It’s Olympics time again, so time to reminisce over our favorite Olympics memories—what’s yours? Perhaps it was Kerry Strug, valiantly securing gold medals for the American Women’s Gymnastics Team in 1996, despite her injured ankle! Or maybe it was in 1968, when runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos accepted their respective gold and bronze medals for the 200 meter dash shoeless in black socks, to represent black poverty, their fists raised in symbolic protest on the podium. Or maybe it was at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, when that crazy American woman snuck past the guards to try and kiss Hitler?
Yes, enthusiastic Yankee tourist Carla De Vries wanted to meet Hitler, and she decided to approach like a ‘tween chasing down Justin Bieber. Why? Well, Carla was simply attracted to the Führer’s winning personality, saying:
“Why? I simply embraced him because he appeared so friendly and gracious. People sitting near Der Führer’s box began to cheer and applaud so loudly that I ran back to my husband and told him we had better leave. 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”.
In what is perhaps some of the oddest footage of a mass murderer ever, you can actually watch the incident below. Despite Hitler’s apparently affable reception to De Vries, the incident obviously represented a massive compromise in security, and resulted in the dismissal and demotion of many SS guards.