Priest saved four-year-old Hitler from drowning

The Nazi leader told his generals how he played on the banks of the Inn. Photo / Thinkstock

It may be the most devastating act of mercy in history.

A newspaper report chronicling how a boy of four was saved from drowning has surfaced in a German archive.

The child, who historians believe could have been Adolf Hitler, was plucked from the icy waters of the River Inn in Passau, Germany, in January 1894.

The cutting from the Donauzeitung-Danube newspaper does not name the child, but describes how a "young fellow" fell through the thin ice of the river.

The report tells how a "determined comrade", went into the freezing water to save the boy.

It is the first time evidence has been found from 1894 to back up other accounts from Passau residents that Hitler, who grew up in the town, nearly died there as a child.

In 1980, a priest called Max Tremmel told how his predecessor Johann Kuehberger had revealed to him that he rescued the terrified Hitler from the river.

Another resident, Anna Elisabeth Rosmus, recalled: "Everyone in Passau knew the story. Some of the other stories told about him were that he never learned to swim and needed glasses."

Years later, the Nazi leader told his generals how he played on the banks of the Inn, but he never revealed the drowning tale.

- DAILY MAIL