Question time for Dimblebys over missing Hitler cutlery

LisTeners to the recent anniversary edition of radio 4’s Desert island Discs with the late richard Dimbleby were intrigued to hear how the distinguished war correspondent visited Hitler’s bunker after the dictator’s death and took from it an engraved cutlery set.

The current whereabouts of these macabre mementoes is now a source of mystery. While Dimbleby died of cancer aged 52, in 1965, it is believed the memorabilia remained ‘in the family’, according to Kevin Telfer, author of The summer Of ’45.

radio 4’s any Questions? presenter Jonathan Dimbleby, the second of richard’s sons, who has explained that his father was ‘picking up stubs of cigars’ in the bunker before stumbling across the cutlery, tells me he does not know what has become of them.

nor does his younger brother, sculptor nicholas Dimbleby. ‘i don’t have the offending cutlery,’ he assures me.

Dimbleby senior made the ‘acquisition’ while in Hitler’s ruined Berlin bunker, from which he made one of his most memorable broadcasts on July 4, 1945.

He playfully said that he had ‘pinched’ the cutlery, adding that, if ever entertaining awkward guests to dinner, he would ensure that their place at table was set with the Fuhrer’s fork, spoon and knife, each engraved with Hitler’s initials.

Memorabilia from the nazi era commands a premium from certain collectors.

‘The ones that are marked aH with the eagle and swastika on them — the so-called formal pattern — was used both in the chancellery and in Berchtesgaden, and sell for about £1,100 apiece,’ explains american dealer Thomas T. Wittmann, of Wittmann antique Militaria, in new Jersey.

Jonathan and nicholas’s older brother, David, 79-year-old presenter of BBc1 Question Time, was unavailable to comment.