Nazis, they're the bad guys, the very dictionary definition of evil. They committed atrocities the likes of which are not even worth thinking about.
However, now, internet conspiracy theorists would have you believe they are responsible for yet another dark mark on humanity: Minions.
Yep, those same quirky Despicable Me characters beloved by millions for their comic timing and delivery.
Credit: Universal
Who could forget such comedy classics as 'saying the word 'banana' in a silly voice' and 'getting hit in the nuts with a stick'?
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You may have detected a note of sarcasm in that last paragraph, what you might not have picked up on is the sense of despair and dread I felt as I discovered that, bizarrely, Minions is the 2nd highest grossing animated film of all time (fucking hell).
I hate Minions.
I also hate Nazis.
But, as reported in The Telegraph certain internet neckbeards - the kind of moron that would have you believe that Paul McCartney died in 1966, or that the royal family and all of the global elite are, in fact, reptilian monsters from another planet - would also have you believe that Minions were based on 'Jewish children adopted by Nazi scientists for the sole purpose of using them in poison gas experiments'.
Credit: Royal Navy Submarine Museum
This theory was circulated on Twitter in July 2015 and gained some traction online until, like most conspiracy theories, it was revealed to be bollocks.
The photo circulated to 'support' the claim is actually a photo of a Hall and Rees submarine escape suit that dates back to around 1908 - many years before the rise of Nazism - and not a device used to administer poison to children, thankfully.
The theory continues that the Minions were invented to dupe the general public and their children into subliminally accepting the Nazi ideology. Luckily, this potentially offensive pile of nonsense didn't become a big deal, as most people just aren't that thick.
I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said: "Don't believe everything you read on the internet, just because there is a picture with a quote next to it."
We would all do well to remember that.
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Words: Tom Wood
Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Theory, Nazi, Conspiracy