# Information on Hitler's family?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 25, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217 "2006-04-25T22:39:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/1 "2006-04-25T22:39:50Z")
I was watching yet another History Channel show on Hitler, only this time the focus was on his family. I found it extremely interesting, especially about his cousin, Aloisia Veit, who spent her entire life in a mental institution and was gased her under her cousin’s regime.
It went into various relations, such as his half-brother Alois’s family who still live here in the US, some of his cousins, and his ancestors.
I wonder where I could obtain any more information. Anyone have any books to reccomend, or websites that AREN’T neo-Nazi David Irving fans? (That’s why I was reluctant to google).
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### Author:  [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/2 "2006-04-25T22:50:29Z")
It doesn’t have a whole lot of extra information in it, but I have to mention that Cecil did a column on this: [What happened to Hitler’s family?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050211.html)
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/3 "2006-04-25T23:01:01Z")
[This site](http://www.shoah.dk/Hitler/new_page_2.htm) (from _Shoah_) has some reminiscences of Hitler by his younger sister Paula Wolff. She never married- the surname Wolff was at Hitler’s insistence as he was embarassed by her and did not want her known as his closest relative. She was by all accounts sweet natured, though she was arrested by the Allies after WW2. She had this to say of her brother’s death:
> [@](#):
>
> “The personal fate of my brother affected me very much. He was still my brother, no matter what happened. His end brought unspeakable sorrow to me, as his sister …”
and this to say of his career
> [@](#):
>
> I must honestly confess that I would have preferred it if he had followed his original ambition and become an architect. It would have saved the world a lot of worries …"
She died in a tiny apartment in 1960.
[Geli Raubal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geli_Raubal) was Hitler’s niece by his half-sister [Angela Hitler Raubal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Hitler) (who managed a boarding house for Jewish students). Historians differ on how sexual their relationship was and the truth may never be known, but she definitely lived as his consort whether it was platonic or not and she definitely died of a bullet to the heart in his apartment in 1931. The official verdict is it was suicide though rumors of murder (by Uncle Dolph or by his enemies or by his friends) abound. Geli’s niece Anna (born of her sister Elfriede) is Hitler’s closest living relative still in Germany and the only one born in his lifetime. According to some sources she turned down many proposals of marriage and other offers from neo Nazis anxious to marry into the bloodline and never had children to end the family line.
[This family tree](http://www.thirdreichpages.com/familytree.htm) is from what appears at cursory glance to be an objective site. In any case, the family tree is correct.
Two anecdotes about the family I remember are that while she was dying Klara Poelzl Hitler was treated by a Jewish doctor named Bloch. The family was very poor (they had a civil service widow’s pension to support three people) and could not pay him much, but he charged them a fraction of his rate and let them pay that on time. Twenty-five years later Hitler gave Bloch and his immediate family safe transport to Switzerland.
Hitler’s brother Alois, Jr. (with whom he may have lived in Liverpool while dodging the Austrian draft) was the black sheep of the family, a ne’er do well and drifter always getting into trouble with the law and bad relationships. At one point he wrote home asking for money for a lawyer because he was in jail for theft. He received back a note from Adolf (who had forged his mother [A’s stepmother] signature) with a tiny amount of money in it and the note “To steal and be caught means you are not even a good thief. Forget the price of a lawyer. Use this to buy a rope and hang yourself.”
Having known a few people like Alois Jr. in my life I’ll actually cut Dolphy a little slack on that one.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/4 "2006-04-25T23:21:50Z")
Hmm. The article referenced by Cecil (I couldn’t find it online but I have it on a subscription database) says there are more grandnieces and grandnephews, most of them in Linz or the area. None are forward about their family connection and have denied it to the press. Some of his relatives (cousins) were arrested and deported to gulags by Stalin even though they had absolutely no contact whatever with the man. A particularly pathetic fate (according to the article) befell his half-brother Alois:
> [@](#):
>
> In the summer of 1945, Alois was arrested for travelling with forged documents under the name Eberle and turned over to the British authorities; a subsequent report noted that Alois was “absolutely scared stiff of being associated in any way with the former Fuhrer’s activities.” Alois eventually changed his name, but by 1953 he was reportedly earning pocket money by signing photographs of his half brother and selling them to tourists.
The author also mentions dining with a relative of Hitler’s (he does not identify the relative or the kinship for reasons of confidentiality) who has a less than embarassed position on the relationship:
> [@Hitler relative](#):
>
> “At some point in the next hundred years, the Germans will build a monument to Adolf Hitler just as the French have for Napoleon,” he told me, drawing on his cigarette and glancing furtively about. “By then, I hope there will finally be an honest biography acknowledging everything he did for us.”
The relative then goes on to say that the reason he does not acknowledge kinship is that he has Jewish business partners and acquaintances who believe he is half Jewish himself. Along with his brother and a cousin they launch periodic attempts to receive the earnings from _Mein Kampf_ Hitler had at the time of his death as well as personal effects of him and Eva Braun (who also has relatives who have tried to claim the Hitler fortune).
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### Author:  [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/5 "2006-04-25T23:39:32Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> I was watching yet another History Channel show on Hitler
As an aside, I read an article last year that talked about why there are so many Hitler and WW2 programs on the history channel. The main reason is that the archival video footage is in the public domain. Apparently in recent years big publishing houses have been buying up the rights to all the archival footage they can. To the point (IIRC) where the history channel could not even show footage of MLK on MLK day because they could not afford the royalties.
It is supposed to be a real problem for a lot of schools right now because their old documentary VHS tapes are pretty much dead and they cannot afford the replacement DVD’s.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/6 "2006-04-26T01:12:25Z")
Thank you. I know about Geli-who doesn’t-but not much about the rest of his family. Imagine how much it must suck though to be a relative of Hitler. They showed Alois’s family, Willy’s kids, and they mentioned Paula as well. It did say at one point she wanted to buy a certain house, and the owners wouldn’t sell, so she wrote a letter to her brother, who pretty much forced them to.
And there was a great-nephew still living in Germany whose parents were taken by the Red Army. That was pretty sad.
**Balduran** , that’s pretty depressing to think about.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/7 "2006-04-26T01:16:54Z")
Oh, something I forgot-Alois Sr.'s stepfather was the brother of Klara Hitler’s grandfather. It’s been speculated that his unknown father was either the man who became his stepfather, or his step-uncle, his wife’s grandfather, who took him in and made him his heir. That would make Hitler’s parents half-uncle/half-niece.
Jesus, no wonder the guy was so fucked up.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/8 "2006-04-26T01:35:45Z")
> [@Balduran](#):
>
> To the point (IIRC) where the history channel could not even show footage of MLK on MLK day because they could not afford the royalties.
The name and likeness of Martin Luther King are registered trademarks of the King Family Foundation. If you wish to use his image and/or speeches, you have to pay his family. They once sued _USA Today_ for reprinting the complete text of “I Have A Dream” (which King had copyrighted during his lifetime) on their front page on MLK Day.
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### Author:  [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/9 "2006-04-26T01:45:26Z")
About the Hitlers of Long Island:
[http://www.groupsrv.com/science/ntopic99720.html](http://www.groupsrv.com/science/ntopic99720.html)
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### Author:  [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/10 "2006-04-26T02:22:04Z")
Funny you should mention this. There was an article in the [New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/24/nyregion/24patchogue.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1146017942-N7JdKC0t9KRw3HZcr8eUbg) on Monday headlined “Three Quiet Brothers on Long Island, All of Them Related to Hitler.”
> [@](#):
>
> William Patrick Hitler, son of Alois Hitler Jr., … was Adolf Hitler’s half-brother (they shared the same father). Alois called his son Willy. The Führer called Willy “my loathsome nephew.”
>
> Willy Hitler was born in 1911 in Liverpool, and in his early years occasionally sought to take advantage of his last name, in England, Germany and then America, where he moved in 1939. After World War II, though, he decided to change the name and moved from New York City out to Patchogue on Long Island. He raised four sons — Alexander, Louis, Howard and Brian — before he died in 1987 at age 76.
>
> Howard died in a car accident in 1989. The other brothers continued low-profile jobs, Alexander as a social worker, Louis and Brian with their own landscaping business. They are regular Long Island guys, middle-aged and middle class, two of them living together. They are also the last members of Adolf Hitler’s paternal bloodline.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/11 "2006-04-26T02:52:07Z")
While an interest in Hitler’s family is natural, the simple fact is that family was not an important part of who Adolph Hitler was. Compare to Stalin, who married and had kids.
He was simply a very odd duck from an unremarkable family.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/12 "2006-04-26T03:04:42Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#):
>
> While an interest in Hitler’s family is natural, the simple fact is that family was not an important part of who Adolph Hitler was. Compare to Stalin, who married and had kids.
>
> He was simply a very odd duck from an unremarkable family.
I know it wasn’t a part of who he was, I just became interested in knowing what his family was like-the illegitimate kids, the cousin who was gased in an asylum, the nephews who fought against him, etc.
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### Author:  [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/13 "2006-04-26T05:57:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I must honestly confess that I would have preferred it if he [Adolf Hilter] had followed his original ambition and become an architect. It would have saved the world a lot of worries …
I don’t use the phrase “understatement of the century” lightly, but…
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/14 "2006-04-26T06:37:34Z")
Hitler was notably estranged from his relatives, ignoring them when he wasn’t actively contemptuous of them. He openly admitted he had no sentimental feelings toward family.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/15 "2006-04-26T11:12:29Z")
While this thread may have started in Cafe Society because there was a TV show involved, it’s really more General Question oriented: the OP is looking for factual information, not a discussion about art/entertainment. Hence, I’m moving this to GQ.
And I’m also noting that Cecil has touched on the topic: [What happened to Hitler’s family?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050211.html)
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/16 "2006-04-26T14:30:10Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> And I’m also noting that Cecil has touched on the topic: [What happened to Hitler’s family?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050211.html)
I’m surprised cckerberos didn’t note that as well. 😛
So what does Cecil’s family think of him I wonder? As memory serves the television show about it noted that he had eleven illegitimate daughters, ten of whom were named Cecilia and the eleventh Paula [Cecilia] Abdul, and a half-sister who wet-nursed both David Koresh and Garth Brooks, neither of whom were babies at the time.
> [@mobo85](#):
>
> The name and likeness of Martin Luther King are registered trademarks of the King Family Foundation. If you wish to use his image and/or speeches, you have to pay his family. They once sued USA Today for reprinting the complete text of “I Have A Dream” (which King had copyrighted during his lifetime) on their front page on MLK Day.
I wonder how martinlutherking dot org (I won’t link as it’s a site owned/operated by the white supremacist organization whose web page is stormfront dot org) gets away with using his likeness. Of course the King family could sue but the judgment against Stormfront would probably cost them thousands in legal fees and net them the organizations assets of three Chick-Fil-A’ gift certificates and an El Camino.
Speaking of family trees, I was surprised to learn in Coretta Scott King’s obituaries that none of her children have ever married or had children. Her youngest child, minister (and unlike her mother a [gay rights opponent](http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1218-10.htm)) Berniece is 43 and oldest daughter, Yolanda, is 51, both unmarried, so the odds aren’t good that they’ll continue the family, but perhaps the sons will (though obviously it’s their decision and I’m sure they have their reasons).
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/17 "2006-04-26T14:43:43Z")
BTW, I remember Paul Harvey in one of his “Rest of the Story” anecdotes mentioning a cousin of Hitler’s who still lived in Austria or Germany, who was very embarrassed and self-conscious of his incredible resemblance to Adolph—and everyone could immediately see it! I think his last name was “Schmidt,” or at least that was the name he used.
Can’t attest to its authenticity, but just passing it along.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/18 "2006-04-26T17:23:37Z")
I just checked the [database of registered trademarks](http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/index_tm.html) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. There is no active trademark for Martin Luther King, Jr., neither his name or his image.
Another urban legend bites the dust.
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### Author:  [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/19 "2006-04-26T18:40:18Z")
I know infant mortality rates have improved greatly over the last century or so, but was what happened to Adolf’s siblings typical in the late 1800’s? Gustav: 1885-1887. Ida 1886-1888. Otto 1887-1887. Edmund 1894-1900. Out of 6 kids, only 2 survived past age 6.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-on-hitlers-family/354217/20 "2006-04-26T19:09:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> Hitler’s brother Alois, Jr. … was the black sheep of the family,…
Wow, I’m kinda surprised that the brother of the most infamous genocidal maniac in history would be considered “the black sheep of the family.”
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