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A WWII Vet's Strange Souvenir

The Brooklyn Man Who 'Liberated' the Nazi Dictator's Top Hat

By BUCK WOLF

April 16, 2002 —  We can only hope that one day soon a brave U.S. soldier will storm Osama bin Laden's cave, grab his turban defiantly, and become the next Richard Marowitz.

Historians will note that on April 30, 1945, Marowitz and platoon members from the Army's 42nd Rainbow Division knocked on the door of Adolf Hitler's home in Munich, which was still in Nazi territory.

The master of the house wasn't home. It was the twilight of World War II. Hitler was committing suicide in a bunker in Berlin, as American, Russian and British troops closed in on the city.

What Hitler didn't know was that a 19-year-old would-be magician was scouring his bedroom, only to find one of the greatest souvenirs from the war.

Why Is Everyone So Mad at Hitler?

Marowitz came to Hitler's home a day after his company, the 42nd Rainbow Division had liberated the Dachau concentration camp. "You could smell it from very far away and then you saw all those walking skeletons," he said.

"We went through 40 cattle cars stuffed with corpses and found one man who was still alive. He was too weak to stand. I can't honestly tell you if he made it."

The next morning, Marowitz and other members of the division's intelligence and reconnaissance unit were dispatched to Munich. City leaders were close to surrender and informants led them to Hitler's home.

Munich was a ghost town — even the center of town was desolate. Still, someone was home at the Hitler residence. A tall, stately, gray-haired English housekeeper answered the door.

"I don't know why everyone is so mad at Hitler," said Frau Amy Winter. "He's such a fine man."

The soldiers found the well-furnished home completely empty. In a bedroom, on a top shelf, Marowitz made the discovery of a lifetime — a top hat with the initials "A. H." printed in gold on the inside.

The Chaplinesque Joy of Crushing Hitler’s Hat

With the images of Dachau still fresh in his head, Marowitz jumped on the hat, crushing it into a pancake. "To this very day, I can picture Hitler's ugly head still inside it," he said.

"It felt good to stomp on that thing."

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