Adolf Hitler, the genocidal mastermind of the Shoah, was recommended to the Nobel committee in 1939, just three short months before he led Germany to invade Poland and start World War II. The recommendation came from Erik Gottfrid Christian Brandt, a social democratic member of the Swedish parliament. (Members of national assemblies are among the many people who can nominate candidates for the Peace Prize.)

Brandt was an anti-fascist, and had meant the letter to be ironic. As hereportedly said in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Svenska Morgonposten, he had meant it as a commentary on the nomination of Neville Chamberlain, then prime minister of Great Britain, which he thought was undeserved, and also sought to provoke Hitler and the Nazis. Later in 1939, after the war had broken out, he wrote that he had meant the letter’s sarcasm to “nail [Hitler] to the wall of shame as enemy number one of peace in the world.”

Though there’s no indication Hitler came anywhere close to winning the Nobel, he would have had to break his own order to accept it.Angered by the prestigious prize being awarded to his outspoken critic Carl von Ossietzky in 1935, he had banned all Germans from accepting the award.

More Info: qz.com