“Though This Be Madness, Yet There Is Method [Acting] In't.”

Adolf Hitler as Gertrude with an unknown German actor [possibly Emile von Durchstucke] in the part of Hamlet

The editor is deeply grateful to Mrs Brunnhilde Go-Belles of The Wolf's Lair, Salzburg Drive, Chetnole for her willingness to share a photograph bequeathed to her by her late great Aunt Mrs Magda Go-Belles. It depicts the former German celebrity Mr Adolf Hitler with an unknown actor in a scene from Hamlet in which Mr Hitler assumes the part of Gertrude.

Readers will by now be familiar with rumours of the larger project to which the present additional snap lends further authenticity, which is to say, the attempt by official Drittes Reich Kinema director Leni Riefenbacher-Falls to capture, for all time, the once great dictator's definitive interpretation of several of the major Shakespeare roles for which he was famous amongst selected intimées. "Adolf gave us an extract from his Harry der Hotspur last evening. It was marvellous - especially the bit where he pretended to coach Germaine Defoe in the art of taking penalty shoot outs. 'Goal!' we all shouted. Die Fuhrer was so pleased and naturlich we applauded him as though our lives depended on it", Winifred Wagner-Bayreuth [see Sir Hugh Trevor Ropey "Hitler's Top 10 Female Admirers" in David Irving-Berlin [ed] [1996] The Lighter Hitler: Fun, Games and 'Water Sports' in Der Fuhrerbunker, The Threadbone Press]].

Such evidence - following hard on the heels of Professor Irving-Berlin's own discoveries - should also silence the naysayers who refused to believe - for reasons we can only surmise - that Hitler had the emotional range to carry off such a diverse set of challenging roles. Alas no sound recording of his Gertrude survives and we can but guess how the dulcet tones of that mellifluous voice might have moved us in words which themselves take on an added prophetic poignancy given that later business with the cyanide capsules: "No, no! the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. [Dies.]"

We can only hope that these discoveries prompt others to search their attics for yet further surviving pieces of the Adolf Does Shakespeare jigsaw puzzle. [Oh my Lord. Really? [Ed]]