Uncle Adolf

Here's something I didn't know, even though I lived in and around New York City for 16 years: Adolf Hitler had a nephew living on Long Island.

"The visitor asked the landscaper about his father, who was born William Patrick Hitler, son of Alois Hitler Jr., who was Adolf Hitler's half-brother (they shared the same father). Alois called his son Willy. The Führer called Willy "my loathsome nephew."

Willy Hitler was born in 1911 in Liverpool, and in his early years occasionally sought to take advantage of his last name, in England, Germany and then America, where he moved in 1939. After World War II, though, he decided to change the name and moved from New York City out to Patchogue on Long Island. He raised four sons — Alexander, Louis, Howard and Brian — before he died in 1987 at age 76.

Howard died in a car accident in 1989. The other brothers continued low-profile jobs, Alexander as a social worker, Louis and Brian with their own landscaping business. They are regular Long Island guys, middle-aged and middle class, two of them living together. They are also the last members of Adolf Hitler's paternal bloodline.

Now an off-Broadway play about the "loathsome nephew" - Little Willy - has opened to mixed reviews.

Hitler himself was woefully ignorant about America and would have done well to visit his Long Island relatives.  I recently read the memoirs of Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, the Harvard-educated advisor to Hitler who tried in vain to educate Hitler on the importance of America.  According to Hanfstaengl's account in "Unheard Witness" Hitler ignored his advice, preferring to believe the assessment of his "court philosopher" Alfred Rosenberg that America was "controlled by the Jews". 

Hitler

Comments

[A]

How could that guy's name be Hitler and not Schicklgruber then ???

[David]

Here is the explanation from Wikipedia:
"Adolf's father Alois was born out of wedlock and used his mother's surname, Schicklgruber, until he was 40. In 1896, he began using the name of his stepfather, Johann Georg Hiedler, after visiting a priest responsible for birth registries and declaring that Georg was his father (Alois gave the impression that Georg was still alive but he was long dead). The spelling was probably changed to "Hitler" by a clerk. Later, Adolf Hitler was accused by his political enemies of not rightfully being a Hitler, but a Schicklgruber. This was also exploited in Allied propaganda during the Second World War when pamphlets bearing the phrase "Heil Schicklgruber" were airdropped over German cities.[citation needed] Adolf was legally born a Hitler, however, and was also closely related to Hiedler through his maternal grandmother, Johanna Hiedler."

[A]

I see :)

In my opinion it's really fascinating how these men of utmost mediocricity time and time again can become the eye of history's storms.