How would you feel if you were Hitler's brother?

You can get a good idea of the problems that Adolf’s half-brother Alois encountered from the story on the front page of the Sunday Dispatch of 14 October 1945, which had been used to wrap some lead figures I just unearthed.

ALOIS DOES NOT LIKE HIS NAME: HITLER – He’s quoted as saying “The name Hitler has sometimes been a source of embarrassment to me”, and his strategy was simple – the previous day he’d applied to change his name. To “Hiller”

The rest of the page is a testament to our lack of progress over the years:

900 GOOD HOUSES TO BE KNOCKED DOWN TO EXTEND LONDON AIRPORT – nearly 65 years later the same story, and the same village, Sipson, are in the news for precisely the same reason, as the Government announces its decision on Heathrow's third runway

PALESTINE ALL QUIET – “There have been no new military disturbances in Palestine during the last 24 hours, British military headquarters announced in Jerusalem last night”. However …

USA AND JEWISH CASE – “President Truman is understood to be considering advocacy of the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine, in place of the Jewish-Arab State envisaged by the British 1939 White Paper policy.” You get a clue to recent events when you read “This already delicate and difficult situation in which the British Government finds itself has not been made less difficult by the intervention of President Truman”. It’s all about us, really

US MAY RECRUIT A-BOMB SPIES – Apparently they were going to “live abroad in positions in which they would learn of any large-scale attempts to find the secret of atom bomb manufacture”. Didn’t they do well?

19th CHILD WAS 14lb – And after all those years of rationing too. The mother, from Grimsby, was just 43 and probably ready for further action

JAVA REBELS DECLARE WAR ON DUTCH – This was the work of Soekarno, a busy man, who’d declared an Independent Republic of Indonesia eight weeks previously. This time he gave advance warning of his tactics, listing his weapons of war: “all kinds of firearms; also poison, poisoned darts and arrows; all means of arson; any kind of wild animals ...”. Today, the airport is named after him

QUISLING APPEAL FAILS – Having already turned down suicide and exile, he faced the firing squad 10 days later. Today, traitors are named after him

MEN BEHIND DOCK STRIKES – This was the banner headline. Guess who they were. Step forward The Revolutionary Communist Party. However, in another part of the forest …

BRITISH ARREST SOVIET TROOPS – Ah, those were the days.