Hitlers Walk Amongst Us

I was absorbed this morning by the review of a new play entitled Little Willy by Mark Kassen.

Little Willy is William Patrick Hitler, famous pretty much for just being famous, who was the Irish bastard child of Adolph's brother, Alois. After being shunned by his Uncle Adolph in 1939, Willy bribed him, took the money and moved to America. After writing an article for Look magazine entitled "Why I Hate My Uncle! " he was represented by the William Morris Agency. Willy performed lecture tours throughout the US, partied, endorsed every product he could find and effectively became a pop-cultural icon. And then he settled in New York and raised a family. Did Willy's three sons, as Mr. Kassen states in his play, really make a pact not to marry or have children, so the bloodline would end? That is just one of he many questions raised by the play.

The play is a meditation on the difference between who we really are as opposed to what we purport to be, as individuals and as a society. It's about the advertising of panache without substance. We all trade what we have for what we want and sometimes what we have isn't very nice, Mr. Kassen said.

These are very timely, modern concepts for a play that takes place in the era of World War II.

But just knowing that somewhere, three great-nephews of Hitler are driving to work, grocery shopping, or mowing their lawn is unsettling...