Johannes Heesters, Germany’s oldest favorite cabaret performer who was once a favorite of Hitler, celebrated his 105th birthday Friday amid an ongoing controversy about allegations of his wartime association with the Nazis. He lives in Bavaria with his wife Simone.

Of Dutch origin, Heesters is a much more controversial figure in the Netherlands than in Germany. In February he put on his first concert there since 1963. On Wendesday he was interviewed on Dutch television.

Heesters was born in Amersfoort, a town 35 miles east of Amsterdam in 1903. Yet he made his fortune in Germany. The artist is revered by generations of Germans for his operettas and film performances.

While in Holland this week Heesters got himself in trouble again for calling Adolf Hitler a "nice guy" in the TV interview.

“Adolf Hitler, God, I know that man only little, but a guy, you know, that’s what he was, a nice guy,” Heesters said in the interview.

Reporters of the De Wereld Draait Door show are known for asking leading questions and tricked Heesters with asking if “Hitler was a nice bloke.”

His wife Simone Rethel-Heesters explained his remarks by calling the show’s questions “awfully captious,” news agency DPA reported on Thursday.

Heesters, who spoke both Dutch and German during the interview, said he is aware that he accidently expressed himself incomprehensively, but claims he was set up.

He is currently suing Berlin writer Volker Kühn for allegations that he was invited to the death camp by the SS and sang for them there.

The centenarian has never denied having visited the camp in 1941 as a member of the Munich Gärtnerplatz Theatre Ensemble, but says they were effectively ordered to go – and says he never sang.

One of Hitler's "divinely gifted" artists

Heesters has been a popular German-language singer since the 1930s, becoming a favorite of the Nazis and one of the "divinely gifted" artists who took part in performances to boost the morale of soldiers during the war.

Heesters claims he did not know what was happening to Jews during the war despite visiting the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.

"Honestly, I was too busy working," Heesters said in an interview after a TV gala celebrating his 100th birthday in 2003. "I couldn't do anything about politics."

While Germans have taken Heesters at his word and continue to watch his old films such as "Always You" and "Illusion," many of his Dutch countrymen have never forgiven him for his acceptance of the Nazi regime during World War II.

After the Nazi defeat, Heesters continued his career in Germany, settling in Bavaria.