German Soldiers Vs. American Soldier Brothers?, Families split into battle Options

[djmundle]

Hello, Anyone else have relatives that fought on both sides. I had great-uncles that fought as German Soldiers, SS German Officers, and others who left Germany years before to live in the U.S. and they fought for the U.S.A. I would love to hear other peoples stories about their relatives. I will try to get back in to add more info about my family as these next few weeks pass.
Thanks, Dale

P.S. would love to have some insight on documentary movies, U.S. D-Day Invasion, etc. Thanks Again.

[Kiwiwriter]

I read somewhere, probably in the Time-Life series, about an American GI locating his family home in Germany, going there, and finding Mom serving dinner...to his younger brother, who was a member of the Wehrmacht or the Volkssturm.

Now I have to find this story.

William Patrick Hitler, Der Fuhrer's half-brother, served in the US Navy, believe it or not.

[Max (UK)]

William Patrick Hitler, Der Fuhrer's half-brother, served in the US Navy, believe it or not.

WHAAAAT ? I just told that to everyone here in the office and they were all stunned by that - what an amazing snippet of info !!

Up until I heard that, Kiwi, the only other less known fact I knew about Hitler was that he studied in Liverpool, England for a while. The only reason I know that is cos it was a question in Trivial Persuit one time at xmas !

But your fact beats that hands down ! WOW !!! What a World.

I wonder if William Patrick kept it quiet....plus also did he get a lot of stick about his surname....? Wow.

This post has been edited by Max (UK): Sep 15 2003, 08:17 AM

[psumner]

I read somewhere, probably in the Time-Life series, about an American GI locating his family home in Germany, going there, and finding Mom serving dinner...to his younger brother, who was a member of the Wehrmacht or the Volkssturm.

Now I have to find this story.

William Patrick Hitler, Der Fuhrer's half-brother, served in the US Navy, believe it or not.

This is new to me as well, whoaaaa!

I'd like to find more info on William Patrick, think I'll do some diggin' around. Does anyone else have info that they could post?

[Max (UK)]

I did a google search and there's loads of info actually. Couldn't find any pics of him tho - wanted to see if he looked anything like his brother, but alas nada.

[Kiwiwriter]

William Patrick Hitler (from A Concise Biography of Adolf Hitler), was Hitler's English nephew (not half-brother), the son left behind by Hitler's half-brother Alois when he returned from LIverpool to Germany in 1913. He gerw up to become an inconspicuous London bookkeeper.

By 1931, Adolf had become an internatinoal figure about whom the world was developing an insatiable curiousity, so Hitler got a deal from Hearts for a story about Der Fuhrer's family.

But William knew little about his famous uncle, so he sent Adolf a letter. Adolf sent back tickets and summons for WIlliam and his mother to come to Munich.

There, Adolf yelleda t William and told him that nothing about the Hitler family background be published. He didn't fear anyone in particular...he just wanted his family's life kept quiet. He offered money to William to keep them quiet, and William later claimed Alois pocketed it.

Next problem: what to tell Hearts? Adolf told William to lie. William had to agree that there was a mix-up and although an Adolf Hitler was William's uncle...it ws a different Adolf. Wiliam apparently didn't tell Hearst this. He didn't write the article, either.

William and his mother returned to England. In 1933, when Adolf took power, William returned to Germany. There Hitler tried to convince William that ALois had only been adopted into the Hitler family, and therew was no blood connection. William didn't believe it. He checked on this story and found the blood connection.

So Adolf got William a job at Opel, which didn't pay much. William besieged his uncle for more money from tiem to time. In 1938, Adolf quietly told William to get the hell out of Germany.

William fled to England and then America, and went on the lecture circuit, talking about the inner workings of the Third Reich and its leadership. In 1944, he joined the US Navy and then served until 1946, earning his honorable discharge.

Historian John Toland says that William did not chagne his surname until returning to civliilan life, when he married. They had a boy named Adolf.

I udnerstand that the boy changed his name in later life and he and other descendants of Alois Hitler agreed not to have children and to have their DNA destroyed, so as to prevent a "Boys From Brazil" or "Pretender" scenario.

Wild, huh? (IMG:http://forums.wildbillguarnere.com/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[Max (UK)]

This is quite a good link (with pics!) - "The Last of the Hitlers"

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/02/0...t.hitlers.cnna/

[Polish Eagle]

There was a documentary about this a while ago, also called 'The last of the Hitlers' which was based on the book mentioned in the link. It was quite interesting in that it found the house in Liverpool where the family lived and even spoke about the idea that Hitler himself stayed there for a while.

There were interviews with local residents who remember the time and they all spoke of this funny young fella who came to stay for a few months, only now realising who it possibly was.

[Max (UK)]

Yep - that's what the link above was about. Would love to watch it !

[Kiwiwriter]

There was a documentary about this a while ago, also called 'The last of the Hitlers' which was based on the book mentioned in the link. It was quite interesting in that it found the house in Liverpool where the family lived and even spoke about the idea that Hitler himself stayed there for a while.

There were interviews with local residents who remember the time and they all spoke of this funny young fella who came to stay for a few months, only now realising who it possibly was.

My wife told me about that show.

There is no evidence that Hitler actually spent any time outside of continental Europe.

[jthomas]

Kiwi, you're a fountain of information. Between here and your website I could spend hours reading new info about history or details of stories I'd never heard before. Please don't stop.

John

[Kiwiwriter]

Kiwi, you're a fountain of information.  Between here and your website I could spend hours reading new info about history or details of stories I'd never heard before.  Please don't stop.

John

Thank you for those warm words.

What I'm doing now...and this is based on the poll I took, is re-racking my WW2 project to go back to the beginning and start from 1939. That way I can clean up the later sections (later) and stop facing complaints about why it starts in 1941.

In addition to meeting the votes of the majority. I keep bumping up the topic to get more views on the subject.

So far I have 30 members and 3,500 hits on the new page, which is not bad for one month in operation, but I've gotta get more.

[Sgt. Duffy]

I found in a magazine, an article about two brothers, with parents 1 german and 1 american. Their parents split up in 1934 and one son went with his mother to live back in germany while the other stayed with his father in america. When war broke out they both joined their respective countries armies. I am unsure of their companys/regiments but the companies which contained them met on the battlefield somewhere near Cologne. The German son was captured and whilst walking back with the other prisoners the american son saw his brother!

Unfortunately the americans would not let him go at his brothers request, until at the end of the war they met up on June 23rd and left for their previous home in Virginia, where they currently reside.

I cant believe that they fought each other!
(IMG:http://forums.wildbillguarnere.com/style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

[Max (UK)]

I found in a magazine, an article about two brothers, with parents 1 german and 1 american. Their parents split up in 1934 and one son went with his mother to live back in germany while the other stayed with his father in america. When war broke out they both joined their respective countries armies. I am unsure of their companys/regiments but the companies which contained them met on the battlefield somewhere near Cologne. The German son was captured and whilst walking back with the other prisoners the american son saw his brother!

Unfortunately the americans would not let him go at his brothers request, until at the end of the war they met up on June 23rd and left for their previous home in Virginia, where they currently reside.

I cant believe that they fought each other!
(IMG:http://forums.wildbillguarnere.com/style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

Whaaaaattt? That is one pretty incredible story. Blimey ! (IMG:http://forums.wildbillguarnere.com/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[Royals17]

Hey everyone!

My family is well over half German. It's very evident because of all of our very blue eyes. My grandpa (my father's dad) served in Patton's 3rd Army in 4 major battles which included D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Remagan Bridge Area and one other that I can not think of right now. I'll update later to let you know. But my mother's maiden name was Lutz and I know that there were many German soldiers that carried that last name. I wonder if they ever met eachother on European battlefields. I know this didn't have much to do with the original topic but the story of the two brothers just kind of stirred this up in my head! Talk to you later.

Royals17