Hitler's past

[Benoit Douville]

Let's talk about Hitler's past. When Hitler's was in power in Germany, he never mention his past like when he was in the street in Vienna with his portfolio after he failed to pass the test to get into the university and was living a tough life. He never mention the fact that during World War I, he was only "agent de liaison" behind the lines but he described himself has a brave soldier who loved the trench line Battle. I know that he did win the Iron Cross or something like that but usually Hitler was not in front line Battle. So, how could nobody noticed that when he came to power in 1933. I know that a few peoples were trying to removed Hitler but that was not the majority. Hitler was a great oral speaker in public and most of the Germans loved him because he bring back employment but he was hidding his past.

[Mike K.]

Hitler was often praised as the ideal soldier by his superiors, and was decorated for bravery twice, including the Iron Cross First Class (rare for common soldiers). He never hesitated to volunteer for assignment, and participated in the first battle of Ypres in which the majority of his regiment was massacred. Later, in 1918, he was blinded by chlorine gas and sent behind the line to recover.

So no, not "just" a agent de liaison.

[White Leopard]

Actually, he had the Iron Cross second class as well. If you look carefully at a photo of him you will find that he habitually wore three decorations:
Iron Cross first class, Party badge, and Wound Badge in black.

In 1917 he was hit by a piece of shrapnel in the thigh and sent to a hospital in Berlin to recover. That is something that a rear-area malingerer is likely to have happen to him.

[LAH]

Questioning Hitlers past is becoming trendy, was he brave? was he gay? etc...
Hitler was a brave soldier and fought well in the 1st world war. He saved the life of a superior officer and was wounded on a number of occasions.

He was badly effected by his time in the trenches and the sights and sounds of gas attacks. which is more than likely the main reason why the germans never used poison gas against the allies.

Hitler may have glossed over parts of his past life but you can not question his brave spirit, and his devotion to his people.

And just for the record thier is no evidence that Hitler was gay. No matter what trendy so called historians would have us believe.

[James Patrick]

"It seems that mystery always follows Hitler. His career in the army is no exception. There are several things that have never been satisfactorily explained. The first is that he spent [Page 123] four years in the same regiment but was never advanced beyond the rank of First Class Private or Lance Corporal. The second is the Iron Cross First Class which he constantly wears. This has been the topic of much discussion but the mystery has never been solved. There is no mention of the award in the history of his regiment. This is rather amazing inasmuch as other awards of this kind are listed. Hitler is mentioned, in a number of other connections but not in this one, although it is alleged that it was awarded to him for capturing twelve Frenchmen, including an officer, singlehanded. This is certainly no ordinary feat in any regiment and one would expect that it would at least merit some mention, particularly in view of the fact that Hitler had considerable fame as a politician when the book went to press.

The Nazi propaganda agencies have not helped to clarify the situation. Not only have a number of different versions of the story appeared in the press, but each gives a different number of Frenchmen he is alleged to have captured. They have also published alleged facsimiles of his war record which do not agree. The Berlin Illustrierte Zeitung of August 10, 1939 printed a facsimile in which the date of award for this decoration was clearly August 4, 1918. Yet the Voelkische Beobachter of August 14, 1934 had published a facsimile in which the date of award was October 4, 1918. Although these alleged facsimiles mentioned other citations they did not include the date of award of the Iron Cross Second Class. From all that can be learned the First Class Cross was never awarded unless the recipient had already been awarded the Second Class decoration.

[Page 124]

Just what the facts are it is impossible to determine. It is alleged that his war record has been badly tampered with and that von Schleicher was eliminated during the Blood Purge because he knew the true facts. Strasser who served in the same division has probably as good an explanation as any. He says that during the last months of the war there were so many First Class Crosses being given out that General Headquarters was no longer able to pass on the merits of each individual case. To facilitate matters a number of these decorations were allotted to each regiment every month to be issued by the Commanding Officers. They,in turn, notified the High Command of the award and the deed which merited it. According to Strasser, when the army began to collapse, the Regimental Headquarters had in their possession a number of decorations which had not been awarded.

Since few members of the Headquarters Staff ever received an award of this type they took advantage of the general melee and gave them to each other and forged the signatures of the commanding officer in sending it to the High Command. The thing that speaks in favor of this explanation is the curious bond which exists between Hitler and his regimental sergeant-major, Max Areann who was later to become the head of the Nazi Eher Verlag. This is one of the most lucrative positions in the entire Nazi hierarchy and Amann was called to the position by Hitler."
A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler
His Life and Legend
Walter C. Langer
Office of Strategic Services

[Siege40]

If there is anything truly interesting in Hitler's Past I believe it lies in his geneology. I believe Hitler's father is unknown and his mother died when he was young. Reconds of his "Racial Purity" are very questionable, is it at all possible that Hitler's father was some part Gypsy or Slav or dare I, Jew. This would have been a great disgrace to the Fuhrer, it would be like finding out Lenin was a member of the Russian Royal Family with a large business empire based in New York.
I heard somewhere that a Racial Doctor said that Hitler was by far not the best canidate for the German Race, in fact I think he refered to him as "Very non-Aryan" or something like that, at the Nuremburg Trial. So what was Hitler?

Steven

[Mike K.]

Like millions of other Germans, too, Hitler had been a brave and courageous soldier. Later he would be accused by some political opponents of having been a coward in combat, but it must be said, in fairness, that there is no shred of evidence in his record for such a charge. As a dispatch runner in the First Company of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, he arrived at the front toward the end of October 1914 after scarcely three months of trainning, and his unit was decimated in four days of hard fighting at the first Battle of Ypres, where the British halted the German drive to the Channel. According to a letter Hitler wrote his Munich landlord, a tailor named Popp, his regiment was reduced in four days of combat from 3,500 to 600 men; only thirty officers survived, and four companies had to be dissolved.

He was decorated twice for bravery. In December 1914 he was awared the Iron Cross, Second Class, and in August 1918 he received the Iron Cross, First Class, which was rarely given to a common soldier in the old Imperial Army. One comrade in his unit testified that he won the coveted decoration for having captured fifteen Englishmen single-handed; another said it was Frenchmen. The official history of the List Regiment contains no word of any such exploit; it is silent about the individual feats of many members who received decorations. Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that Corporal Hitler earned the Iron Cross, First Class. He wore it proudly until the end of his life.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer, Pg. 30
Emphasis mine.


Speculation that Hitler somehow cheated in getting his Iron Cross or was a cowardly soldier doesn't have much foundation. It's likely he wasn't promoted simply because his superiors felt his personality quirks wouldn't command respect as a Sergeant, but his personal valor was never in doubt.

Similar nonsense is that Hitler's father or grandfather or whatever was actually Jewish. I think conclusive proof would have surfaced by now.

[HaEn]

A.H. was a "Gefreiter" in WW1, A Gefreiter is not a p.f.c, but a Corporal.
a P.F.C. is an "Oberschütze". Some of his Generals mentioned later that they never should have listened to this "Corporal" (after the war).
HN

[wjborgmann]

I like to think that the majority of the participants of this forum have some scholarly interest in historical matters. Hitlers parentage is very well established. His father is definitely known. Some of our participants need toget of their behinds and read some books. Some of these posts are ridiculous.

[Caldric]

Ironic that a Jew was the one that requested his Iron Cross first class. I think much of the reason for the confusion surrounding his receiving the medal is because there was an attempt to cover up the fact that Lt. Hugo Gutmann was a Jew.

It was also rather surprising to the Nazi party when they found out that some 100,000 men of Jewish decent had served during WWI, 78,000 of which were on the frontlines, 30,000 were decorated for acts of bravery and 12,000 had died in battle. However this is all for another post I am writing.

[Mike K.]

Interesting enough, Hugo Gutmann received a pension from Germany throughout the war.

[Caldric]

Interesting enough, Hugo Gutmann received a pension from Germany throughout the war.

That is interesting, I also heard that the doctor that attended his mother was to not be touched during the Jewish round ups. Apparently this Jewish doctor seen to his mothers health in her home and many times never took payment. All somewhat shady.


In the book "The Hidden Hitler" the author Machtan makes some interesting observations about Hitler, including the Homosexual aspects, he has a ton of circumstantial evidence but never really has any hard facts. Mostly because not only was the Nazi party cleaning up Hitler's past, but his political enemies were using any tidbit of information and blowing it out of proportion, so you have two entities messing with historical information to serve their own ends making it a large mess.

However there is little doubt that many of Hitler's friends and associates from his time early days in Vienna and Munich died under unusual circumstances after his rise to power, including one of his war time comrades.

[jacobite1]

The first post states that Hitler did not spend all his time at the front.......
Surely this would be normal.
I don't know about the German Army.......
But, the British soldier would spend 2 weeks at the front and then 2 weeks billetted in a village several miles behind the front "resting", actually repairing equipment, carrying ammunition etc.
I assume the German army was more-or-less the same.

Dave Moffitt

[kobold]

Is anything known of Hitlers class mates from school (i'm thinking of the class in the published school pics) - did any of them make it big in the third reich?



Dave

[jouda2000]

I wonder what fellow memmber Walter Schellenberg will have to reveal on this subject.

I bieleve he will post soon the Heydrich secret file on Hitler, compiling information Heydrich propably had on the fuhrer.

Jouda2000