Paula Hitler

Paula Hitler
Paula Hitler after WWII; She was eleven when her mother Klara Hitler died, after which the Austrian government provided a small pension to Paula and Adolf. However, the amount was relatively meager and Adolf, who was by then old enough to support himself, agreed to sign his share over to her. Later, as her brother moved to Vienna and later to the Kingdom of Bavaria (German Empire), they had relatively little contact, but she received some financial support from him. She was not politically active and never joined the NSDAP. She volunteered as a secretary in a military hospital (Lazarett) for much of World War II. After the war, Paula said that she would never believe that her brother had been responsible for the Holocaust.
Born	21 January 1896(1896-01-21) Hafeld in Fischlham municipality, Austria
Died	1 June 1960 (aged 64) Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, West Germany
Resting place	Bergfriedhof (Berchtesgaden)
Nationality	Austrian German
Other names	Frau Paula Wolff
Religion	Catholicism
Parents	Alois Hitler Klara Hitler
Relatives	Adolf Hitler (brother)

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

Biography

Paula Hitler was born on the 21st January 1896 and died on the 1st of June 1960. At the time of her various interviews with the US intelligence services she was in possession of a passport with the date of 21st November 1896 as her birth date (see interview dated 5th June 1946) however the first date is more accepted. She was born at Rauschergut in Hartfeld, Gemeinde Fischelham (upper Austria).

Paula was the younger sister of Adolf Hitler and the last child of Alois Hitler and his third wife Klara Pölzl. Paula was born in Hartfeld, Austria and was the only full sibling of Adolf Hitler to survive infancy after their brother Edmund died of measles in February 1900 (there is some confusion over the exact date, but the 2nd seems likely).

After their mother died, Hitler turned over his share of their orphans pension to Paula when he went to Vienna to study art. Apparently, Paula lived with her half-sister Angela throughout childhood, but details are very sketchy. She did not see Adolf between 1908 and 1921, when he arranged to meet her in Vienna and to her delight, took her shopping.

Paula worked for an insurance company in Vienna until she was sacked for no other reason that the boss of the company disapproved of her brother's political activity in Germany. Paula appealed to Adolf for help and he provided her with a monthly income and a larger sum each Christmas.

Paula did work for some time as a hospital secretary, but eventually gave the job up because she found the work too difficult (It is unknown if was for medical reasons or not).

She took the name Wolf (or Wolff) at her brother's insistence and it is interesting to note the Adolf himself used the name Wolf to denote his various headquarters throughout the war years: The Wolf's Gorge and Wolf's Lair.

Paula never married (although, apparently, she had planned to do with Erwin Jekelius) or had children and died of natural caused on the 1st of June 1960 and was buried in the Bergfriedhof in Berchtesgaden under the name of Paula Hitler.

Paula's original grave

Paula's grave

Paula Hitler (Wolf) is buried in the Bergfriedhof (Mountain cemetery) in Berchtesgaden. During early-to-mid June 2005 the grave marker disappeared and there was concern as to the fate of Paula's body and the future use of the grave plot itself. There was a suspicion that she had been moved as a result of increasing numbers of visitors being attracted to the site of her grave and that this was distasteful to both the citizens of Berchtesgaden and cemetery staff. The local tourist office in Berchtesgaden and Geoff Walden (who runs The Third Reich in Ruins website), both, have confirmed that the grave marker is now back in position and Paula has not been disturbed. The explanation for the disappearance is that another body was being buried and the marker was temporarily moved.

Her opinion about Adolf Hitler

Sir - do not forget one thing! Your name will be long disintegrated with your corpse - forget and decayed - while the name Adolf Hitler will still shine and blaze! You cannot kill him with your liquid manure tubs, neither strangle him with your ink-daubed, greasy fingers - you can not extinguish his name from hundred thousand souls - to that you are very small and too small!

Where he has loved... it happened around Germany. Where he has fought... it happened around Germany. Where he has been absent... it happened around Germany, and if he argued about honour and respect, it was around German honour and German respect...

And what did you give up to now? And who of you wanted to give his life for Germany? You have had before your eyes always only the power and the wealth, the pleasure, the food and the gluttony - a marvellous life without responsibility - if you have thought of Germany!

Count on it, sir - alone the pure, unselfish thinking and action of the leader is enough for the immortality!

The fact that his fanatical struggle for Germany was not successful, as for example Cromwells struggle once in Britain - also this maybe lies in the mentality, because the Briton does not forget with all slope to the vanity, to envy and to the recklessness - still to be an Englishman, and the loyalty to his crown lies to him in the blood - while the German is everything, only not primarily German in his desire for being successful. Thus you small souls do not care, if the whole nation goes to ruins. Your leading idea is not: Common good goes before self-interest, but always only vice versa! And with this idea you want to prevent the immortality of a greater man?

What I wrote down in the first postwar years, is still valid in 1957 and confirms the correctness of my conviction .

Interviews

Transcript of Interview on 12th July 1945

Headquarters 101st Airborne Division.

101st CIS Detachment

APO 472, U.S. Army

12 July 1945 (this is the normal date order for documents prepared within the US Military)

Memorandum for the Officer in Charge.

Subject: Interrogation of Frau Paula Wolff (Frl. Paula Hitler) (her name was spelled Wolf in the interview of 5th June 1946)

I was born at the estate of my father in Hartfeld, Austria, in 1896. My father was 60 years old at the time of my birth. He died when I was 6. I know nothing of my father's family. My brother and I spent little of our time together, as he was 7 years older. He attended the Realschule in Styria and spent only his vacations at home. The death of my mother left a deep impression on Adolf and myself. We were both very much attached to her. Our mother dies in 1907 and Adolf never returned home after that.

Since I was so much younger than my brother he never considered me a playmate. He played a leading role among his early companions. His was favourite game was cops and robbers, and that sort of thing. He had a lot of companions. I could not say what took place in their games, as I was never present. Adolf as a child always came home too late. He got a spanking every night for not coming home on time.

After my brother finished school he went to Vienna. He wanted to go to the Academy and become a painter, but nothing came of it. My mother was very sick at the time. She was very attached to Adolf and wanted him to stay home. That's why he stayed. He left the house after her death in 1907. I never saw him from 1908 until 1921. I have no idea what he did at this time. I did not even know if he was still alive.

He first visited me in 1921. I told him that it would have been much easier for me if I had had a brother. He said: "I had nothing myself. How could I have helped you? I did not let you know about myself because I could not have helped you." Since my father was an official we received a pension of 50 Kronen. This should have been divide between Adolf and myself. I could have done nothing with 25 Kronen. My guardian knew that Adolf supported himself in Vienna as a labourer. Adolf was interviewed and renounced his half in my favour. Since I attended the Higher Girls' School the money came in handy. I wrote him a letter in 1910 or 1911, but he never answered.

I never had any particularly artistic interests. I could draw rather well and learned easily. My brother was very good in some subjects and very weak in others. He was the weakest in mathematics and, as far as I can remember, in physics, also his failure in mathematics worried my mother. He loved music. He preferred Wagner even then. Wagner was always his favourite.

My brother came to Vienna in 1921 for the express purpose of seeing me. I did not recognise him at first when he walked into the house. I was so surprised that I could only stare at him. It was if a brother had fallen from heaven. I was already used to being alone in this world. He was very charming at the time. What made the biggest impression on me was the fact he went shopping with me. Every woman loves to shop.

I did not see him regularly. About a year later he visited me again. We went to our parents' grave near Linz. He wanted to go there. Then we separated, he going to Munich, and I go to Linz. I visited him in Munich in 1923. This was before 9 November (the date of the Beer Hall Putsch). He still looked the same to me. His political activities had not changed him. The next time I saw him was in the Dirsch Strasse in Munich. The only person that I met amongst his political friends was Schwarz, treasurer of the party. The next time I saw him was on the Nuremberg Party Day. I received my tickets like any other person.

(At this point the interrogator said: "We found some of your brother's letters to you. They are very short. A lady who worked with him once said that he had absolutely no family sense.") There is something to that. I think he inherited that from our father. He did not care for our relatives either. Only the relatives on our mother's side were close to use. The Schmieds and the Koppensteins are our dear relatives, especially a cousin Schmied who married a Koppenstein. I know no one of my father's family. My sister Angela and I often said: "Father must have some relatives, but we don’t even know them." I myself have a family sense. I like my relatives from the Waldviertel, the Schmieds and the Koppensteins. I usually wrote my brother a birthday letter, and then he wrote a short note, and sent a package. This would contain Spanish ham, flour, sugar, or something like that that had been given to him for his birthday.

I did not see my half-sister Mrs. Angela Hamitzson very often. She lived in Dresden. She had her husband and children and was happily married. I spent the last few days before the arrival of the Americans with her, as she was also in the Berchtesgadener Hof.

During the party day in Nuremberg my brother received me in his hotel the Deutscher Hof. He wrote me very rarely, as he was "writing lazy". He wrote only a few words, and only once a year.

From 1929 on I saw him once a year until 1941. We met once in Munich, Once in Berlin, and once in Vienna. I met him in Vienna after 1938. His rapid rise in the world worried me. I must honestly confess that I would have preferred it if he had followed his original ambition and become an architect. (The interrogator interrupted to say that this was the most classical statement that she would ever say.) It would have saved the world a lot of worries.

My brother did not live on a special diet in his youth. Our mother would never have permitted that. He never cared much about meat. I suppose that later he became a vegetarian because of his stomach ailment.

The first time that my brother suggested my changing my name was at the Olympic Games in Garmisch. He wanted me to live under the name of "Wolff", and maintain the strictest incognito. That was sufficient for me. From then on I kept this name. I added the "Mrs." as I thought that less conspicuous. I was ordered to remain incognito also when I was moved from my home in Austria to the Berchtesgadener Hof.

I lost my job in a Viennese insurance company in 1930 when it became known who my brother was. From that time until the Anschluss he gave me a monthly pension of 250 Schillings. After the Anschluss he gave me 250 marks a month.

In 1940 I went to Berlin to see my brother. I was never under the observation of the Sicherheitsdienst. I could always move about freely. The criminal police once came to check on all the guests when I lived in a hotel in Munich during Mussolini's visit. Even they did not know who "Frau Wolff" was.

I am a Catholic, and the church is my biggest outside interest. My brother was also Catholic, and I don't believe that he ever left the church. I don't know for sure.

For the last few years I was employed as a typist in a hospital. My brother knew about it. He fully agreed that I should employ myself. I had to give it up later on, as it was too much for my health.

My coming to Berchtesgaden was very strange. I was in my house in Lower Austria between Vienna and Linz. I wanted to remain at home. It is very important that someone keep the vegetable garden in order, and see that everything thrives. One morning in the middle of April of this year a passenger car stood before the door. A driver entered the house and told me that he had the task of bringing me to the Obersalzberg. We were supposed to leave in two hours. I was amazed, since I had made no preparations. I said that under no circumstances could I leave in two hours. Then we agreed to drive away the next morning. I don't know who the driver was. I think the car was a Mercedes. There was also a second driver in the car. (The interrogator, who believes that the trip was arranged by Martin Borman and that Miss. Hitler was in grave danger of being killed, then asked: "That was done by Martin Borman?") I don't know about that. I knew Borman only slightly. When we were halfway to Berchtesgaden the one driver said to me that they had not reckoned on my coming along. I said: "Why did you not tell me that before? Then I would not have come along." The driver was not armed, and I have forgotten how he looked.

I saw Eva Braun only once. That was in 1934 in Nuremberg! My brother never discussed the subject with me. I have never visited my brother's place in Obersalzburg, either with him or now that the Americans are here. I was never invited.

When I arrived at the Dietrich Eckart Hutte, where Fäber of the Berchtesgadener Hof put me, no one knew who I was. I took my meals in my room, and did not talk to the people. I knew no one there. At present we are learning English. I still have to go over my vocabulary for today. I studied English at school, but have unfortunately forgotten most of it.

The personal fate of my brother affected me very much. He was still my brother, no matter what happened. His end brought unspeakable sorrow to me, as his sister. (At this point Miss. Hitler burst into tears, and the interrogation was ended) .

---

Conclusion of statement.

Reviewed: Francis E. Martini

Special Agent, CIC

Commander.

Transcript of Interview on 5th June 1946

Personality Report Berchtesgaden June 5, 1946 (Note the non-military date-order used here and throughout this document. Normally the US army follows the British date-order of Date-Month-Year in its internal documents: see the inverview of 12 July 1945

Agent: C - 1o

Case: Mrs. Paula Wolf (Paula Hitler, sister of the late Adolf Hitler)

Address: Alpenwirtschaft Vorderorand, Gemeinde Königsee (Kreis Berchtesgaden)

Particulars: Investigation ordered by Lt. Bronfen

Report: 1. Born Rauschergut, Gemeinde Fischelham, Kreis Lambach (Oberoesterreich) on November 24, 1896

2. Education: Volksschule and Lyzeum Linz

3. Party - membership before 1933: none

4. Party - membership during the Nationalsocialist regime: none

5. Party - membership today: none

6. Yesterday the undersigned was visiting Mrs. Paula Wolf in the Alpenwirtschaft Vorderbrand and got the following information from Mrs. Wolf concerning her life:

"I adopted my name Paula Wolf many years ago to avoid the interest of the public which was unwelcome to me. I am in possession of a passport with the name of Paula Wolf with the erroneously registered date of birth November 21, 1896. In fact I was born 8 months earlier. Until today I was not interested in a correction of the date of my birth, moreover it has never been necessary.

I was born at the Rauschergut in Hafeld, Gemeinde Fischelham (upper Austria), which belonged to my father, the retired Custom - House - Officer Alois Hitler. It was a small property of approximately 50 Joch (the Joch, the word means, "Yoke", was a unit of area of about an Acre in size and was derived from the amount of land an Ox could plough in a day). My parents sold the farm however when I was only 2 - 3 years old since my father could not manage the farm on account of his age of nearly 60 years. I was the youngest child out of the second marriage of my father (there is an error here as she was the youngest child of her father's third, not second marriage, the first being childless). We have been 4 brothers and sisters. Of the altogether 8 children of my father out of his first and second marriage (actually the second and third), 4 died young of infant diseases. My step - brother Alois (he was her half - brother, not step - brother), who is living in Hamburg as far as I know, was the eldest, next came my sister Angela (another error, as Angela was Paula's half - sister, and full - sister to Alois) and at last my brother Adolf, born April 20, 1889 in Braunau. I liked my brother (Adolf) best of all my brothers and sisters (again she does not differentiate between half and full kin) in spite of the difference in age.

Our father was Waldviertier (a name given to a poor area and those living there) from Lower Austria. He was frequently transferred as Custom - House - Officer, at last he was employed in Passau, Braunau and Linz and he retired in Linz, 58 years old. Probably my father married for the second time in Braunau. My mother was 23 years his junior. Also she came from Waldviertel. Her parents have been the farmers Polzl in Spital near Veitra, where my mother was born on August 12, 1860. She had six brothers and sisters. I cannot remember anything of my father's first wife.

The married life of my parents was a very happy one, in spite of their very unlike characters. My father, who was of great harshness in the education of his children and who only spoiled me as the pet of the family, was the absolute type of the old Austrian official, conservative and loyal to his emperor to the skin. My mother, however, was a very soft and tender person, the compensatory element between the almost too harsh father and the very lively children who perhaps were somewhat difficult to train. If there were ever quarrel or difference of opinion between my parents it was always on account of the children.

It was especially my brother Adolf, who challenged my father to extreme harshness and who got his sound thrashing every day. He was a scrubby little rogue, and all attempts of his father to thrash him for his rudeness and to cause him to love the profession of an official of the estate were in vain. How often on the other hand did my mother caress him and try to obtain with her kindness, were the father could not succeed with harshness!

Of my other brothers and sisters I especially remember my stepsister Angela as a beautiful girl. Also she was watched by my father very harshly. He was examining every wooer with the strict demand that only a civil servant was allowed to marry her. Really in 1903 she married the Revenue officer Leo Raubal in Linz, who died very young in 1910. After his death my sister with her 3 children went on to live in Linz for a short time. Then she removed to Vienna. Later on she married the university professor Hammitzsch in Dresden. They had no children. I visited my sister in Dresden twice, but until today I have not got any news from her. I guess that she has found a refuge somewhere in Upper Austria.

In the beginning of January 1903 my father died of heart failure. He was carried home dead from his morning pint. Four years later on December 21, 1907, far too early for me and my brother Adolf, for we were both sincerely fond of my mother, my mother died too. Both are buried on the churchyard of Leonding near Linz. During this time my mother was severely ill we were most unhappy. Assisting me, my brother Adolf spoiled my mother during this time of her life with overflowing tenderness. He was indefatigable in his care for her, wanted to comply with any desire she could possible have and did all to demonstrate his great love for her. Her last desire was accomplished; she was buried beside the father. We accompanied her on her last way from Linz to Leonding, where she was buried on December 23, 1907.

Of those last years we lived together with my mother I especially remember the cheerfulness of my brother and his extraordinary interest for history, geography, architecture, painting and music. At school he was nothing less than a show boy, came home with bad school reports and admonitions. At home every day he was sitting for hours on the beautiful Heitzmann grand piano, my mother had given him. This extraordinary interest for music, especially for Wagner and Listz, remained with him for all his life. Particularly strong was even at that time already his interest for the theatre and especially for the opera. I can remember that he was visiting the opera house 13 times to hear "Die Gotterdammerung". His Christmas present for his mother has always been a theatre ticket. He was also pursuing aquarelle - painting (watercolour painting) already during his school years, but more seriously in Vienna and later in Munich. Very often he used to give lectures on themes concerning history and policy to my mother and to me in a rhetorical way.

A few days after my mother's death my brother moved to Vienna. I remained in our flat in Linz, where my mother's sister was keeping house. In the few letters I got from my brother from Vienna - in the meantime I had become pupil of the Lyzeum - he was recommending certain books to me and gave well-meaning advice. I remember that he once sent me the book "Don Quichote" (Don Quixote) from Vienna, which - as he meant - would particularly enjoy me. Naturally he was the great brother for me, but I submitted to his authority only with inner resistance. In fact we were brother and sister, who did frequently quarrel, but were fond of each other, and yet often spoiled each other's pleasure of living together. A last attempt of my aunt in 1908 to persuade him to take up the career of an official was in vain. From that time he ceased to write letters to us. I did not hear from him for years, when at last in 1921 I saw him again in Vienna. In the meantime I had moved to Vienna myself. But what occurrences of the time had meanwhile passed over Europe, war and the years after the war with their exorbitant suffering! Only then I was told by my brother, that in 1913 he had moved from Vienna to Munich and that he had taken up aquarelle - painting entirely. I had the impression that he was successful. He told me of his wonderful adventures of war - comradeship, of his injury, and his blindness in the war hospital Pasewalk. At that time he was already leader of the NSDAP. I can I admit that I can remember this meeting with my brother always as a great and happy event. Living alone and in modest conditions in Vienna, I happened to meet my brother I had imagined lost through the war, who was showing his love for me and giving me presents, which meant exorbitant luxury for me! It were few but happy days we spent together in Vienna. He went back to Munich while I stayed in Vienna and earned my living as secretary in an insignificant office.

On account of the separation a close living together with my brother was impossible. It was the same with us as with most families. As soon as the parents are dead, the children withdraw from one another. Not I, but my step-sister Angela kept house for my brother in House Wachenfeld, which later on became the "Berghof".

When my brother became more and more active and the name "Hitler" was known in Vienna, I had difficulties to such an extent, that I was at last dismissed from my position. At that time I changed my name to "Wolf". I went to Munich and described my difficult position of life to my brother. With full understanding he assured me that he would provide for me in future. He did so until his death and at first transferred the sum of 250 Mk, later on since 1938 - the sum of 500 Mk to me. Moreover I got a present of 3000 Mk every Christmas.

Not only with my brother but also with my step-sister Angela I met very seldom, since my sister was living in Dresden. I only came to Berchtesgaden at different times invited by my brother and was rarely spending more to 8 - 14 days in the Berghof. This was one of the rare opportunities for me to see my brother.

So I could witness the years of rise and power of my brother only from afar. I was much too fond of Vienna to leave it. My relationship with my brother remained as affectionate as it was unto his death, but I have never been very ambitious for myself and never appeared at official fetes. I was often told in Vienna that I did never show off but always did just the opposite.

Already in my youth and also in later years I used to spend my holidays at my aunt in Spital, the home - place of my mother I was so very fond of because of its beauty and its magnificent woods. My Aunt Theres Schmid had always been like a mother to me since my mother dies far too early. I was deeply sorry when I heard that my cousin Marie Koppensteiner has been misplaced with her family by the Russians. I nearly lose courage to go on living after all disaster I experienced since more than a year.

In 1941 / 42 I had bought a little house in Weiten in the Wachau with the assistance of my brother. It was an old villa I had furnished simply and comfortably. I did this without the help of an architect. This house was robbed and expropriated by the Russians. I still possess a small apartment consisting of two rooms in Vienna which is occupied by Americans. My intention to go back to Vienna can scarcely be realised at present.

I was in my house in Lower - Austria when in the middle of April 1945 I was fetched by two SS - Men in a motor car. Both SS - Men declared that they had an order to call for me. I had made preparations for my departure, had packed up all in trunks, chests, and boxes, which were fetched off by a truck on the next day, and went with some small luggage to Berchtesgaden. All my big luggage was brought to the hotel Berchtesgadener Hof. When the Americans were about to enter Berchtesgaden I was brought to the Dietrich - Eckardhutte, where I was permitted to remain until December 1945.

Christmas 1945 I spent already in my present lodgings Alpenwirtschaft Worderbrand. The family of the lessee Franz Beer, living there already since 1921 is treating me very kindly. I like to be here and try to help by working in the kitchen.

At present I have no troubles in pecuniary respect, since I could take with me about 10,000 Mk of my savings. I deposited this money at the Bayerische Hypothoken und Wechselbank at Berchtesgaden. But at present I do not earn money nor am I in possession of a fortune. I intend to live as long as possible from my savings. For my small room and board I pay 6 Mk per day to the family Beer.

Unfortunately I lost all my luggage secured at the Berchtesgadener Hof. All I possess of clothing and linen was in the small suitcase I could bring here.

I can dispose of my bank account sine I was not a member of the Party or any Party organisation. The policy of my brother, his ideas and terms were no reason for me to enter the Party. It has never been the wish of my brother. But if it had been his wish I would have entered the Party to please him.

I do not believe that my brother ordered the crime committed to innumerable human beings in the concentration - camps or that he even knew of these crimes. It may be possible however, that the hard years during his youth in Vienna caused his anti-Jewish attitude. He was starving severely in Vienna and he believed that his failure in painting was only due to the fact that trade in works of art was in Jewish hands.

Closing remarks of the Agent.

If further investigations prove that the declarations of Mrs. Paula Wolf are true there can be no doubt in her sincerity, at least as far as she is describing her own life and her relationship to her brother. Unworthy of belief, however, is her declaration that she did never know anything about the innumerable crimes which were committed during the government of her brother and under his immediate responsibility, and that she was never told of these crimes. She also insisted on the fact that she never noticed his threat to destroy the Jews in Europe and to crush all his enemies in his speeches which were transferred by radio over the whole world and also to Vienna! And what a contrast of this Adolf Hitler who according to her own declarations was radiant with kindness with the brutal man he really was! The tactics to have been unaware of all what happened during 12 years of Nazi terror are only too well known and unable to convince even an unprejudiced man.

This woman is not in the least denying the fact that she was extremely fond of her brother whose death, by the way she does not doubt. The likeness to her brother in appearance, look and physiognomy is striking and intensifies the longer one is in her presence. I could bring her a typewriter ribbon she needed for her small Erika typewriter. After answering my questions dilatorily in the beginning she was later on talking freely and with increasing confidence. There was a certain charm in her modesty and her simple manner of speaking. The surroundings, the terrace of the Alpenwirtschaft with its unique view over the land of Berchtesgaden made a strong impression on the agent. But this woman must not be allowed to become the protectress of the mountain in which the sole of her brother is only lying dormant to rise again to new life and to new crimes against human nature. Reporters desiring for sensational news are not to work their way up the mountain to cable into the world with charming stories the Hitler - Myth which will inevitable arise. Too many German authors would greedily snatch at such news to offer an immortal hero of the type of Barbarrosa to youth always longing for romanticism. What enrichment for the gallery of heroes of German history, for the academical youth for spur and emulation!

And what a chance for skilfully camouflaged militarists like Doctor Lenz, Laufen who is president of the district of the OSU is making provoking speeches with the theme: Germany as a bastion against communism in east and west, or translated into good German: "Get strong for a revenge - war against Russia and against the communistic France!"

No, it must not come to that! The suffering of innumerable human beings in concentration camps and penitentiaries the sacrifice of life of comrades of the European and last not least of the German underground - movements, all what was done by Allies Forces to suppress Nazism, all would be in vain! No vindictiveness against a lonely, at least with regard to her actions guiltless woman. But get her away from publicity. She could become a germ cell for a new disaster, maybe against her own wishes. One thing is certain: the American, who visited her and declared that the question who is to blame for all what happened since 12 years war and crimes, destruction and death, can only be answered by future generations, will not remain the only one. Many people, Americans and other, will come and bear a share to show Hitler as what he has never been: a kind man and a great Leader .

Her statement in 1957

German text:

„Ihr Herren - vergeßt nur eines nicht! Euer Name wird längst mit Eurem Leichnam zerfallen, vergessen und vermodert sein, während der Name Adolf Hitlers immer noch leuchten und lodern wird! Ihr könnt ihn nicht umbringen mit Euren Jauchekübeln, ihn nicht erwürgen mit Euren tintenbeklecksten, schmierigen Fingern - seinen Namen nicht auslöschen aus hunderttausend Seelen - dazu seid Ihr selbst viel, aber auch schon viel zu klein!

Wo er geliebt hat ... geschah es um Deutschland. Wo er gekämpft hat ... geschah es um Deutschland. Wo er gefehlt hat ... geschah es um Deutschland, und wenn er stritt um Ehre und Ansehen, war es um deutsche Ehre und deutsches Ansehen ...

Und was gabt Ihr bisher? Und wer von Euch wollte sein Leben für Deutschland geben? Ihr habt immer nur die Macht und den Reichtum, den Genuß, den Fraß und die Völlerei - ein herrliches Leben ohne Verantwortung - vor Augen gehabt, wenn Ihr an Deutschland gedacht habt!

Verlaßt Euch darauf, meine Herren - schon allein das reine, selbstlose Denken und Handeln des Führers genügt für die Unsterblichkeit!

Daß seinem fanatischen Ringen um Deutschlands Größe nicht der Erfolg beschieden war, wie z.B. einem Cromwell einstens in Britannien - auch das liegt vielleicht in der Mentalität begründet, weil der Brite bei allem Hang zur Eitelkeit, zu Neid und Mißgunst und zur Rücksichtslosigkeit dennoch nicht vergißt, Engländer zu sein, und die Treue zu seiner Krone liegt ihm im Blut -, während der Deutsche in seinem Geltungstrieb alles ist, nur nicht in erster Linie Deutscher. So liegt es Euch nichts daran, Ihr kleinen Seelen, wenn mit Euch zusammen die ganze Nation in Trümmer geht. Euer Leitstern wird nie heißen: Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz, sondern immer nur umgekehrt! Und mit diesem Leitstern wollt Ihr die Unsterblichkeit eines Größeren verhindern?“

Was ich in den ersten Nachkriegsjahren niederschrieb, hat seine Gültigkeit behalten auch im Jahre 1957 und bestätigt die Richtigkeit meiner Überzeugung.

Paula Hitler
Berchtesgaden, 1. Mai 1957

English text:

Translated from the original German by Gerry Frederics. Paula Hitler, sister to German leader Adolf Hitler wrote the following statement 12 years after the death of her beloved brother.

"Gentlemen! - Never forget this: Your names will long be forgotten even before your bodies have rotted away in the earth. But the name Adolf Hitler will still be a light in the darkness. You cannot murder him by drowning his memory in your sick-buckets and you cannot strangle him with your filthy, ink-stained fingers. His name exists forever in hundreds of thousands of souls. You are far too insignificant to even touch him.

He loved Germany, he fretted over Germany. When he fought for honour and respect he fought for German Honour, for respect for Germany and when there was nothing left, he gave his life for Germany. What have you given so far? Which one of you would give his life for Germany? The only things you care about are riches, power and never ending luxurious living. When you think of Germany, you think of indulging your senses without responsibility, without cares?

Trust me on this: The Fuhrer’s utter unselfishness in word and deed alone guarantees his immortality. The fact that the bitter fight for Germany’s greatness wasn’t crowned by success, like for example Cromwell’s in Britain, has a lot to do with the mentality of the people involved. On the one hand the Englishman’s character is essentially unfair, ruled by jealousy, self-importance, and a lack of consideration. But he never forgets he is an Englishman, loyal to his people and to his crown. On the other hand, the German with his need for recognition is never first and foremost a German.

Therefore it doesn’t matter to you, you insignificant beings, if you destroy the entire nation. Your only guiding thought will always be, me first - me second - me third. In your worthlessness you will never think of the welfare of the nation - and with that pitiful philosophy you wish to prevent the immortality of a giant?

What I wrote down immediately after the war has been proven to be correct. That my convictions are true is evident even as late as 1957.

Signed, Paula Hitler, Berchtesgaden , May, 1st. 1957

See also

• Lineage of Adolf Hitler‎