In the meantime, let’s turn our attention to the conspiracy over Hitler’s alleged Jewish heritage.
The claim that Hitler had Jewish blood was credited by his lawyer Hans Frank, who was executed for war crimes in 1946. In his posthumously published memoirs, the lawyer claimed that Hitler asked him to probing his ancestry for any Jewish connections after a nephew threatened to expose Hitler’s Jewish blood, at a time of the Führer’s meteoric rise. Frank claimed to have found evidence that Hitler’s paternal grandfather was Jewish, but many have poked holes in that claim since.
The mystery really surrounds Hitler’s paternal grandmother, Maria Anna Schicklgruber, who had a child out of wedlock. Alois Hitler, father of
Frank claimed that the Frankenbergers paid alimony to the mother until the child reached the age of 14, which he verified through exchanges of letters between Hitler’s grandmother and the Frankerberger.
Furthermore, the threatening letters allegedly received by Hitler from his nephew have also never been found.
Hitler got his surname from a certain Johann Georg Hiedler, whom his grandmother married five years after giving birth to her illegitimate son. Alois Hitler was adopted by Johann’s brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler after his mother’s death in 1847.
Frank said Hitler claimed his paternal grandfather was not Jewish but that his grandmother and the man she later married (according to Hitler, her biological grandfather) lied to employers Jews saying that the son was theirs to receive alimony since the family was poor. .
Hitler said he heard this from his grandmother and father. But he couldn’t have heard that from his grandmother who died before he was born, taking with her the secret of his ancestors to the grave.
What if Hitler was part Jewish? These unproven rumors gained momentum during World War II. Some say it was started by the Nazis to “explain their defeat”. Others say Hitler persecuted and killed millions of Jews because he was ashamed of his lineage.
However, these conspiracy theories are viewed with skepticism by mainstream historians.