Nazikinder, Paula Hitler, & other relatives.

"In the autumn of 1947 she travelled to Bielefeld and applied for admission to the town's fashion and design school.
'What's you name?'
'Gudrun Himmler.'
'Your father's profession?'
'My father was the Reichsführer-SS...' "

That's an excerpt from another gem I discovered at the local library, My Father's Keeper by Stephan and Norbert Lebert, original title Du Denn Trägst Meinen Namen.

In 1959, German journalist Norbert Lebert conducted interviews with sons and daughters of several prominent Nazis. Forty years later, his son Stephen set out to contact these same people to discover what had become of them, and how their lives had progressed. His book juxtaposes the two sets of interviews.

This is a fascinating and informative work about what it is like to go through life with the name Wolf-Rüdiger Hess, Edda Göring, Niklas Frank, Martin Borman Jr., Gudrun Himmler, or Robert von Schirach.

JT

 

Fascinating work...interesting to compare Frank's son, who hates his Nazi dad, with Hess's son, who worships him.

 

Hmm, did I understand correctly that she died in 1960?

 

Adam,

There was a program on one of the history channels quite a while back about some of his ralatives (some cousins of somesort IIRC) who lived in USA, I think they had decided amongst themselves not to have children. I can't remember their exact connection to Hitler. The program also stated he spent some time in Liverpool visiting a relative - again I can't remember who

Steve

 

Fascinating stuff, Adam. The link to the site about his sister was fascinating. I had no idea she was buried at Berchtesgaden.

 

found this link

 

PAULA HITLER
Born in 1896 in Hartfeld, Austria, younger sister of the German Führer and the fifth and last child of Alios and Klara Hitler. At one time she worked as a secretary for a group of doctors in a military hospital but kept her identity a secret. When she would see a small chapel when travelling in the mountains, she would go in and say a silent prayer for her brother. Each year Hitler would send her a ticket to the impressive Nuremberg Rally. In March, 1941, Hitler was staying at the Imperial Hotel in Vienna and it was here that Paula met him for the last time. It was always her opinion that it was a pity her brother had not become the architect he always wanted to be. Paula was seven years younger than her brother, but he never mentioned her in his writings because of his embarrassment at her weak mental state.
Until the last weeks of the war, Paula Hitler lived in Vienna where she worked in an arts and craft shop and when the war ended was interviewed by US Intelligence officers in May, 1945. Reluctant to talk she said tearfully, "Please remember, he was my brother". She lived under the name of Frau Wolf (Hitler's nickname) a name he asked her to adopt after the Anschluss with Austria in 1938. After the war, it was discovered that she was once engaged to an Austrian, Dr. Erwin Jekelius, one of the Third Reich's euthanasia doctors, but when he approached Hitler for permission to marry he was promptly arrested and sent to the Russian front where he was reportedly killed. Paula lived unmarried in a two bedroom flat near Berchtesgaden, her main interest being the Catholic Church. She died on June 1, 1960 without ever being invited to the Berghof. Her grave is in the Bergfriedhof in Berchtesgaden.

 

I seem to remember that a lot of Germans and Austrians with the surname of Hitler changed it after the war. Wasnt the most fashionable name to have post WWII.

 

Adam, I'm not sure if you are serious about this. White pages is a common phrase in the US, denoting the section of the phone book that has individual's phone numbers, as opposed to the yellow pages, the section that has pages that are purchased ads for buisnesses.

 

I've been rattled since my snafu yesterday, Adam. I am sure you understand.

 

I think I watched a programme recently , which related that the invading Russians were told to seek out Hitler cousins in Austria and the adults were sent to the Gulags . Did anyone else see this ?
Beryl Bainbridge wrote a novel called "Young Adolf" , set in Liverpool . It suggests that Adolf may have spent some "missing" months with his half brother's family in Liverpool .

 

i know of a franz goering,who is a member of the german national cross country skiing team.he did very well in this years tour-de-ski.i cannot find anything about his family though.who cares if he is related to the man himself anyway,he is a very nice young guy.yours.4th wilts.

 

This is off Adam's topic, since it concerns children of prominent nazis, but here's the link.

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/books-movies/9629-nazikinder.html

JT

 

Agreed. I've read it too and its a good read.