Years before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, rumors circulated all over Europe that Hitler was secretly Jewish, but could that be true? In order to answer this question, you need to understand how the Nazis defined their terms. The Nazis believed that there are 2 pure races in the world, Aryans and Jews, and that everyone else in the world is of mixed race. The Nazis were never able to identify Jews or Aryans by physical characteristics so the only way you could prove that you were an Aryan in Nazi Germany was by obtaining an Aryan Certificate. In order to get an Aryan Certificate, a person had to fill out a form stating the names of his parents and grandparents and certify that none of them were Jewish. However, Adolf Hitler couldn’t do that. He didn’t know the name of one of his grandparents. Adolf Hitler’s father, Alois, was born out of wedlock, and his mother, Maria Schiklgruber, refused to name the father. At the time Maria Schiklgruber became pregnant, she was working as a housemaid in the home of a wealthy Jewish merchant named Frankenberger. He had 2 sons living in the house with him and with her. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what the rumors were around town. Adolf Hitler was very aware of the fact that a lot of people suspected he was Jewish, and when he came to power, he took actions designed to squash the rumors. Hitler had family records destroyed. He had people who knew his father murdered, and he had a provision put in the Aryan Race Law stating that there were 2 people, and only 2 people, who were ‘indisputably Aryan’ and were therefore exempt from the requirements of the Aryan Race Law – himself and Jesus Christ. (How could Hitler prove that Jesus didn’t have any Jewish ancestors?) In 2010, 2 Belgian journalists collected saliva samples from 39 of Adolf Hitler’s known living relatives and had their DNA tested. It showed that the Hitler family haplogroup is rare in Western Europe but common among Sephardic Jews in North Africa. That didn’t prove that Adolf Hitler was Jewish, but it did add to people’s suspicions.

Willie Hitler. This guy has always fascinated me. William Patrick Hitler was Adolf Hitler’s nephew. Most people were so afraid of Adolf Hitler that they didn’t dare say anything that might offend him, but Willie told everybody that he thought Naziism was evil, including ‘Uncle Adolf.’ Willie was born in England and had a British passport. He was, therefore, under the protection of the British government. After having dinner with Willie, Adolf Hitler told Herman Goering that he would rather have several teeth pulled without anesthesia rather than have dinner with Willie again. Willie Hitler sent several blackmail letters addressed to ‘Dear Uncle Adolf.’ Willie repeatedly asked ‘Uncle Adolf’ to help him get a good-paying job in Germany. That would have been very easy for Adolf Hitler to do. Willie stated in his letters that if ‘Uncle Adolf’ didn’t help him, Willie would be forced to sell a story to a London tabloid revealing some family secret. We don’t know what that secret was, but Willie knew all about the Frankenbergers. Willie moved to the United States just before the start of World War 2. Upon arriving in the U.S., Willie traveled around the country giving anti-Nazi lectures. After Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States, Willie tried to join the U.S. Navy. A suspicious recruiting officer asked Willie: “Isn’t your uncle Adolf Hitler?” When Willie said: “Yes, he is”, his application was immediately stamped ‘Rejected.’ After making a personal appeal to President Franklin Roosevelt, Willie was allowed to join the navy. He won a purple heart. After the war, Willie had 3 children. They live on Long Island under assumed names. Understandably, none of them want their neighbors to know that their real name is ‘Hitler.’