Was William DeMelun the same as Hitler? This is an interesting question, the answer to which would be, yes very similar indeed. The German prince and knights that led the First Crusade (DeMelun was a Frankish member) were in many ways the first Nazis. Indeed Hitlers Jew exterminator assistant Himmler, studied the exploits of these early knights very carefully for justification and inspiration of his own SS organization, seeing his proprietors of concentration camps as the later incarnations of the early anti-Semitic knights. DeMelun and his German friends would take a goose, and when the creature pointed its head in a certain direction, they would ride off that way and murder every man, woman and child Jew they came across. DeMeluns carpenter axe could not compare to the gas chambers of the 1940s. However it served the same purpose. The diarys of the surviving victims have come down to. So great was their terror and outrage that through the centuries this material was copied and recopied for posterity. Once again, was DeMelun the same as Hitler? I would have to say he was closer to Himmler. Bruce Carpenter