Heinz Hitler

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Heinz Hitler

Heinrich Hitler (nickname Heinz) (born March 14, 1920,^[1]died 1942) was the son of Alois Hitler, Jr. and his second wife Hedwig Heidemann and the nephew of German dictator Adolf Hitler. When World War II started he joined the Wehrmacht and served on the eastern front, where he was captured and died in prison in 1942.

Unlike his half-brother William Patrick Hitler, whom Adolf reportedly called "my loathsome nephew", Heinz was a strong Nazi and his uncle's favorite. He attended an elite Nazi military academy, the National Political Institutes of Education (Napola) in Ballenstedt/Saxony-Anhalt^[2]. Aspiring to be an officer, Heinz joined the Wehrmacht as a signals NCO with the 23rd Potsdamer Artillery Regiment in 1941, and he participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. On January 10, 1942, he was sent to recover communications equipment from a forward position. This was one of the things that worried Adolf Hitler, who did not want his nephew to serve on the front line because of the risk of death. Heinz never returned. He was captured and sent to the Moscow military prison Butyrka, where he died in captivity after several months of interrogation and torture. ^[3]

[edit] Literature:

"De jeugd van Adolf Hitler 1889-1907 en zijn familie en voorouders" by Marc Vermeeren. Soesterberg, 2007, 420 blz. Uitgeverij Aspekt, ISBN 90-5911-606-2
Oliver Halmburger und Thomas Staehler: Familie Hitler. Im Schatten des Diktators. Dokumentarfilm. Unter Mitarbeit von Timothy Ryback u. Florian Beierl. München: Oliver Halmburger Loopfilm GmBH u. Mainz: ZDF-History 2005.