Adolph Hitler
Photo Source: US Air Force

Adolph Hitler, the scourge of World War II, the madman who condemned millions to their deaths in concentrations camps and worked people to death in slave labor camps and factories, actually was in love at least once. Oh I am not talking about Eva Braun. Eva loved him but he may have been just keeping her around for appearances. I am talking about Hitler's niece. Not only did he love her, but he was so jealous of her actions that he smothered her life. Her name was Geli Raubal and the poor girl had the misfortune of being born into the wrong family.

Hitler may have had a mental illness for all we know. He did do some things that seem to be the act of a madman, that is not in dispute. His actions may have been the single most important reason why Germany lost the war. He always felt that he had to micro manage everything and the truth of the matter may have been that he, Adolph Hitler, did not really trust anyone to make important decisions. He was paranoid. Because of this paranoia, he made many mistakes, making decisions in areas that he certainly was not qualified to. He stopped development of long range bombers, thank goodness, in favor of smaller planes, made military decisions that cost him battles and opened up a second front by invading Russia. If a sane person wanted to go to war and was in Hitler's shoes, they would have waited another five years or so and by that time Germany's advanced weapons would have been so numerous that they would have been impossible to stop. They would even have had nuclear weapons by that time. Germany was one of the only major countries in the world that didn't have long range bombers.

Back to Hitler's niece. In 1929 Hitler lived in an apartment in the city of Munich. He shared it with his half sister Angela and her daughter Geli. Geli was much younger than Adolph, having be born on June 4th, 1908, but he couldn't help feeling something for her. He always wanted her to stay home and begrudged her ever going anywhere. Her life became a living hell for her and in 1931 she not only decided to end it, she used Hitler's gun to accomplish the task. Perhaps she was sending a message to Adolph. Hitler himself contemplated suicide when he found out what happened and some say he even tried it and failed. It is said that this event haunted him for the rest of his life. Hitler was not the only one interested in Geli, Hitler's chauffeur began to show an interest in her and lost his job because of this.

Just to complicate things further a Czech journalist stated that on February 23, 1929, a son was born to Hitler and Geli. He states that his birth certificate bears the name of G. Raubal as his mother and that he stated that he is willing to undergo DNA testing to prove this is true. Can I say that this is absolutely true? No, but it certainly is intriguing. I imagine if this is true, neo nazi organizations everywhere will be seeking out this person.

Some say that Geli became jealous of Eva Braun who was only 17 years old at the time. It seems that Adolph liked to take her for rides in his car. But who knows if this rumor was true? Others say she was just stifled and couldn't cope with it anymore. If the Eva Braun story is true, it might account for the fact that Hitler only married Eva at the end of his life. Maybe looking at her reminded him of why his niece committed suicide. A strange thing happened after Geli's death. Hitler became a vegetarian. He said he couldn't eat meat anymore because meat reminded him of seeing Geli's corpse.

There were other rumors at the time to do with Geli. Some said that she had been beaten before she shot herself, others stated that she killed herself because she was pregnant with Hitler's child. Still other rumors stated that Heinrich Himmler had her murdered because she was going to blackmail Hitler. None of these rumors were ever verified, although it would not have been beyond Himmler to kill anyone. Hitler would sometimes take Geli to functions and gatherings and there are reports that when she was with him, he was like a different person. People said that Hitler would actually smile and be much more relaxed and seemed proud of his niece.

At the time of Geli's suicide, Hitler was questioned by the German police, but no charges were ever brought against him. I guess the fact that she used his gun looked very bad for him. Hitler would never get over her death because the love of his life had disappeared from this earth.