Here are four deserter whose story you wo n’t soon forget .
1. Hitler’s Nephew
© Hulton - Deutsch Collection / CORBIS
William Patrick Hitler was pay in England to a German father , Alois Hitler , and an Irish mother , Bridget Dowling . When William was still a boy , his begetter move back to Germany , but his female parent refuse to go , upraise her boy alone in England . Alois kept in pinch with the mob and so , when his famous Uncle Adolf rise to power , new William move to Germany in the hope that he would be given a high - profile job . After hound him for calendar month , Uncle Adolf fit to give William a cushy position as long as he renounced his British citizenship and foretell never to render home . Sensing something was n’t right , William work back to England and capitalise on his famous syndicate by writing an clause forLook Magazinecalled , “ Why I detest My Uncle . "
The popularity of the story return William and his female parent ( show above ) the opportunity to travel to America as part of a public lecture tour . While there , World War II give way out , and the two were essentially stranded in the United States .
hop to do his part in the war campaign , Hitler asked for and received peculiar permission from President Roosevelt to muster in in the U.S. Navy in 1944 .
consort to a newspaper story printed at the time , when he introduced himself at the draft bureau , the recruiter think he was joking and responded with , “ beaming to see you , Hitler . My name ’s Hess . ” a character to Nazi drawing card Rudolf Hess .
William Hitler served valiantly in the war and received an honourable arc in 1947 . Then , he simply disappeared .
In 1998 , author David Gardner went face for Hitler ’s lost nephew and found that , after the warfare , William and his female parent had become U.S. citizens and interchange their name to Stuart - Houston . William begin a successful aesculapian laboratory line , got get married , motivate to Long Island , had four boy , and died in 1987 . At one point during the interview , William ’s wife claimed that her sons made a pact never to have children — so the Hitler pedigree would end with them . The oldest son , Alexander Adolf Stuart - Houston , has denied that such a treaty be , though the men never marry or had children .
2. The Littlest Defector
When the Polovchak family moved to Chicago from Soviet - controlled Ukraine in January 1980 , they skip to find the American Dream . However , it was n’t mean to be . After less than six months , the family decided to move back home . Well , most of the family did anyway . Young 17 - yr erstwhile Natalia and her 12 - year old buddy Walter were determined to persist in America . So just days before they were to get on a woodworking plane , the siblings , with the help of family unit living in Chicago , file for spiritual asylum , claiming they faced religious persecution in the Soviet Union due to their Baptist bringing up .
Because of Natalia ’s age , her parents could n’t legally make her come home . However , because Walter was still a youngster , his parents necessitate for assistance from the Chicago Police Department to have their son returned to their hands . Under advisement from both the U.S. State Department and Immigration and Naturalization Service , the Chicago PD instead placed Walter in the care of the State of Illinois as a minor in need of supervision .
With their hands tied in the U.S. , the rest of the Polovchak kin lead home without him , but they continued to fight for their son ’s return through political and sound channels . Before long , everyone from the Soviet Embassy , the FBI , the KGB , and the ACLU were tangle in the controversial court cases that followed .
Sympathy for Walter caused the U.S. Government to by choice drag its feet , adulterate these court procedures out for six years in Holy Order to give Walter enough time to become a sound adult and make up one’s mind for himself where he would like to continue . He was sworn in as an American citizen just a few twenty-four hours after his 18th birthday and still lives here today .
3. Stalin’s Daughter
Svetlana Alliluyeva was born in 1926 to Nadezhda Alliluyeva and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin . She was the unseasoned of Stalin ’s three tike and his only daughter . Her mother conk out under suspicious circumstances when Svetlana was only six old age erstwhile , leaving her in the care of nannies for much of her childhood , and only receiving occasional visits from her officious father .
While the two were never cheeseparing , Stalin still had a forceful hand in his girl ’s life , especially her love life . Although it was n’t the official reasonableness , it ’s consider that Svetlana ’s first love was sent into deportation because of their relationship . She later married another man , but even after the couple had a son and named him after Stalin , the Premier refused to meet his son - in - police .
She wed again two years later , to Yuri Zhadanov , son of Stalin ’s second - in - command , Andrei Zhdanov , but the matrimony did n’t last . She met her next lovemaking , Brajesh Singh , in 1963 , 10 years after her father ’s decease . Although the two were never allowed to marry , they often referred to each other as husband and wife . Singh buy the farm three years later due to tortuousness from various ailments , and Alliluyeva was permit to take Singh ’s ash tree to his family in New Delhi , India . With her first taste of exemption , Svetlana went to the United States Embassy and call for for political mental hospital .
After prompt to America , she wrote her autobiography , Twenty Letters to a Friend , denouncing her begetter ’s authorities and the Communist way of life . While here , she wed William Wesley Peters , a top apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright , and the couple had a daughter . After this marriage also end in divorce , Svetlana and her daughter moved to the UK , then later back to the Soviet Union , where they were both , surprisingly , granted citizenship . However , they go out again and bounced between the UK and the US throughout the 1980s and 90s .
She lived in obscurity until 2007 , when filmmaker Lana Parshina track her down to record a serial of audience , lead in the 2008 cinema , Svetlana About Svetlana . As of 2010 , Joseph Stalin ’s only girl lives in a retreat plate in southern Wisconsin .
4. The Reluctant Communist
In 1965 , to avoid deployment to Vietnam , U.S. Army Sergeant Charles Jenkins , place in South Korea , surrender to a bewildered North Korean soldier . Jenkins thought he ’d be sent to Russia and then returned to America as a part of a prisoner substitution , but instead , North Korea reported that he had asked for political asylum . In response , the U.S. brandmark him a betrayer and issued a warrant for his arrest . With no way to communicate with the outside world to plead his case , Jenkins had small alternative but to detain in North Korea .
Unlike other countries , North Korea did not bring home the bacon an well-fixed life history for defector . Jenkins was quarantined in a one - way sign of the zodiac with other American defectors , where they received political indoctrination under constant threat of violence . In 1972 , they were move to separate homes , but life did n’t get much better . Jenkins was assigned profession and given a small ration of food , but otherwise eked out an macrocosm like everyone else . The violence proceed as well , most notably when North Korean MD held Jenkins down and , without anesthetic , take away a U.S. Army tattoo from his weapon with a pair of scissor grip .
Hitomi Soga , a Nipponese woman , was 21 age sometime when she met Jenkins in 1980 . Hitomi had been nobble by North Korean agents to learn spies Japanese , and was later “ given ” to Jenkins as a wife to prevent him from “ dirtying ” the Korean descent . While their married couple was arrange - and despite a 20 - year long time difference – the two really fell in passion and had two daughters . At about the same clock time , Jenkins and other defectors were ordered to appear in a 20 - hour propaganda film , Unsung Heroes , act as villainous U.S. military leadership . When American intelligence acquired the film , it was the first time they could support that Jenkins was still animated .
figure they would never be allowed to pass on , the Jenkins family made the effective of their situation , suffering through the nation ’s most difficult fourth dimension in the 1980s and 90s . However , in 2002 , their luck changed when North Korea admitted that Nipponese civilians , like Hitomi , had been abducted . To make reparation , abductees and their family unit were allow to return to Japan . Jenkins was resistant – he venerate North Korea was testing his dedication , and worried about the American pinch endorsement – but he was finally convinced to impart with his home in 2004 . Once in Japan , Jenkins offered to have his marriage to Hitomi dissolved , figuring she had only delay with him before because she had no choice . She refuse .
To clear his conscience , on September 11 , 2004 , Jenkins , at the old age of 64 , put on his erstwhile Army uniform , and describe for responsibility at Camp Zama , a U.S. Army base near Tokyo . His 40 - year absence seizure scar the longest any American deserter had ever gone before turn himself in . Jenkins plead shamefaced to charges of desertion and assist the foe , but denied making unpatriotic statements ( those charges were afterwards flatten ) . Although he could have receive life in prison , he was sentenced to 30 days in the brig and a dishonourable discharge , though he was released five days too soon for good behaviour .
In his memoir , The Reluctant Communist , Jenkins regrets that he let his state , his home , and himself down in 1965 . Some feel his 40 twelvemonth of hell on earth in North Korea were penalization enough , while others say he ’s still a double-dealer . Although he has made a happy life with his wife and children , he ’ll be the first to say that walking to North Korea was the biggest misunderstanding he ever made .
