# Did Hitler ever kill anyone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 14, 2010, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916 "2010-01-14T10:58:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![homegrowncone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8c91f0/32.png) [@homegrowncone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/homegrowncone)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/1 "2010-01-14T10:58:27Z")
I know it sounds like a silly question but is there any evidence he ever personally killed another man. I know he participated in WW1 but I’m not sure how much direct contact with the enemy he had other than dodging shells and running between trenches. Is there any evidence he murdered once he became Chancellor? ---
**Author:** ![Jormungandr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@Jormungandr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jormungandr)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/2 "2010-01-14T11:59:56Z")
There were rumors that he killed his niece, Gail Raubal, who he was supposedly in love with. Her death is official a suicide by a gunshot to the chest using Hitler’s gun. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/3 "2010-01-14T12:40:24Z")
I think he won a medal or two in WWI, so he probably killed someone. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/4 "2010-01-14T13:46:18Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > I think he won a medal or two in WWI, so he probably killed someone. Most people wouldn’t consider that murder, though - at least not if it was in combat. And it’s true that he was decorated. He was given the Iron Cross twice. But killing people once he became chancellor? Why would he bother? He had people to do that kind of thing for him. That’s why you get yourself into a position of power like that in the first place, assuming you are so inclined. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/5 "2010-01-14T13:47:00Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > I think he won a medal or two in WWI, so he probably killed someone. Hitler was wounded twice during the first world war, once in the thigh/groin and another time he suffered temporary blindness following a mustard gas attack. He definitely saw combat, including some of the most gruesome battles of the war. I think he would be very unlikely that he did not engage and kill the enemy at some point. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/6 "2010-01-14T13:48:02Z")
> [@Jormungandr](#): > > There were rumors that he killed his niece, Gail Raubal, who he was supposedly in love with. Her death is official a suicide by a gunshot to the chest using Hitler’s gun. There were rumours, but, IIRC, the official consensus is that \*he \*wasn’t there, so if he gave her the bump, it was via proxy. hh ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/7 "2010-01-14T14:27:09Z")
> [@Jormungandr](#): > > There were rumors that he killed his niece, Gail Raubal, who he was supposedly in love with. Her death is official a suicide by a gunshot to the chest using Hitler’s gun. [Geli Raubal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geli_Raubal) – the Geli is short for “Angelika.” > [@anson2995](#): > > He definitely saw combat, including some of the most gruesome battles of the war. I think he would be very unlikely that he did not engage and kill the enemy at some point. Well, he was a runner – he carried messages forward and backward. While this often exposed the runners to enemy fire (including having to occasionally traverse no-man’s-land above ground during artillery barrages!) it does not necessarily imply the runners were shooting back at anyone. I don’t know if he killed anyone in the war or not, or even if he served in other capacities than as a runner, but he wasn’t being used for his marksmanship while he was a runner, and certainly a runner could have gotten through the war without shooting at anyone and still received medals. The runners were often regarded as very brave. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/8 "2010-01-14T14:34:11Z")
Ordering people killed is the same as “personally killing them.” Are you asking if he’s ever killed them with his own hands? Pretty sure he shot Eva Brown at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/9 "2010-01-14T14:38:10Z")
> [@HorseloverFat](#): > > Pretty sure he shot Eva Brown at the end. She wasn’t shot, she took a cyanide capsule. He took a cyanide capsule and shot himself at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/10 "2010-01-14T14:38:39Z")
> [@HorseloverFat](#): > > Pretty sure he shot Eva Brown at the end. Eva Braun [took poison](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Braun#Marriage_and_suicide). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/11 "2010-01-14T15:55:37Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > She wasn’t shot, she took a cyanide capsule. He took a cyanide capsule and shot himself at the same time. So, see, he killed himself, and he was a person. Therefore… ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/12 "2010-01-14T15:59:57Z")
I have a fuzzy memory of hearing that Hitler once killed someone during his power struggle with the SA. I think it was during the arrest of Ernst Röhm on the Night of the Long Knives, but the [Wiki entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives) says nothing that would back me up on this. Chalk it up to one too many late night marathons on the Hitler Channel. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/13 "2010-01-14T16:05:11Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > Hitler was wounded twice during the first world war, once in the thigh/groin and another time he suffered temporary blindness following a mustard gas attack. He definitely saw combat, including some of the most gruesome battles of the war. I think he would be very unlikely that he did not engage and kill the enemy at some point. I’d would bet a significant majority of soldiers who saw combat in World War One did not kill anybody. If you take out the artillerymen and (to a significantly lesser extent) the machinegunners, then you have taken out a significant majority of non-disease caused fatalities in the war. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/14 "2010-01-14T16:37:06Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > I have a fuzzy memory of hearing that Hitler once killed someone during his power struggle with the SA. I think it was during the arrest of Ernst Röhm on the Night of the Long Knives, but the [Wiki entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives) says nothing that would back me up on this. Chalk it up to one too many late night marathons on the Hitler Channel. That jibes with something I read in one of the many Hitler biographies I’ve consumed over the years, that Hitler himself shot Ernst Röhm after his arrest. (It may have been in John Toland’s biography of Hitler.) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/15 "2010-01-14T16:56:48Z")
Röhm was shot by Theodor Eicke and Michael Lippert, two SS men. What you might be thinking of, though, is that he was given an opportunity to commit suicide before they killed him, and he refused, saying, “If I’m going to be killed, let Adolf do it”. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/16 "2010-01-18T15:22:28Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Röhm was shot by Theodor Eicke and Michael Lippert, two SS men. What you might be thinking of, though, is that he was given an opportunity to commit suicide before they killed him, and he refused, saying, “If I’m going to be killed, let Adolf do it”. Again, I am straining to extract a questionable factoid from a permanently befuddled brain, but it occurs to me that Hitler, at some point _claimed_ to have himself killed Röhm, even though the truth of the matter had already been pretty firmly established. Perhaps someone whose Google-fu is superior to mine will be able to confirm whether this was the case. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/17 "2010-01-18T16:01:55Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > I think he won a medal or two in WWI, so he probably killed someone. [Two Iron Crosses](http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/aslowfuse.htm). The first one was for rescuing a wounded officer in 1914, the second was for capturing four French soldiers single handedly. No shooting involved in either incident. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-ever-kill-anyone/524916/18 "2010-01-18T16:03:29Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > Again, I am straining to extract a questionable factoid from a permanently befuddled brain, but it occurs to me that Hitler, at some point _claimed_ to have himself killed Röhm, even though the truth of the matter had already been pretty firmly established. He was present at Rohm’s arrest.