Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

NYT Magazine Asks Readers If They Would Kill ‘Baby Hitler’

Some 42 percent of New York Times Magazine online readers said they would use a time machine to go back and kill “baby Hitler.”

Another 30 percent said no, and 28 percent said they were unsure.

The query on Friday came a day after “Back to the Future” Day, in honor of the 80s movie series in which characters traveled back in time and changed the course of their history.

The poll set off a firestorm on Twitter, where the hashtag #babyHitler trended over the weekend.

Many of those who said they could not kill baby Hitler were worried about bringing about unexpected consequences.

The New York Times Magazine responded to the controversy by tweeting “LOL.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.