Travels, Travails

April 17 1979

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Department of Physics

Dr. Ariel Rosenborg was lost to the world as he worked on his new contraption. There were books, papers, journals, calculators and other paraphernalia strewn about on his table. All of a sudden, his eyes lit up. A semblance of a smile began to form upon his lips. The calculations were correct. The readout on his velocity panel showed 99.99%.

Dr. Rosenborg, Ari to his friends, was a much loved and revered person in one of the best departments of physics in the world. A true authority in the field of particle physics. At 45, he already was leagues ahead of his peers. To add to his shining academic credentials, he was genial, easy going and a great person to be around. He had just completed his most brilliant work to date. But before he could tell anybody, there was one thing left to do...the reason why he had spent so much time and effort working on this project. The world does not need to know about time travel just yet.

Few people knew that he had survived the holocaust as a child. Not even his wife. He preferred it that way. He was one of the lucky few who had managed to reach the United States after fleeing their homes, but not before witnessing much brutality being meted out to his relatives, friends and neighbours. Treatment that ranged from cruel to downright barbaric, just to satisfy the whims of one man. Adolf Hitler had no right to die the way he eventually did, without facing consequences of his actions. Dr. Rosenborg had wanted to personally deliver justice on Hitler for a very long time. Beneath his calm exteriors, this was the fire that raged.

The plan was simple. He would go back in time and eliminate Hitler. Clean and simple. The day: April 20, 1939. Hitler's fiftieth birthday. He vaguely remembered the day as he had lived through it once as a five year old. He remembered there was a military parade and that Hitler met a lot of people that day giving him the perfect opportunity to finish his job and make a clean getaway. He chose his weapon, an Uzi sub-machine gun, and wired himself to his time machine. He adjusted the time jump and the coordinates of his destination. He even pre-programmed his return a day after the assassination. He pushed a few buttons and was on his way. The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was his laboratory spinning real fast.

April 20, 1939

Berlin

Nazi Germany

As soon as he regained consciousness, he knew where he was. The streets of Berlin were familiar to him. There were a lot of people around. They were all preparing for something. There were huge signs and posters everywhere. He was wandering around when he was spotted by a Nazi officer who seemed to be in charge of the preparations there. Their eyes met. He shuddered and tried to make a dash for it, but there were other officers close by. He would never make it. He had little choice. The officer came up to him. Ari stayed mum. Speaking was tantamount to getting killed. He looked at Ari and then at his list. He checked it twice or thrice, cursed the junior officer who had prepared it, placed a bunch of flowers in his hand and led him to an area where people were greeting a short, mustached man. Ari was uneasy. As he came towards Ari, he could feel his stomach cramp up. When he saw Ari, the mustached man bent down, kissed his cheek, took the bunch of flowers from his hands and moved on. The next day, newspapers carried the following photograph, amongst others. Of course, no one knew who the child in the plain shirt and dark knickers was.

April 18, 1979

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Department of Physics

Hours after returning from his time trip, Dr. Rosenborg cut a distraught figure. He was slowly realising the fact that transporting humans through time is not as easy as transporting protons and electrons. He needed to think of a way to time travel, whilst maintaining the current state of the body and the mind. He stepped out to call his wife and tell her that he'd be spending some more time at the lab.

April 21, 1939

Berlin

Nazi Germany

The junior Nazi officer who had prepared the list of children offering floral greetings to the Führer wondered why his senior was unhappy with him. He could not have messed up the number, after all, he had personally escorted each one of them to the holding area.

A few years later, Major Uziel Gal of Israel would design the first Uzi sub-machine gun.
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References:
1. Wikipedia, of course, for the historical facts
2. German Propaganda Archive for the photograph

P.S: The preceding was a re-telling of a story my father told me one night over dinner, many years ago. I happened to chance upon the picture you saw above and that's what sort of rekindled the idea in my mind. Neither I, nor my father make any claims regarding the originality of this story.

Also, this is a light hearted attempt at highlighting one of the paradoxes of time travel, set against the backdrop of one of the worst periods in human history. I sincerely apologize if anybody felt offended by it and assure you it was not intentional.