If you can't beat them, give them estrogen. No, that's not really the saying, but it appears to have been the thinking during World War II among some Allied plotters who came up with a plan to make German leader Adolf Hitler more "womanly" by adding a steady dose of estrogen to his diet. The idea was that if they could "feminize" Hitler, he might give up on world domination and become more like his sister, a "mild-mannered secretary" named Paula.
Hitler had food tasters to ensure he wasn't poisoned, but estrogen has no taste, so the British spies who were to undertake the mission figured it would be simple to slip some into his meals. "It would have been entirely possible," writes Brian Ford, a Cardiff University professor who uncovered the strategy while reading through some declassified documents. Of course, the plot was never hatched, so we never got to find out whether Adolf Hitler would have been less war-hungry as a woman.
Hitler before he was Hitler:
- Adolf Hitler aspired to be an artist, but he failed in both of his attempts to get into the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, in 1907 and 1908.
- From 1909 to 1913, Hitler was so poor that he lived in either a homeless shelter or a public dormitory for men.
- Hitler served with a Bavarian unit during World War I and was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.