Chaplin was on hit list of Hitler: Book

London, Feb 28: Even though he was not a jew, the reel life 'Great Dictator'-- Charlie Chaplin-- was on the hit list of the real life Nazi tyrant-- Adolf Hitler.

According to a book 'Juden Sehen Dich An' (The Jews are Watching You), written by an anti-Jew propagandist Dr Johann von Leers listed the Hollywood great among renowned Jewish personalities who were ''forming an international network aimed at world domination'', and called for their extermination. Albert Einstein was also on the hit list along with economists, journalists, scientists and entertainers. The book which would go under the hammer in Shropshire next month was published in Berlin in the 1930's. It is claimed that the book inspired 'The Great Dictator' directed by Charlie Chaplin in which he also starred.

Chaplin played Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomainia, in the 1940 film.''The book aims to attack leading Jews worldwide, warning the German people that these people were forming an international network aimed at world domination. Each leading Jew is featured with a photograph and a pen portrait, but by far the most remarkable and bizarre aspect of this book is the inclusion of Charlie Chaplin,'' auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes was quoted by Daily Mail as saying.

''He is attacked in a section named 'Artistic Jews', with the suggestion that he was of Jewish origin and therefore a pseudo-Jew.

''Chaplin must have feared for his life when he saw the book, because the majority of the people in this book were exterminated by the Nazi,'' he added.

Film historian Kevin Brownlow said Chaplin made The Great Dictator in response to seeing himself on the book's hit list. ''The Nazis mistakenly thought he was Jewish because Chaplin never denied it,'' he said.

UNI