Hidden portait of Hitler discovered in the Museum.

Captain Kenneth McKee

A routine dive into the Royal Signals Museum archive has uncovered an astonishing historical secret — a concealed painting once belonging to Adolf Hitler, believed to have come directly from his desk in the Reich Chancellery.

While examining a dusty bundle of wartime papers donated by Captain Kenneth McKee, a seemingly ordinary seascape painting caught a researcher’s eye. But this was no simple artwork. Beneath layers of time, a hidden image emerged — a previously unknown and chilling portrait linked to Hitler himself.

The story behind its journey to the museum is as remarkable as the find...

In 1945, Captain Kenneth McKee was just 24 when he landed on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day. As part of the 2nd Army Signals, McKee advanced with Allied forces through France and into the heart of Nazi Germany. McKee was selected to provide vital communications for the historic Potsdam Conference, he found himself among the very first Allied troops to enter Berlin.

Exploring the devastated capital in their free time, McKee and his comrades once traded cigarettes with a Soviet guard for access to the ruins of the ruined Reich Chancellery — Hitler’s former nerve centre. Inside the ransacked building, McKee wandered through the Führer's private office. There, he unearthed an extraordinary cache of documents and objects left behind in the chaos: papers bearing Hitler’s signature, a 1934 Christmas card from the people of Chemnitz, and a strange painting — now known to contain the hidden portrait.

The unique artefact is now on display at the Museum but we are unable to discover the artist’s as only blurred initials are to be found on the painting. What the portrait means is also a mystery lost in the depths of time.

But the discoveries didn’t stop there. Right is an image of a Birthday card from the People of Chemnitz to Adolf Hitler on his birthday on the 19th April 1934. Out of the millions of cards that Hitler received why did he keep this one? Did it hold some particular significance for him?

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