A DNA test has proved that a poor man in Austria is one of the last living relatives of Adolf Hitler.

The 46-year-old farmer, thought to be a cousin of the former German dictator, was horrified to learn the blood of the ‘greatest criminal’ is in his veins.

But the man, tracked down by Belgian journalist Jean-Paul Mulders, is not alone.

Mr Mulders, who persuaded the man to take a mouth swab test, says there are as many as 39 others living in the remote Waldviertel region of Austria where he comes from.

The area was home to Hitler’s grandmother, Anna Schicklgruber, father Alois and mother Klara.

After the end of the Second World War, the name Hitler completely vanished as those who bore it had it changed.

Many families there still bear similar names, though, like Hiedler and Huettler.

How did the journalist get Hitler’s DNA?

The journalist had previously garnered some Hitler DNA covertly by taking a serviette dropped by one of three known Hitler descendants who live on Long Island, New York.

One of them, Alexander Stuart-Houston, 61, a grand-nephew of Hitler, was trailed for seven days before the dropped the litter which Mulders said led him to the relation in Austria.

Am I the only one who feels this is a gross invasion of privacy? Post your thoughts here.

[Full story] [Discuss here]

Famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud may have had a Hitler original hanging on the wall of his office.

A watercolour by the German dictator has come to light that has an inscription on the back that bears the name of Freud’s medical practice in Vienna.

While Freud was based in the Austrian city in 1910 it is possible he or one of his staff bought the picture from the struggling artist.

Hitler was a jobbing painter at the time, knocking out postcards and paintings and trying to make a living.

This painting, that measures 8in by 4in, shows what looks like a small church with a background of mountains and is signed “A Hitler 1910.”

[Full story]

Newly released photographs reveal that Sean Dempsey, a famous Irish musician, played for Adolf Hitler in 1936.

Dempsey, an uileann piper, was invited to play for Hitler and propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels during a visit to Berlin in 1936 after being told that Hitler was an Irish folk music fan.

When he arrived to play however, there was no room for him to sit, which he needed to do to play, and it looked like it would be canceled.

however, Hitler jumped up and demanded that an S.S. member get down on his hands and knees and that Dempsey sit astride him while he played.

Dempsey played what was described as a ‘haunting air’ as Hitler listened with rapt attention. After he performed, Hitler presented him with a gold fountain pen while Goebbels clapped wildly.

[Full story] [Photo source]

The descendants of Nazi leaders have spoken on camera, for the first time, about the revulsion they have for their ancestors.

They include Bettina Goering, great niece of Adolf Hitler’s second in command Hermann Goering, who says she has had herself sterilised so she would ‘not pass on the blood of a monster’.

Adolf Eichmann’s son Ricardo says he simply cannot find a way to explain why his father became the chief architect of the Holocaust.

While Hitler himself had no offspring, many others at the heart of the Reich had families and some of the children can remember being patted on the head by the Fuhrer.

One is Hitler’s godson Niklas Frank, whose father Hans was Nazi governor of occupied Poland responsible for the death camps in which six million Jewish people were killed.

He says in the documentary Hitler’s Children, by Israeli director Chanoch Zeevi, that he ‘despises’ his father’s past and describes him as ‘a slime-hole of a Hitler fanatic’.

[Full story]

Director Oliver Stone is facing a backlash after suggesting that Hitler was made an “easy scapegoat” by history.

Stone, who has previously been accused of promoting conspiracy theories and glorifying violence in his films, has made a new documentary series which he says will place historical figures including Hitler and Stalin “in context”.

In the trailer for “The Secret History of America” the director says: “You cannot approach history unless you have empathy for the person you may hate.”

He told a press conference at the Television Critics Association in California that “we can’t judge people as only ‘bad’ or ‘good’”.

“Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it’s been used cheaply. He’s the product of a series of actions. It’s cause and effect,” he said.

The director claimed many people in America did not understand the connection between the First World War and the Second World War and said his intention was to broaden minds, delving into the funding of the Nazi party and how American corporations were involved in it.

[Full story]