score at home, that's approximately 13 minutes before the bomb exploded. When it finally
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did go off, it killed eight and wounded 60. Elsa met with the worst fate. After being captured at
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the Swiss border, he confessed to the assassination attempt. He was placed in a concentration camp and
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died in Dachau on April 9, 1945, only a few short months before the end of the war
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On 20 July 1944, Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in Hitler's suitcase at the secret
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Wolfslaher hideout. What should have happened would have seen Hitler standing next to the
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briefcase containing the bomb as it exploded. What actually happened was straight out
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of a Marx Brothers film. At the last minute, a Nazi general who
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wasn't even supposed to be there decided to move the briefcase. Placing it behind one of the table's thick wooden supports
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it was no longer near the dictator. When the bomb went off, it did take out
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four high-ranking Nazi officers. But Hitler escaped with an injured arm. Colonel von Stauffenberg was frustrated
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as he'd already attempted to kill Hitler several other times. Somehow, he was always thwarted. Afterward, he led a failed coup that
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resulted in more than 5,000 deaths and essentially ended the German resistance movement. The colonel
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was executed the next day. His story lived on as the basis for Tom Cruise's film, Valkyrie
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Hitler did eventually meet his fate on April 30, 1945, when he shot himself in a bunker as Germany
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lost the Battle of Berlin. After all his brushes with death, the bill finally came due
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Today, millions will be slaughtered