# Another Question about Hitler. The man who won't die **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2000, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964 "2000-10-23T13:44:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/1 "2000-10-23T13:44:32Z")
I just heard on the radio that Hitler had two nephews. One was in the German army and died in a Russian camp. The other was in the US NAVY. First. How could Hitler who was an only child have nephews? Two: How could an American ( or any Allied power) recruit a member of this guys family into their unit? ( Presuming he has the same last name as the Crazed Mustached One. I’m thinking back ground checks ( although limited at that time due to Al Gore not inventing the internet yet) and a german speaking guy, would have put him on the " Don’t call us, we’ll call you" list. ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/2 "2000-10-23T14:00:06Z")
I think Hitler’s mother was married twice - his half-niece, Geli Raubel, figures prominently in his history. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/3 "2000-10-23T14:45:17Z")
It was Hitler’s father who was a widower when he married Hitler’s mother, so Hitler had older half-siblings- at least one brother and two sister IIRC. I’m on the run now, but I’ll try to get back with more info later if someone doesn’t beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/4 "2000-10-23T15:13:22Z")
“a german speaking guy, would have put him on the ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you’ list.” Umm, during WWII, the military was accepting Americans of recent German, Italian, and even Japanese (the famous 442nd Regiment) descent, despite the fact that other people of the same ethnicity\* were being detained on generic suspicion of disloyalty. If the Army was refusing young men who spoke German, they would have had to reject huge chunks of their levies from Chicago and Milwaukee. 🙂 \*Yes, though Japanese-Americans on the West Coast bore the brunt of unfair detention, there were German-American and Italian-American detainees in the East Coast areas. Less widespread and more random than the wholesale “evacuations” in the West, but not any bit fairer. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/5 "2000-10-23T15:32:15Z")
IIRC, there was an effort to place soldiers of recent German or Italian descent in the Pacific theater, just like the 442nd was deployed in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/6 "2000-10-23T15:34:44Z")
The story (or at least many of the details) may be a fabrication. What is true is that Hitler’s older half-brother Alois Hitler, Jr., ran away from home at the age of 14 after having a falling out with his and Adolf’s father, Alois Hiter, Sr. He eventualy moved to England and married an Irish actress named Bridget Elizabeth Dowling. That’s as much as I know for sure. The story continues that they had a son, William Patrick Hitler, who moved to New York in 1940, changed his last name, joined the U.S. Navy, and fought in the Pacific. These details are based on a book that came out in the mid-1970s called **The Memoirs of Bridget Hitler** , which is believed may many serious scholars to be a hoax. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/7 "2000-10-23T18:04:05Z")
According to [this article](http://www.iol.ie/~irishrts/HitlerArticle.html), William Patrick Hitler wrote a piece for Look magazine in January, 1939, entitled “Why I Hate My Uncle.” The same article also cites the unpublished, unfinished, and undated Bridget Hitler memoirs as saying that Hitler lived with her in London briefly in 1912-1913, while dodging conscription in the Austro-Hungarian army. I’ve never heard of this before, either, although I was aware of his efforts to avoid service. Obviously, a more reputable source is necessary to clear the air on this one. Anyone have a copy of John Toland’s bio about? ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/8 "2000-10-23T19:49:02Z")
FWIW, Alan Bullock’s Hitler biography states that Hitler had two older half-siblings: Alois Hitler and Angela Hitler. These were the children of Hitler’s fathers second marriage (the first marriage was childless). Angela married Leo Raubal and had three children, Leo, Geli & Friedl. As missbunny states, Geli figured in Adolf’s life (he apparently fell in love with her). She died in 1931. Of course this book says nothing about what happened to Leo & Friedl… S. Norman ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/9 "2000-10-23T21:59:15Z")
_I’m back!!!_ According to [this site](http://remember.org/guide/Facts.root.hitler.html), Hitler had 3 full siblings and 2 half siblings from his father’s previous marriage/s. Two of those children died young, leaving Alois Jr., Angela, and Paula, the youngest Hitler, who lived to a ripe old age in Germany under the surname “Wolff”. I’m getting those details from Ron Rosenbaum’s excellent book “Explaining Hitler”. It’s pretty meticulously documented, and he had the benefit of an interview with one of Geli’s neices (Hitler’s grandneice). Rosenbaum portrays Bridget and William Patrick Hitler as money-grubbing con artists, who would say anything for a few tabloid dollars, but there is evidence that William Patrick spent some of the thirties in Germany, working at a factory job his uncle lined up for him. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/10 "2000-10-23T22:04:39Z")
Just reread your post **Spiny Norman** - Rosenbaum interviewed Frield’s daughter, only a few years after Friedl’s death in Austria. He doesn’t give out too many autobiographical details- the impression is that Hitler’s siblings, nephews and neices rebuilt their lives after the war, quietly, under assumed names. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/11 "2000-10-23T22:07:02Z")
Oh, yeah, Rosenbaum has half a chapter devoted to Alan Bullock too. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/12 "2000-10-24T01:17:50Z")
Didn’t poor Geli commit suicide? (She tried to spurn her Uncle’s advances?) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/13 "2000-10-24T01:22:17Z")
I made a MST3K picture of Hitler…it’s him and Benito Mussolini-and it looks like Mussolini’s reaching under the dashboard and giving Hitler a handjob… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/14 "2000-10-24T09:38:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Didn’t poor Geli commit suicide? Yes, but some believe that Hitler had her murdered, or others had her murdered because the affair was interfering with Hitler’s political career. According to Friedl’s daughter, Geli’s mother and sister never believed that she was a suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/15 "2000-10-24T19:21:55Z")
Yeah, I’ve heard that too and it wouldn’t surprise me. However, if she did commit suicide, didn’t Adolf drive her to it, or something? He was so obsessed with her, romantically, and she tried to spurn him, and he was angry about it? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/16 "2000-10-25T02:19:01Z")
Wow, how did that happen? ::::scratching head and mutters to herself as she walks away::::: ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/17 "2000-10-25T02:21:49Z")
I mean, how did the double thread posting happen. I’ll stop before I make myself look more like an idiot than a moron. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-hitler-the-man-who-wont-die/37964/18 "2000-10-25T02:30:40Z")
I just read everyone’s posts and I would like to thank them for their efforts, knowledge and input. Can you imagine the family get togethers at the Hilter household when Adolf was younger?