Paula Hitler’s chilling journal describing dysfunctional family life

Adolf Hitler’s final moments described by former phone operator

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Historians have spent decades examining Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and why he became such a monstrous leader. Many have looked back to his childhood, with excerpts from his sister’s journal, found 50 years after the end of World War 2, offering crucial insight into the Führer’s early years. The journal’s contents are grim and showed just how abusive Adolf was towards his only full sibling, Paula, as well as what life was like under his dysfunctional family.

This year marks the centenary of Adolf Hitler formally appointing himself as Germany’s new Chancellor. His Nazi Party leapt on a social and political vacuum which had plagued the country ever since it lost World War 1 and was forced to pay reparations to the allied powers.

Galvanising popular support for the 13 years leading up to 1933, it was in that year that the National Socialist German Workers’ Party acquired lawful control of Germany in the March federal election. It was to be the last democratic act in a unified Germany for almost 60 years.

Interpretations of Adolf’s personality vary but the journals go some way in revealing how tyranny may have been his default setting.

In 2005, excerpts from Paula’s diary were published, offering a remarkable insight into the Hitler family.

Revealing how her brother was a bully as a teenager and would often beat her, she recounted some of her earliest memories of Adolf when she was around eight years old, writing: “Once again I feel my brother’s loose hand across my face.”

The journal, typewritten, was one of several documents found by historians Timothy Ryback, whose life’s work has focused on contemporary German history, and Florian Beierl, an authority on Nazi Germany, at an undisclosed location.

Shortly after discovering the documents, they confirmed that scientific tests had proved their authenticity.

Speaking to The Guardian in 2005, Dr Ryback said: “This is the first time that we have been able to get an insight into the Hitler family from a very young age.”

He added: “Adolf was the older brother and father figure.

“He was very strict with Paula and slapped her around. But she justified it in a starry-eyed way, because she believed it was for the good of her education.”

The two historians also found a joint journal kept by Adolf’s half-brother, Alois, and half-sister, Angela.

JUST IN: Putin readies feared elite tank regiment for new Ukraine offensive

One passage details the violence used by Adolf’s father, also called Alois, and how Adolf’s mother tried to protect her son from the beatings.

It reads: “Fearing that the father could no longer control himself in his unbridled rage, she [Adolf’s mother] decides to put an end to the beating.

“She goes up to the attic, covers Adolf who is lying on the floor, but cannot deflect the father’s final blow. Without a sound she absorbs it.”

Mr Beierl told The Guardian: “This is a picture of a completely dysfunctional family that the public has never seen before. The terror of the Third Reich was cultivated in Hitler’s own home.”

DON’T MISS:

The fire that made a monster—How Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship began [REPORT] 
‘Russian bashers’ Ukraine partisans kill three officers in car bombing [INSIGHT] 
Russia’s top commanders ‘terrified’ by Putin’s new battle plans  
[ANALYSIS]

Of the many insights found in the journal, one included the revelation that Paula was married to one of the Holocaust’s most notorious euthanasia doctors.

This was considered a particular breakthrough detail as Paula was previously believed to be an innocent bystander during the Nazi years.

Dr Beierl explained: “Until this point, Paula Hitler had a clean slate. But the portrayal of her being a poor little creature has suddenly shifted.

“In my opinion, the fact that she was due to marry one of Austria’s worst criminals means that she was also connected with death, horror and gas chambers,” to which Dr 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.”

Adolf, however, refused to give Jekelius permission to marry his sister, and shipped him off to the Eastern front, later caught by the Russians.

The researchers also discovered an accounts book from the Hitler family, with one entry showing how Adolf was given 900 Austrian crowns in the spring of 1908.

Enough for a teenager to live off of for a year, it dispelled the widely believed notion that Adolf was at one point a penniless artist struggling to make ends meet.

Paula was born on January 26, 1896, and would be the only Hitler child to survive to adulthood.

In the early 1920s, she moved to Vienna to work as a housekeeper at a dormitory of Jewish university students. She had little contact with Adolf during his years as an artist, his role in World War 1, and later involvement in politics.

She lived for years under the pseudonym Wolff at Adolf’s request when he took office.

After World War 2 she was arrested by US counter-intelligence officers and interviewed, retelling her life’s story and relationship with Adolf.

Much later on, in 1959, she agreed to be interviewed by Peter Morley for a feature-length documentary about Adolf’s life, refusing to be drawn on political questions and mostly speaking of Adolf’s early life. She died aged 64 on June 1, 1960.

Source: Read Full Article

Previous post MailOnline tries the world's first plant-based 'beef' loin
Next post Couple book day trip to Barcelona from UK – and ‘barely spend a thing’ | The Sun