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This was bugging me last night. I read this book probably 30+ years ago. It was a fictional account written from the point of view of Hitler's doctor, but this story was embedded in an outer story set in the future as if someone was time-travelling to live through the doctor's eyes. Sorry that this is a very vague summary: the details are very fuzzy by now but I do recall that it was well-written. I think a British author.

Also, the doctor (Morell!) was describing how he was prescribing all these terrible drugs to Hitler without really caring about the effect they had on Hitler's health. For example Antigas pills which I believe contained strychnine. So there was quite some decent amount of fact behind the fiction.

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    Time's arrow (1991 by British novelist Martin Amis) has a Nazi doctor, albeit not Hitler's, and a time travel motif a la Slaughterhouse 5 (not physical time travel but reliving the past as observer). Might be worth a look.
    – Eike Pierstorff
    Commented Sep 18, 2022 at 9:36
  • FWIW, I have perused Gavriel Rosenfelds "The World Hitler Never Made" (2005), and that a story of your description is not included in this very comprehensive register of Nazi-themed fiction suggests that it must be somewhat obscure.
    – Eike Pierstorff
    Commented Sep 21, 2022 at 9:37
  • Thank you for doing that! Yes, I suspect much more obscure than I realised based on what I'm (not) finding...!
    – Tim Smith
    Commented Sep 21, 2022 at 14:27

3 Answers 3

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I found it! "Through the Eye of Time" (1977) by Trevor Hoyle:

"In an alternate universe, Germany, and not the United States, has developed the first atomic bomb - and now, a group of scientists on the planet Earth IVn are seeking a way to being that research back!While investigating their research, scientist and myth technologist Christian Queghan discovers that they are now attempting to duplicate Adolf Hitler's brain.If Queghan is to avert this threat to the known world, he himself must first get to the alternate universe - but the scientists are determined to let nothing and no one stand in their way to introduce a New Order to earth IVn.Through the Eye of Time is Book Two of the Q Series, a thrilling epic science fiction adventure through parallel worlds."

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  • They saved Hitler's brain?
    – Adamant
    Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 14:26
  • No, more of a copy-paste
    – Tim Smith
    Commented Sep 23, 2022 at 15:50
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I have never read it, but Robert Silverberg's novel Shadrach in the Furnace (1976) is set in the year 2012. Shadrach Mordecai is the personal physician to not Hitler but the future world dictator Genghis II Mao IV.

So there might be a possibility that you remembered the story incorrectly and it was actually Shadrach in the Furnace.

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    Or maybe he remembers the story incorrectly and it was actually Dune or Space Cadet or Moby Dick or Pride and Prejudice. (I haven't read the last one, so for all I know it might even match the OP's description.)
    – user14111
    Commented Sep 20, 2022 at 10:23
  • I have read Shadrach in the Furnace - it's not it. The Hitler and his doctor part is the bit I remember most clearly.
    – Tim Smith
    Commented Sep 21, 2022 at 14:25
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Sounds similar to a Brian Aldiss short story:

"Swastika!", in which a journalist interviews an elderly Adolf Hitler, living in retirement in Belgium under an assumed name.

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