Identify a sci-fi short story

[Polycarp]

@tanstaafl

Since we’re talking time travel and Hitler, the obligatory link to WikiHistory.

The moderators should split out this post and move it to ATMB.

[Andy_L]

@ralph124c

Thank you!

You’re welcome. It’s in a number of collections Title: Secret Unattainable - I read it in Asimov’s Science Fiction Treasury.

[Seanette]

@detop

The story is Valhalla by Gregory Benford. You can find it in his anthology Hitler Victorious.

Many thanks, and I’ve requested that anthology from my library. If I like it enough, I’ll buy my own copy.

[Seanette]

@Andy_L

“Secret Unattainable” by Van Vogt PsychoCeramiQ: Secret Unattainable by A. E. van Vogt

Thanks for the info. Lucky for me my public library system is hooked into Link+, since “Away and Beyond” is not available in the local system, but can be obtained by Link+.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Elendil_s_Heir

That reminds me of another short story in which an evil leader, on the eve of his country’s destruction by its enemies (the man is unidentified, but described in such a way that it really could only be Hitler), is enticed to escape from his bunker by time travelers from the future. A dead, full-grown clone of the leader is left behind to be found by others. The time travelers pretend to be his friends, but are really taking him back to the future so that he can be scientifically and endlessly tormented for all of his crimes.

@detop

The story is Valhalla by Gregory Benford. You can find it in his anthology Hitler Victorious.

Got it from the library, and right you are! Thanks. I’d misremembered it, though: The bad guy is clearly identified in this 1986 short story as Hitler. (Eva Braun, by name, even makes an appearance).