Book: Franco feared kidnapping by Hitler

MADRID, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- The daughter of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco says the Fascist leader was afraid he would be kidnapped by Adolf Hitler to bring Spain into World War II.

Carmen Franco Polo, 82, said in her book, "Franco, My Father," that the dictator nominated three possible successors before meeting with Hitler in 1940 because he feared that his refusal to join the Axis forces in World War II could lead the Nazi regime to kidnap him, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

"Hitler was all powerful and could think, 'This damned Spanish general, I will take him down' and convince the others better," Polo wrote in her book, which was released Friday in Spain. "(Kidnapping) was a possibility which you have to consider."

Polo said her father told her after his meeting with Hitler in the French town of Hendaye that he and the German dictator did not get along.

"To my father it seemed very, very different," she wrote. "When they talked it didn't have the good atmosphere that was felt in a later meeting with (Italian dictator Benito) Mussolini."