Hitler's grandmother (Maria) was a Catholic of peasant stock. She was a Schickelgruber when Alois was born, since that was her maiden name. As an unwed mother (father not identified), her son Alois was baptized as a Schickelgruber. Maria later married a Heidler (Hitler), but Alois was raised by that man's brother as his own son. When Alois was baptized, as a Schickelgruber, a Jew did stand as his god-father (Trammelschlager), but this was a neighbor of the Schickelgruber's farm whose wife had been the mid-wife at Alois? birth; and not uncommon.
The name change from Schickelgruber to Heidler (Hitler) was illegal, as done, since it was instigated after both the mother (Maria) and named father (Heidler) were deceased. The priest who did the "alteration" on the baptismal certificate knew full well it was illegal, and perhaps altered the name to protect his parish (and himself). It remains unclear as to why Alois had his own name changed, since the Heidler family were far from outstanding in the prosperity department. However, becoming "legitimized" may have been more important to an "up and comer" in the Customs department. He had married the barren daughter of his boss as a Schickelgruber, and his second and third wives as Hitler. Both Francesca and Klara were married to Alois Sr. as a Hitler, who fathered Alois is and will remain a mystery. Maria Heidler ne Schickelgruber took that information to her grave.
Hitler's father and mother were both practicing Catholics, and his mother Klara was from a Catholic farming family which had been in place for centuries. His father Alois was directly of peasant farming stock, and Catholic.
Of course this made Alois Sr. illegitimate, but nearly 49% of all live births in the area where his mother's (Maria) family farmed were out of wedlock. So that wasn't that unusual. The man who later "adopted" him, did so after both his mother and the man who was named as the father had died. That man was a traveling miller (or carpenter, I've heard both), who was also Catholic. That tale of Hitler's Jewishness was started back in the '20s when he was having a battle in the Party for control. It was later re-told by Frank at the Nuremberg trials, and it grew from there. But it has been proven to be nothing but false rumor and made up stories to discredit his ancestry. It is ironic that it wasn't "Jewishness" he wished to hide, it was his father's illegitimate birth. That would have disqualified him as a "true" Aryan under his own race laws.
Read Werner Maser's work on Hitler's background and family tree. He pretty much shoots down the Jewish grandfather/mother story with records of who worked where, and which Jews owned which property in the area at the time of Alois' conception. The Hans Frank and Fritz Thyssen stories have been pretty well show to be false and self-serving.
His problem was that his father was born "out of wedlock", and baptised in a Catholic church with his un-married grandmother's maiden name (Schikelgruber), as was the practice of the time.
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Hitler Jewish? Question hello! i am a ninth grader and i have been reasearching the holocaust for three years now and i am very interested in it. i have a question. my english teacher told me that Hitlers grandmother was Jewish and i was wondering if he did to her what he did to her what he did to the other jewish people. thank you very much
Harry W. Mazal OBE answers: I am one of the persons who responds to questions about the Holocaust. It is possible that you will receive answers from my other colleagues too.
Hitler's grandmother was not Jewish.
There are some rumors hinting that Hitler's grandfather was Jewish. Few, if any, of the reputable historians on the Holocaust believe that this is so. It is more likely that Hitler tried to keep the murky history of his family quite secret because there was a high incidence of insanity and feeble-mindedness in his ancestors.
Rumors die hard, though.
One of Hitler's henchmen, Hans Frank, declared during the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-46, that Hitler's grandmother had worked in the town of Graz as a servant in the home of a Jewish family named Frankenberger. He further claimed that she was seduced by the head of the household and that Hitler's grandfather was the result of that liaison.
A subsequent analysis of Frank's statement by Simon Wiesenthal disclosed that there was no evidence of any Jewish family named Frankenberger ever living in Graz. What is more, Jews had been driven out of Graz in the 15th century and had not been allowed to return until 1856, nearly twenty years after Hitler's grandfather had been born.
Hitler's grandmother's maiden name was Schickelgruber. There is considerable evidence that this family produced abnormal progeny. Examples are: one of Hitler's relatives through his mother's side committed suicide in 1920, another, Aloisha had been placed in an insane asylum, another was "feeble-minded," and yet another was retarded.
According to the article from which I am quoting this material:
"Hitler's real fear, then, was not that someone would discover that he has a Jewish grandfather, but that it would someday come to light that he carried a hereditary disposition toward mental illness and retardation."
You might ask your English teacher to go to a good library and see the following article:
"Hitler's Family Secret: A file recovered from the Nazi Archives tells of a Gestapo investigation into the Fuehrer's murky family history."
By: Ben S. Swearingen
Civilization: The Magazine of the Library of Congress Volume 2, Number 2, Arcg/April 1995, pp. 54-55
Harry W. Mazal OBE
http://www.holocaust-history.org/questions...er-jewish.shtml