When the story of Hitler's supposed record collection broke last month, I raised some skeptical questions about it. I'm not the only one, it turns out. Stanley Henig, manager of the Historic Masters label, has pointed out in a letter to the Jewish Chronicle that a widely circulated photograph accompanying the story (click on image 2) shows an album that came out in 1947. It's Robert Shaw's RCA Victor recording of the German Requiem. "Many of the records do not bear any stamp indicating that they were from Hitler’s HQ," Henig writes, "and there is no conclusive evidence that any of the records were from a personal collection. The attempt in some newspapers to establish Hitler’s desert island selection would seem to be total fantasy."
