Hitler’s grandfather was JEWISH, claims historian who says Nazi sympathisers scrubbed his real ancestry from public records
- Dr. Leonard Sax claims that Hitler’s grandfather was a Jewish living in Austria
- He claims evidence suggests there was a Jewish settlement before 1850
- Historian claims German author tried to rewrite history and favoured the Nazis
A historian has claimed Hitler’s grandfather was Jewish after Nazi sympathisers scrubbed his real ancestry from public records.
Dr. Leonard Sax presented evidence that Hitler’s grandmother, who refused to reveal her lover’s identity, conceived her only child with a Jew living in Graz, Austria.
Hitler’s Jewish ancestry was first put forward by Hans Frank, Hitler’s personal attorney, who uncovered evidence in 1930 that the Nazi leader’s grandfather lived in the household where his grandmother worked.
Dr. Leonard Sax has presented evidence that Hitler’s grandmother, who refused to reveal her lover’s identity, conceived her only child Alois (pictured) with a Jew living in Graz, Austria
Published seven years after his execution at International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, many have since dismissed Frank’s findings.
Nikolaus von Preradovich, a famous German author, even found evidence to suggest there were no Jews living in Graz in 1836, when Hitler’s father Alois Schicklgruber was conceived.
But Dr. Sax has drawn from Austrian archives from the 1800s and uncovered documents to prove there was in fact a settled community of Jews living in Graz before 1850.
And he also presents overwhelming evidence that Preradovich was a Nazi sympathizer who was offended by the suggestion that Hitler was one-quarter Jewish.
Hitler’s grandmother Maria Anna Schicklgruber, who gave birth to his father Alois, was a poor peasant child who lived in a rural area, in the northwest part of Austria
Dr Sax told MailOnline: ‘I have been thinking about the fact that neo-Nazis are offended by the suggestion that Hitler had a Jewish grandfather, because they hate Jews.
‘Jews are often offended by the suggestion that Hitler had a Jewish grandfather, because they hate Hitler.
‘But now, as nearly a lifetime has passed since the end of the Third Reich, maybe we are free at last to ask – not what is offensive, or what is not offensive – but what is true? And what does it mean for our understanding of Adolf Hitler, and the Holocaust?’
In 1931, Hitler ordered his political party Schutzstaffel (SS) to investigated the alleged rumours who found no evidence he had Jewish links
Hitler’s grandmother Maria Anna Schicklgruber, who gave birth to his father Alois, was a poor peasant who lived in a rural area, in the northwest part of Austria.
Not much is known about her life until she reached the age of 42, when she gave birth to Hitler’s father while still unmarried.
Historians note that she refused to reveal the identity of the father and so ‘illegitimate’ was entered into the baptismal register.
She went on to marry Johann Georg Hiedler, who later went on to be officially accepted as Alois’ father by the Third Reich.
Hitler’s ancestry came into question when opponents spread rumours that his grandfather was Jewish – since for the Nazis a ‘pure’ bloodline was all-important.
In 1931, Hitler ordered his political party Schutzstaffel (SS) to investigated the alleged rumours who found no evidence he had Jewish links.
Hitler then ordered genealogist Rudolf Koppensteiner to publish a detailed family tree of his ancestry in 1937 which showed that his ancestors were all Austrian Germans.
As Johann Georg Hiedler was legitimised as his biological father with the priest changing the ‘illegitimate’ on the birth certificate to his name in 1876, this was considered certified proof of Hitler’s ancestry.
Dr. Sax’s findings, Revisiting the question of Adolf Hitler’s paternal grandfather, is published in the Journal of European Studies.