William Patrick Hitler
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William Patrick Hitler (March 12, 1911–November 1987), nicknamed Willie, was the nephew of Adolf Hitler. He was the son of Alois Hitler, Jr., Adolf's half-brother. Alois had moved to Dublin, met an Irish girl, Bridget Dowling, and eloped to Liverpool where William Patrick was born in 1911. Alois soon abandoned the family to return to Germany leaving William Patrick to be raised by his mother.
Alois remarried, bigamously, but re-established contact in the mid-1920s writing to Bridget asking her to send William Patrick to Germany to visit. She finally agreed in 1929 and William Patrick went to Germany at the age of 18 to visit his estranged father.
In 1933, William Patrick Hitler returned to Germany in an attempt to benefit from his uncle's rise to power. His uncle found him a job in a bank. Later, he worked at the Opel car factory and then as a car salesman. Unsatisfied, William Patrick persisted in asking his uncle for a better job and there were rumours that he might sell embarrassing stories about the family to the press if he wasn't satisfied.
In 1938, William Patrick was asked by Hitler to relinquish his British citizenship in exchange for a high ranking job. Fearing a trap, William Patrick panicked and fled Germany. Returning to London he wrote an article for Look magazine titled "Why I hate my uncle".
In 1939, William Patrick and his mother went to the United States on a lecture tour on the invitation of William Randolph Hearst. The Hitlers were stranded in the United States once World War II broke out. Hitler joined the United States Navy in 1944. A coincidence resulted in a comical scene when he went to the draft office. William Patrick introduced himself to a recruiting officer who replied "Glad to see you Hitler, my name's Hess."
Hitler served in the US Navy and the Naval Medical Corps before being discharged in 1947. After leaving the service he changed his last name, married, moved to Long Island and had four sons. He used his medical training to establish a business analysing blood samples for hospitals.
However, despite his disavowal of his uncle's ideology, there are some puzzles in what is known of Hitler's life. According to a BBC documentary, not only did William Patrick give his eldest son the middle name of Adolf, the last name William Patrick adopted is reported by Gardner to be a "double barrelled" name similiar to that of famous British anti-Semitic ideologue Houston Stewart Chamberlain.
Another of his four sons, Howard, died in an automobile accident in the 1980s without having had any children. The three remaining great-nephews of Adolf Hitler have vowed not to have children, meaning that the Hitler family line will die with them.
Gardner has promised not to reveal either the town where they live or the name that the family has assumed.
External links
- Getting to know the Hitlers (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/20/whit20.xml) from the Daily Telegraph.
- Author talks about 'the Last of the Hitlers' (http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/02/05/last.hitlers.cnna/) CNN interview.
- The Last of the Hitlers (http://www.suntimes.co.za/1998/10/18/news/news03.htm) by David Gardner.
See also
David Gardner, The Last of the Hitlers, BMM, 2001, ISBN 0-9541544-0-1de:William Patrick Hitler el:Γουίλιαμ Πάτρικ Χίτλερ fa:ویلیام پاتریک هیتلر nl:William Patrick Hitler