Letter to Dennis

In 1945 after Germany’s surrender, Lt. Richard Helms, intelligence operative with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), managed to get his hands on some of Adolf Hitler’s stationary from the remains of the Reich Chancellery. Helms, who later became a director of the CIA during the Watergate and Vietnam War eras, sent this letter back home to his three-year-old son, Dennis. The letter, which now resides in the CIA Museum in Langley, happened to have arrived there the day after Osama bin Laden was killed. Be sure to read the full story at The Washington Post (link below after letter and transcript).

Image: The Washington Post

OBERSALZBERG, DEN V-E day

ADOLF HITLER

Dear Dennis, 

The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe — three short years ago when you were born. Today he is dead, his memory despised, his country in ruins. He had a thirst for power, a low opinion of man as an individual, and a fear of intellectual honesty. He was a force for evil in the world. His passing, his defeat — a boon to mankind. But thousands died that it might be so. The price for ridding society of bad is always high. 

Love, Daddy

Read the Washington Post article by Ian Shapira

source 2: http://www.lettersofnote.com/