This story, while clearly crafted with a lot of thought, was very uneven for me. As a sub-genre, "alternate history" never really worked for me. Perhaps it's an "uncanny valley" type of think where I become more uneasy the closer the story becomes to what I consider authoritatively historical.
I believe that part of the problem is that alternate history, because of its explicit dissonance with reality, cries out that it is artificial. I'm taken out of the story and locked into a comparative reading. This leads me to focus on figuring out why the author changed detail X or Y.
It would seem to me that this story, if the character names were changed, would be fine. If the "Adolf Hitler" character was just some art student in Paris with a Prussian father, I don't think the story would lose much weight. The power of using the moniker undermines its utility. Sure, it's an intellectual curiosity to consider that JFK or MLK would have praised the character of the figure in this story.
On the other hand completely, the structural element of "modern" quotes mingled with the story worked well enough, but the Hitler moniker just loses its power.
A quote has been used a few times this week in my circle: genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger. I think it was on Nova. The nature/nurture debate is not very interesting if it is just a search for yes/no answer. Personally, I favour the views of Jerome Kagan.
To be honest, I have a lot of ambivalence about WWII as a setting - whether historical or fictional (plus all of the degrees of historicity in between).
All in all, I'm sure it's a solid alternate history offering, from what I see above and understand. And please, don't take my comments as a criticism for the choice of an alternate history piece on EP. I have absolutely no objection to Escape Pod canvassing the full breadth of speculative fiction. I never would have listened/read this piece if it wasn't for Escape Pod and while it wasn't my cup of tea, it has made my anticipation for the next episode that much greater.
Also, great to hear your voice again, Mr. Eley.