Document: Hitler's table manners awful

LUDLOW, England, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A recently uncovered British dossier details a World War II prisoner's account of Adolf Hitler's "uncouth" table manners, including a tendency to break wind.

The dossier, which records a high-ranking Nazi prisoner's conversation with a British agent May 3, 1945 -- three days after Hitler's death -- was discovered recently during a routine house clearance in southwest England, The Sun reported Wednesday.

The document accuses Hitler of possessing atrocious table manners, including biting his fingernails, fidgeting with his mustache and breaking wind in between mouthfuls of food, the newspaper said.

"Hitler eats rapidly, mechanically. For him food is merely an indispensable means of subsistence," the Nazi officer is quoted as saying. "At the table and in his speech he shows many facets of rather uncouth behavior. He abstractedly bites his fingernails, he runs his index finger back and forth under his nose, and his table manners are little short of shocking."

Auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes, who is set to sell the document next month in Ludlow, England, said the item is expected to fetch more than $1,000.

"It is a highly important document," he told The Sun.