AMONG THE DUTIFUL SYCOPHANTS SURROUNDING Adolf Hitler during his military operations in the years 1941–42 was one Dr. Henry Picker, who kept a stenotyped record of the Führer's comments, which was, for better or worse, preserved and published in various editions after the war. Called "Tischgespräche"1 in evident imitation of the "table talk" of Martin Luther, the volume probably presents much of what was actually said, usually in the form of monologues by Hitler. In the course of working with a group of Yale colleagues2 a number of years ago on the manuscript of the work later published by William Langer, 3 I looked into the Tischgespräche with enough curiosity to overcome for the moment my distaste for the subject and the ineffable boredom aroused by the text. Here and there I came upon passages that seemed on inspection to be richer in imaginative fantasy than the usual arid