Paula Hitler

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Paula Hitler. Drawing

Paula Hitler (January 21, 1896 – June 1, 1960) was the younger sister of Adolf Hitler and the last child of Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Paula was born in Hafeld, Austria, and was the only full sibling of Adolf Hitler to survive into adulthood.

1 Life
2 Paula's attitude to Nazism
3 Diary
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Life

Paula worked as a secretary in a military hospital until the end of the Second World War, was arrested by US Intelligence officers in May 1945, and debriefed beginning later that year. Paula said she could not bring herself to believe her brother had been responsible for the Holocaust but agents ignored this as a sisterly expression of loyalty. Paula was released from US custody and returned to Vienna where she worked in an arts and crafts shop. In 1952 she moved to Berchtesgaden, Germany, reportedly living in seclusion in a two-room flat.

In February 1959 she agreed to give an interview to Peter Morley, a documentary producer for British television station Associated-Rediffusion, which was broadcast as part of a programme called Tyranny: The Years of Adolf Hitler. She talked mostly about Hitler's childhood. This was the only filmed interview she ever gave before her death on June 1, 1960 at the age of 64. Paula neither married nor had children.

Paula was buried in the Bergfriedhof in Berchtesgaden/Schönau in 1960 under the name Paula Hitler. In June 2005 the wooden grave marker and remains were reportedly removed and replaced with another burial, which is common practice in German cemeteries after two or more decades have elapsed. In May 2006 however, it was reported on Geoff Walden's website Third Reich in Ruins that Paula's grave marker has been returned to her grave. Today a second and smaller grave marker has been added to the grave and it says a certain Cornelia Reif (02.03.1925 – 03.06.2005) has been buried in the same grave as well.^[1]

[edit] Paula's attitude to Nazism

There is some evidence that Paula shared her brother's strong German nationalist beliefs, but she was not politically active. However, according to the German historian Florial Beierl, Paula was engaged during the war to Erwin Jekelius, who was responsible for gassing 4,000 people in Austria. Jekelius apparently travelled to Berlin to ask Hitler for his sister's hand, and was promptly sent to the Eastern front. According to Beierl, "Up to this point, Paula Hitler had an essentially clean slate. However, the impression of her being a poorly informed and a somewhat aloof individual had clearly shifted. In my opinion, the fact that she was to marry one of Austria's worst war-criminals clearly implicates her in having knowledge of the gas chamber method of political and religious executions." Beierl's co-author Timothy Ryback added: "To me, discovering that Paula was going to marry Jekelius is one of the most astonishing revelations of my career. She bought into the whole thing -- hook, line and sinker.^[2]

[edit] Diary

In August 2005 the two historians (Timothy Ryback and Florian Beierl) announced they had found, at an undisclosed location in Germany, a diary written by Paula Hitler. Its provenance had not yet been confirmed by public peer review. The typewritten document (which is said to date from her childhood) reportedly describes instances of abuse by her older brother Adolf.