The Nazis believed dogs were almost as intelligent as humans, and apparently even tried to create an army with them, according to new research on a Wooffan SS experiment by Dr. Jan Bondeson, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University, in Wales.
The study has been published in Bondeson's book, Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities.
Bondeson found in his research that Adolf Hitler hoped the canines would learn language in order to be able to communicate with their human masters.
In fact, Hitler ordered a school to be built in order to teach them to talk, read and spell. This, he reportedly hoped, would free up SS officers for other tasks in the death camps.
The school -- the Tier Sprechschule ASRA -- was founded in the 1930s in Leutenburg, near Hannover and operated throughout World War II.
Allegedly, one dog at the school actually did learn one or two words. Another learned facilitated communications by tapping letters of the alphabet with his paws, and reportedly even "commented" on poetry and religion.