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Findings
JewishVirtualLibrary.org
This website tells about the possible history of Hitler's family and the possibility of Hitler having Jewish origins. Alois, Adolf Hitler's father, was "registered as an illegitimate child with no father when born in 1837 and to this day Hitler's paternal grandfather is unknown" (JewishVirtualLibrary.org 1). The speculation was that his grandfather could have been Jewish because his grandmother, Maria Schicklgruber, "is known to have worked in the home of a wealthy Jew, so there is some chance, however small, that a son in that household got Hitler's grandmother pregnant" (1). In 2010, there was a study that had been conducted in which samples of saliva were collected from thirty-nine of Hitler's known relatives. Their samples of saliva were used "to test their DNA origins and found, though inconclusively, that Hitler may have Jewish origins" (1). The paper in which reported this study stated their findings: "a chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in [the Hitler] samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews...Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18% to 20% of Ashkenazi and 8.6% to 30% of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population" (1). In the end, the study was inconclusive and, despite the claims, Adolf Hitler was not Jewish.
About.com
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 to Alois and Klara Hitler. He was one of two children to survive childhood out of six children. However, Adolf's father, Alois, "was nearing his 52nd birthday when Adolf was born, but was only celebrating his 13th year as a Hitler" (About.com 1). On June 7, 1837, Alois was born with the last name 'Schicklgruber' to Maria Anna Schicklgruber. When he was born, Maria wasn't married. However, five years later on May 10, 1842, "Maria Anna Schicklgruber married Johann Georg Hiedler" (1). To this day, the mystery of who Adolf's grandfather is is still a mystery. And, since no one knows who is Alois' real father except for one person, "we can only speculate about this man's identity because the truth rested with Maria Schicklgruber, and as far as we know, she took this information to the grave with her in 1847" (1). Though there is no basis for this speculation, the fact that some speculate that Alois' father was a Jew could explain his treatment against Jews.
HistoryNewsNetwork.org
In order to be Jewish, one must be born from a Jewish mother or convert to Judaism, but the Nazis had their own ideas of what made someone a Jew. However, "Hitler was born to a Catholic mother, and obviously never converted to Judaism" (HistoryNewsNetwork.org 1). During Hitler's life, he was a lapsed Catholic, dabbling in various German pagan-mystic beliefs. He "became a vehement racist and Anti-Semite, and promoting a vision of the 'Jewish threat,' he ultimately sought the extermination of the Jewish population of Europe" (1). As stated on 'About.com', Adolf's father, Alois, was born to an unmarried mother until she married Johann Georg Hiedler five years later. Following both their deaths, "Alois was taken in by Georg's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler" (1). After living with Johann Nepomuk Hiedler for a while, he made a decision. In 1876, "Alois was made an heir to Nepomuk's legacy, following his taking of the family name of 'Heidler,' recorded as 'Hitler' through the official, ceremonial acknowledgement of Georg Hiedler as Alois' father" (1). Hitler was interested in finding out his family history. He had asked a Nazi lawyer, Hans Frank, to investigate his ancestry then published his findings while awaiting execution at Nuremberg. These findings are what sparked the famous "Graz Story" which told that "Hitler's grandmother, Maria Anna Shicklgruber, had been employed by a Jewish family, the Frankenbergers, in the city of Graz, and that there was correspondence and even child support payments exchanged between the family and Maria" (1). However, Hitler's most recent biographer, Ian Kershaw, begs to differ with this story. He states and backs up that "this story is highly inaccurate as there is no record that Maria was ever in Graz" (1) as well as the fact that "there was a family of a similar last name in Graz, they were not Jewish—especially given that Jews were not even permitted in that section of Austria (Styria) until the 1860s" (1). All in all, the answer to the question of whether or not Hitler was Jewish is 'no'.