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Hitler Jewish?
Question
hello! i am a ninth grader and i have been reasearching the holocaust for three years now and i am very interested in it. i have a question. my english teacher told me that Hitlers grandmother was Jewish and i was wondering if he did to her what he did to her what he did to the other jewish people. thank you very much
Harry W. Mazal OBE answers:
I am one of the persons who responds to questions about the Holocaust. It is possible that you will receive answers from my other colleagues too.
Hitler's grandmother was not Jewish.
There are some rumors hinting that Hitler's grandfather was Jewish. Few, if any, of the reputable historians on the Holocaust believe that this is so. It is more likely that Hitler tried to keep the murky history of his family quite secret because there was a high incidence of insanity and feeble-mindedness in his ancestors.
Rumors die hard, though.
One of Hitler's henchmen, Hans Frank, declared during the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-46, that Hitler's grandmother had worked in the town of Graz as a servant in the home of a Jewish family named Frankenberger. He further claimed that she was seduced by the head of the household and that Hitler's grandfather was the result of that liaison.
A subsequent analysis of Frank's statement by Simon Wiesenthal disclosed that there was no evidence of any Jewish family named Frankenberger ever living in Graz. What is more, Jews had been driven out of Graz in the 15th century and had not been allowed to return until 1856, nearly twenty years after Hitler's grandfather had been born.
Hitler's grandmother's maiden name was Schickelgruber. There is considerable evidence that this family produced abnormal progeny. Examples are: one of Hitler's relatives through his mother's side committed suicide in 1920, another, Aloisha had been placed in an insane asylum, another was "feeble-minded," and yet another was retarded.
According to the article from which I am quoting this material:
"Hitler's real fear, then, was not that someone would discover that he has a Jewish grandfather, but that it would someday come to light that he carried a hereditary disposition toward mental illness and retardation."
You might ask your English teacher to go to a good library and see the following article:
"Hitler's Family Secret: A file recovered from the Nazi Archives tells of a Gestapo investigation into the Fuehrer's murky family history."
By: Ben S. Swearingen
Civilization: The Magazine of the Library of Congress Volume 2, Number 2, Arcg/April 1995, pp. 54-55
Richard J. Green adds a comment:
Ron Rosenbaum's book Explaining Hitler contains a thorough discussion of many of the theories regarding Hitler's lineage.
Question:
I realize that Harry Mazal OBE has addressed this question. But here's this:Hitler's father, Alois, was the 'illegitimate' son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber-she refused to name the father. This has led to much speculation, but the reality is that we have no certainty as to the father. Thus, Hitler was unable to produce the certificate of origin he required of every German citizen on hazard of death. The various rumours suggest as father of Alois: a Jew called Frankenberger, Johann Nepomuk Hüttler[1a], or one Trummelschlager who acted as godfather. Illegitimacy was widespread in the Waldviertel, now estimated at about 40%. The most persistent rumour is that his father was a Jew, possibly an itinerant trader, at Graz. What little evidence there is, supports that rumour. (From http://www.abelard.org/hitler/hitler.htm#introduction.)
I am a 47 year old Jew. I would hate to think that this is true. It is terrible enough to know what awful things were done to us without having to think that we did it to ourselves.
Of course, even knowing that people of Christian heritage doesn't avoid the irony - only removes it by a few thousand years: The first Christians were Jewish and it was the Jews who originally created the religion.
Gord McFee answers:
***, this question has been asked many times before. I can understand your feelings on this issue. The best research I have seen on the issue is by Werner Maser in his book _Hitler: Legend, Myth & Reality_. After exhaustive research, he concludes very convincingly that Hitler was *not* part Jewish. Check out chapter 1 of the book if you want all the details.
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