“It is strange – and rather disturbing – to discover how important classical music was to two of the most genocidal monsters of the 20th century, Hitler and Stalin.”

Der Spiegel recently published a list of the 100 classical recordings found in Hitler’s bunker at the end of WWII, which had been secretly kept by a Russian intelligence officer for decades before his death. Lots of Wagner, of course, but, puzzlingly, also a sizable amount of Jewish composers from violinist Bronislaw Huberman to pianist Artur Schnabel. Hitler’s tastes proved grandiose and melodious, which created, as the Guardian characterized it, “a beautiful world in which Hitler could bury himself as his own life crumbled.”