The Primal Solution

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The Primal Solution is a science fiction novella by Eric Norden, published in July 1977 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story follows an elderly Jewish scientist and Holocaust survivor who discovers a form of mental time travel. He can project his mind into the past and take over the body of the young Adolf Hitler in Vienna in the early 1910s. He intends to force Hitler to commit suicide, but first humiliates him by making him drink sewer water in public before making him jump into the Danube. Just before drowning, Hitler regains control and returns home shaken. The professor becomes trapped inside Hitler’s mind, able to hear his thoughts. He learns that Hitler’s mind is haunted by an inner presence that identifies as Jewish and wants to destroy him, which explains why Hitler became genocidal. The professor realizes that the very act meant to avert the Holocaust ends up helping to cause it, and he cannot tell anyone for fear of being thought insane.