I recently received an email from the son of Lt. Dwight ‘Joe’ Dolan who wished to share the following letter with this website…
I very much enjoyed and have kept a copy of the write up you did on my Dad. I was very touched. The anniversary of his passing is fast approaching and I thought I would pass on a copy of a letter sent by a friend of his and a Captain in the Fusiliers Mont Royal.
The man in question is Yvon Beaulne, considered the father of the Canadian Human Rights movement.
Sincerely, Patrick G. Dolan
Incredibly, according to Wikipedia, the letter head of this letter, identifies its source as coming from the desk of Adolph Hitler;
Hitler's Chancellery, officially known as the Kanzlei des Führers der NSDAP ("Chancellery of the Führer of the Nazi Party"; abbreviated as KdF)[a] was a Nazi Party organization. Also known as the Privatkanzlei des Führers ("Private Chancellery of the Führer")[b] the agency served as the private chancellery of Adolf Hitler, handling different issues pertaining to matters such as complaints against party officials, appeals from party courts, official judgments, clemency petitions by NSDAP fellows and Hitler's personal affairs. The Chancellery of the Führer was also a key player in the Nazi euthanasia program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_Chancellery
The letter was penned, by Capt. Yvon Beaulne, officer of the French Canadian Section, Public Relations, CMHQ, and sent from overseas back home to Lt. ‘Joe’ Dolan, a combat photographer of the Army Photo Section. Both men were valued French-Canadian Public Relations personnel.
Click here to Show/Hide English translation…
ADOLF HITLER, BERLIN W8, CHANCELLOR OF THE LEADER OF THE NSDAP OFFICE DEN July 8, 1945
To Lieutenant Dwight E. Dolan, 5825 Berry Street, Montreal.
AKTENZEICHEN
My dear Jos,
It’s such a shame you’re not in Berlin with the Fusilier’s buddies. You would have already used up all your film. The city is nothing but a heap of rubble where a dejected crowd, poorly dressed, poorly fed, without anger or hope, wanders. Searchlights illuminate the devastation of the grand avenues at night. Unter den Linden, with its lopped linden trees, crumbling palaces, and the ruins of its cathedral, takes on a hallucinatory and macabre air. Of the Reichstag and the Chancellery, only the enormous skeleton remains. Wilhelmstrasse reeks of a decomposing corpse. Never has a more complete and abject defeat been contemplated. As the Führer proclaimed in his prophetic voice, Germany’s fate is sealed for a thousand years.
I’m writing to you on paper I found in Hitler’s office. If our conquest had been delayed, this sheet might have borne an order for massacre or execution. I prefer it to serve to express my long-standing friendship.
Despite my thirty-six months overseas, my total points don’t exceed 120. So I’ll have to wait until autumn to return home. I promise to stop by and have a beer before going back to my Thérèse and my family. In the meantime, take care and prosper.
Give my regards to your wife. I admired her photograph so much that I can’t wait to meet her.
Hochachtungsvoll, as the Germans say. If you prefer, arrivederci e buona fortuna.
Your pal
YVON BEAULNE
Searching through the Canadian Army Numerical Photo Albums, I came across a photo of Capt. Yvon Beaulne, located in Army Numerical Album No. 103;
CANADIANS IN HOLLAND: Date: 26 Jul 45. Photographer: CAPT. MICHAEL M. DEAN Place: UTRECHT & HILVERSUM. Unit: 1st Division and P.R. Group. Story: Leonard Beaulne meets Son; 1st Division Mess Dinner.
56086 – Mr. LEONARD BEAULNE, of Ottawa, and Chief of Printing and Stationery at DND who is on a tour of inspection met his son CAPT. YVON BEAULNE, of 3 P.R. Gp at the Press Camp in Utrecht. Pic shows, left, CAPT . BEAULNE showing his father some of the German medals which he got from the Chancellery in Berlin where he spent the past three weeks writing about the Fr. Cdns of the Berlin Bn.
To read more about Lt. Joseph Dolan please click on the photo/link below…
© Dale Gervais DECEMBER 2025
