“Secrets of the Fuhrer’s Family: What Hitler’s Relatives Were Really Doing During WWII”
It was the winter of 1910. At a horse show in Dublin, Ireland, Bridget Elizabeth Dowling met a young, strapping Austrian waiter named Alois Hitler, Jr. The two entered into a passionate courtship, despite the disapproval of Bridget’s father, William. The lovebirds eloped to London, where they married on June 3, 1910, infuriating Mr Dowling. The father of the bride even tried to have Alois Jr arrested for kidnapping, but somehow he came to accept his son-in-law by 1911.
On March 12 of that year, Bridget gave birth to a boy, William Patrick Hitler. Two years later, however, the toddler found himself fatherless, as Alois Jr dumped Bridget and relocated to Germany. As mentioned earlier, he would remarry in 1916, siring Heinz. This second marriage made him a bigamist, by the way, as he had never legally separated from Bridget.
As per Bridget and William Patrick, they went through a rather long, rough patch, as mum took on several odd jobs in Liverpool, trying to make ends meet.
The boy was educated as an accountant, first in Liverpool, then in Middlesex, and by 1927 he was hired by catering equipment company Benhan & Son in London. In 1928 William Patrick resumed contact with his father, and in 1929 visited him in Germany. On this occasion, Alois Jr took William to Nuremberg, where the two attended a congress of the Nazi Party – not yet in power, but very much on the rise.
This is when William first saw his half-uncle Adolf, but the two met in person only in 1930. The relationship between the two was cordial at first, and William returned to London with an autographed photo of the future Fuehrer.
