# So we've got this Adolf Hitler clone. What shall we do with it? (Him?) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359 "2014-04-17T18:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/21 "2014-04-17T20:28:48Z")
Can he be successfully deprogrammed with 100% confidence? If yes, then do that. If not, to the secret prison lair he goes. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/22 "2014-04-17T20:41:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Now, just to make things more complicated, the do-gooders come across a top secret memo in the billionaire’s headquarters. It’s a report from one of his scientists saying their cloning experiments continue to fail. They can produce a physical replica of Hitler but they can’t duplicate his mind. > > But they’ve come up with a new idea. One of their other projects has been to develop a time machine and they’ve had some limited success. They’ve almost figured out how to exchange two copies of a near-identical object across time. So with a little more development, they figure they can use their time machine to send a mindless Hitler clone back to 1945, have the real Hitler fake his suicide using the clone, and then bring the real genuine Hitler back to the present day. > > Searching through the records reveals no further information about this. So now the do-gooders aren’t sure. Did the scientists solve the cloning problems and create a clone that thinks it’s Hitler? Or did they solve the time travel problems and rescue the real Hitler, who’s now just pretending to be a clone of himself in an effort to avoid punishment for his crimes? Speaking as OP rather than poster: Doesn’t that make things LESS complicated? If you have good reason to believe this is a time-displaced Hitler (and I considered writing the hypo just that way), why wouldn’t you simply call up Benjamin Netanyahu and say, “I have someone here you want to meet. Bring a honey badger.” > [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Can he be successfully deprogrammed with 100% confidence? If yes, then do that. If not, to the secret prison lair he goes. The OP says not, but I’ll ignore your ignoring that, 'cause I like you. Speaking as poster rather than OP: Who is going to do this reprogramming? If the do-gooder technomages had the ability and will, they’d have already done so, surely. If they don’t have the ability, but plan to subcontract it to, say RhE – well, Evil!Skald ain’t gonna do it for free, and he’s gonna demand cash up front, and it’ll be a lot of cash, and his refusal to commit genocide doesn’t mean he’s either honorable or just. He took the personal rep’s money, then murdered him and betrayed his boss; why wouldn’t he charge an exorbitant amount to reprogram the HitlerClone, then kill it anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/23 "2014-04-17T20:47:54Z")
If I understand the premise correctly, then this person has done nothing; the memories, personality etc. of someone who died before he was born were forcibly imprinted on him without his knowledge or consent. Essentially they suffer from a great delusion and is a victim of grotesque experiment in forced-aging. If he is functionally the same as Hitler was in 1945 (again, if I understand the premise correctly) he will kill himself after learning of the total, utter smashing of Nazism and Germany’s defeat largely at the hands of the USSR. Ethically we should treat him as a mentally ill person at risk of self-harm. Historians would be beating down his door but morally we should send in the best psychiatrists and psychologists to try and convince him that he is not his clone. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/24 "2014-04-17T22:00:00Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Speaking as OP rather than poster: > > Doesn’t that make things LESS complicated? If you have good reason to believe this is a time-displaced Hitler (and I considered writing the hypo just that way), why wouldn’t you simply call up Benjamin Netanyahu and say, “I have someone here you want to meet. Bring a honey badger.” Only if you can prove or disprove it. I intentionally wrote it as an unknown. So the people who think the genuine Hitler should be punished but clone Hitler shouldn’t be held responsible for genuine Hitler’s crimes will have to address the situation of not knowing which Hitler they’re dealing with. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/25 "2014-04-17T22:05:23Z")
I agree with **Mr. Kobayashi** , except that I don’t even particularly care if he’s at risk for self harm. What we have here is a man suffering from delusions and raving that he wants to exterminate quite a few people. That’s the very definition of dangerously mentally ill. It matters not to me \*how \*he got his delusions and \*why \*he wants to kill people. It doesn’t matter to me that we can’t cure him. That’s already true of quite a few mentally ill people we keep under state custody even though they haven’t committed a crime. He’s just one more, albeit with a more interesting case file than most. There’s ample precedent for what you do with a delusional person who wants to kill people: you put them in a locked mental institution until they are no longer delusional. Sometimes that’s a lifetime. So be it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/26 "2014-04-17T22:51:46Z")
Successful deprogramming technology may not _yet_ be available, per the OP, but suspended animation _is_. Back he goes into stasis until the technology has been perfected. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/27 "2014-04-17T23:50:52Z")
Looks like I’m in the only one who picked the first option, I guess I should explain why This reminds me of the Ship of Theseus paradox, in which pieces of the ship is replaces until none of the original remains. The problem tackles whether or not an object can remain fundamentally the original object if none of the original pieces remain. I wouldn’t focus on the clone’s physical nature as much as its mental one. Hitler being a physical flesh and blood person doesn’t make him Hitler, it was his actions, and the thoughts and feelings leading to those actions, that makes him The Hitler. Unlike the ship, which is a ship with no mental faculties to speak of, Hitler’s got more than just flesh and blood to make him who he is. To illustrate that point, suppose for instance we had the original Hitler after the war and his body was transported into the body of another person like some wacky sitcom. How many of us would say its wrong to punish him because his physical body was not of his birth? In the same way, I don’t care if this clone is not the original, its as close to being Hitler without going back in time to grab Hitler himself out of his bunker. In answering this, I wouldn’t focus on the body of Hitler. I focus on what makes Hitler a bad guy. It was his memories, his actions, his feelings, his ambition, all of which were transported to the mind of this clone. So he’s Hitler, good enough. Toss him face first into the woodchipper alive and screaming ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/28 "2014-04-18T04:39:40Z")
“Not many people know it, but the Fuhrer was a terrific dancer.” from “The Producers.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/29 "2014-04-18T05:30:29Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > …I agree that Archer’s hilarious; I almost injured myself laughing at it. But spoilers, man! > > (I’ve only [seen] the current season, so I don’t know how big a secret the hitler clone thing is.)… Really not much. It was more of a throwaway gag. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > …But they’ve come up with a new idea. One of their other projects has been to develop a time machine and they’ve had some limited success. They’ve almost figured out how to exchange two copies of a near-identical object across time. So with a little more development, they figure they can use their time machine to send a mindless Hitler clone back to 1945, have the real Hitler fake his suicide using the clone, and then bring the real genuine Hitler back to the present day… Something similar is done in the short story “Valhalla” by Gregory Benford. You can find it in his anthology _Hitler Victorious_. Also check out this very short story: [Homepage - Reactor](http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/08/wikihistory) ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/30 "2014-04-18T06:57:31Z")
I distinctly remember seeing a crate labeled Mindwipe-o-matic when I was borrowing the stasis generator from RhE Warehouse XIII. I’m also pretty sure the Neuralyzer is still standard issue for the MIB. Is there a reason these weren’t listed as options other than the usual Skald machinations? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/31 "2014-04-18T07:22:36Z")
Show him how Germany’s doing post-Reich, that oughta mellow him some. Then give him a spot in the admissions committee at the Vienna School of Arts, that oughta give him a lasting boner about his life. Schedule regular psych appointments, keep him under watch and see how it goes from there. Not even Hitler-clone is beyond redemption. Or else, what’s the point ? (But maybe keep the existence of Israel under wraps for now…) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/32 "2014-04-18T08:55:11Z")
This would be the biological equivalent of AH having a twin brother born a century and a quarter on. It isn’t punishing or preventing AH, but rather an innocent twin. You might want to see the uber hammy movie The Boys From Brazil where this is the plot. Olivier and Peck try to out-chew scenery opposite each other. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/33 "2014-04-18T10:27:48Z")
I’m not comfortable with imprisoning anyone when he hasn’t committed a crime. But clearly, the man is going to need some serious help from mental health professionals. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/34 "2014-04-18T11:21:56Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Searching through the records reveals no further information about this. So now the do-gooders aren’t sure. Did the scientists solve the cloning problems and create a clone that thinks it’s Hitler? Or did they solve the time travel problems and rescue the real Hitler, who’s now just pretending to be a clone of himself in an effort to avoid punishment for his crimes? Well…a clone’s fingerprints wouldn’t match the original. Or his dental work. Plus, maybe trace radioisotopes and environmental lead… And maybe if the possible clone tests positive for syphilis—a negative result not meaning anything—and it’s not a younger strain of syphilis than what Hitler might have had… ( 😃 Sorry. Nerdy nitpicking instincts—you just can’t turn 'em off, even back in the world.) Back to the OP…I wouldn’t kill him. Well, I wouldn’t kill him _just for being “Hitler.”_ He’s not the same being who committed Hitler’s great crimes. He’s no more guilty than if you brainwashed the clone of some random person into _thinking_ he was Hitler, or if you cloned Hitler but edited the clone’s memories so that he thought he’d just been the lovable set designer at the Moulin Rouge. If I _did_ want to kill him, it’d be because I thought he’d be a threat to others if he went free. A harder call to make, seeing as he’s the duplicate of an aging political leader, not just a hopelessly insane slasher or something. For all I know, clone!Hitler might be able to be “rehabilitated,” with some kind of counseling, and not be a threat to anyone. So, yeah, I wouldn’t kill him for something he’d “done.” I’d only kill him for something he MIGHT do. Progressive, eh? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/35 "2014-04-18T11:41:43Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > If he is functionally the same as Hitler was in 1945 (again, if I understand the premise correctly) he will kill himself after learning of the total, utter smashing of Nazism and Germany’s defeat largely at the hands of the USSR. I’m not sure that’s true; did he kill himself because of the smashing of Nazism and the defeat of Germany _in general,_ or because enemy soldiers were headed to his bunker for a little Smash-The-Defeated-Hitler _in particular?_ ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/36 "2014-04-18T12:10:16Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I’m not sure that’s true; did he kill himself because of the smashing of Nazism and the defeat of Germany _in general,_ or because enemy soldiers were headed to his bunker for a little Smash-The-Defeated-Hitler _in particular?_ At the time the idea that he would be paraded around in a Moscow circus was probably more prominent in his thoughts, true, but there’s also the consideration that he thought Germany had ‘failed him’ - that they didn’t deserve him any longer. A lot of Nazis also topped themselves because they thought a world without Nazism was one not worth living in. Seeing modern Germany and Austria renouncing his movement and him personally utterly and the knowledge that the world considers him history’s greatest monster (just behind Jimmy Carter) would probably be enough to bring out his self-destructive tendencies. Koenigsberg is Russian?! Pass the Walther. As he thinks he is a man who has been dead more than half a century he is for all intents and purposes, insane. If we punish him for something he didn’t do we might as well go to the local asylums, drag out people who think they’re Napoleon and bring them to account for what happened in Haiti. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/37 "2014-04-18T12:58:43Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Successful deprogramming technology may not _yet_ be available, per the OP, but suspended animation _is_. Back he goes into stasis until the technology has been perfected. I like this solution a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/38 "2014-04-18T14:34:01Z")
Being a racist, odious person is not a crime, and this Hitler clone has no power. And he’s no more responsible for the original Hitler’s crimes than I am for my parents’ (you know, if they had been criminals). So we need to let him go, reprogrammed or not. Hopefully, in the modern world he’ll learn something and have a change of heart. In any case, we assign people to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t cause trouble until we are satisfied that he is crazy but harmless. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/39 "2014-04-18T16:36:50Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > I’m not comfortable with imprisoning anyone when he hasn’t committed a crime. But clearly, the man is going to need some serious help from mental health professionals. Oh no, these polls are really quite harmless. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359/40 "2014-04-18T17:49:25Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > A Hitler-clone in 2014 would be about as likely to restart the Nazi empire as a Ghenghis Khan clone in 2014 would be to restart the Mongol Empire. > > In short, their most likely fates would be to end up in the looney bin, or as some homeless dude picking through the garbage for a meal - as indeed, Hitler very nearly became in real life, as a failed artist in Vienna. > > Taken out of their time and society, neither would pose much threat to anyone. In the real world, sure. But the world of the OP is one where there are a number of powerful malevolent NGOs with access to super-science and technomagic. One of them is apparently run by actual Nazis. Hitler might have a shot at causing some real damage here. So I voted to kill him. I did think, given the disastrous (For Germany) decisions he made in WW2, it might be a good idea to let the neo-nazi organization have him and tell them “Here you go, just do whatever this guy says. You can’t fail.” But nah, still too dangerous. Besides Hitler should be killed on general principle. And if this Clone looks and acts like Hitler and has Hitler’s memories and desires, he’s close enough to actually being Hitler for me. (And I’m actually one of those who wouldn’t go into the Star Trek transporter.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-weve-got-this-adolf-hitler-clone-what-shall-we-do-with-it-him/686359.md?page=3)