“Secrets of the Fuhrer’s Family: What Hitler’s Relatives Were Really Doing During WWII”
In any event, Alois Jr, a rather colourful character as we’ll discuss shortly, married twice. His first marriage was with an Irish woman, Bridget Dowling, in June 1910. They had one son, William Patrick, born on March 12, 1911, who arguably has the most interesting story of all the close relations. Alois Jr later re-married, this time to a woman named Hedwig Heidemann in 1916, welcoming another boy, Heinrich, or ‘Heinz’, born on March 14, 1920.
Angela Hitler, sister to Alois Jr, and half-sister to Adolf, perpetuated what appeared to be a family tradition, and also married multiple times. In September 1903 she tied the knot with Leo Raubal, and the couple welcomed three children: Leo Jr, in October 1906; Angela Maria, known as ‘Geli’, in June 1908; and Elfriede, in January 1910. In August of that year, Leo Sr died unexpectedly, and Angela waited 26 years before remarrying with Martin Hammitzsch, but the two would not have any more children.
Thus, to recap, when WWII started, Adolf Hitler had seven living extremely close relatives: Sister Paula; Half-siblings Alois Jr and Angela; Half-nephews William Patrick, Leo and Heinz; And half-niece Elfriede. Noteworthy, Elfriede’s sister, Geli, who Hitler was allegedly in love with, had committed suicide under mysterious circumstances in 1931 during her quasi-imprisonment in Hitler’s home. We will get to all that later. For the moment, let’s take a look at those relatives who took an active role in WWII.
Following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland in September of 1939, and the outbreak of WWII, Hitler’s half-nephews were all of the right age to serve in the military – and serve they did, albeit not all on the same side …
