Hitler book - questions

[David E M]

Hi Guys, I would like your opinions on this book I'm having problems with.
Ok, first the book, 'Inside Adolf - an examination of the man'. F C McKenzie.
A very readable book. 710 pages in hard copy. but check this out, just some of the 'Facts'.

That Hitler never learned to drive a car?

Although he allowed himself to be photographed behind the wheels of various Porches, Mercedes, and Volkswagens.

That Hitlers father was circumcised by a jewish Rabbi.
This had nothing to do with religion but was acually part of a successful atempt to blackmail a jewish family.


That Hitlers favorite movie was the original version of King Kong?
He had a copy of the film dubbed into the German Language and is know to have watched it repeatedly.


That Hitler was never a genuine teetotaller?
He frequently drank champagne and after he came to power a Munich brewery manufactured a beer to a special recipe soley for his exclusive consumption.

There is other stuff like this, but I would like your comments first.

cheers.

I messed up the Italics , but whatever.
There is a Bibilography but no sources given.

[Eva]

Let's see... The few things I can comment on :

The alcohol: Hitler sometimes drank champagne in tiny amounts, usually as part of a toast to celebrate a holiday or other festive occasion, but he supposedly didn't like it very much. His special beer had ,like, a 2% alcohol content so it was barely even beer. He didn't mind those in his presence to drink, though, and often served alcohol to his guests. Smoking however, was an absolute no-no.

The Movies: I could see hitler as liking King Kong, but I 've never heard it mentioned before. He mostly liked action films or westerns (from the US). After the war began, he rarely watched any films, even though they were shown at the Berghof almost every day. He said he couldn't watch a movie while his people were making so many sacrifices. Also he contended he needed his eyes fresh for reading maps and combat reports. Probably, though, the real reason is that Eva was picking the movies and consequentlt, they were almost all romance films, which he didn't care for.

EB

[Dan]

That Hitlers father was circumcised by a jewish Rabbi.
This had nothing to do with religion but was acually part of a successful atempt to blackmail a jewish family.

The only connection that I know of (and this is based at least partially on rumor) of Hitler's Jewish connection is that Hitler's father, Alois was born out of wedlock to a woman who worked at the house of a Mr. Frankfurter as a maid. I have read that this Jew paid a certain amount of Alois' upkeep until he was an early teen. Whether or not this means he fathered the child or not, or whether this is just a rumor in itself, I don't know, however I've long thought an ambitious researcher or reporter could make quite a name for his/herself.

It would be easy for someone intrepid to get the I.D's and then a DNA sample for the three people decended from Hitler's half brother, who was fathered by Alois. They live on the East coast of the US and all you'd need to do would be to follow them around for a used napkin or something.

I wonder if it has not already been done? Surely the idea has occured to many.

[White Leopard]

But "Frankenburger". The story you are referring to was told by Hans Frank, who used to be Hitler's lawyer before his excution at Nuremburg. Frank claimed that Hitler had him do some tracing of his ancestory due a blackmail threat from a relative. Frank claimed that in the course of his investigation, he discovered proof that Hitler's father had been fathered by a Jew. Supposedly the Jew's last name was Frankenburger who lived in the town of Granz, and whose family had hired Hitler's grandmother as a maid, etc. etc....

Current biographical investigations to locate this Frankenburg family in the town records came up with nothing and nobody Jewish by that last name. Apparently Frank couldn't resist the temptation of causing a sensation. A sort of "Last Hurrah", if you please.

[Dan]

Current biographical investigations to locate this Frankenburg family in the town records came up with nothing and nobody Jewish by that last name. Apparently Frank couldn't resist the temptation of causing a sensation. A sort of "Last Hurrah", if you please.

Thanks for that update. Still, a DNA test should give some idea as to his background. Does anyone know anything about Alois' father?

[fju]

The Movies: I could see hitler as liking King Kong, but I 've never heard it mentioned before. He mostly liked action films or westerns (from the US).

Eva, I have seen Hitler's favourite movie being 'King Kong' on many lists of 'Hitler Facts', This of course does not make it true, but it is a very widespread factoid.

Franz

[White Leopard]

...Does anyone know anything about Alois' father?

Nothing beyond the written record. Born illegitimate in 1837, Alois would be difficult to track through DNA because everybody who is a canidate for his father is also dead and died in the middle of the 19th Century. When his mother died, he was about five and his Godfather, Johanne N. Hitler took him in and raised him. Johanne was the full brother of Alois' supposed father, Georg Hitler. Georg married Alois' mother after he was born, but never took the time or effort to legitimise him. Alois did that himself long after Georg was dead.

To make family matters more complicated, Klara, Adolph's mother, was the granddaughter of Johanne Hitler through the maternal line. That fact meant that if Georg was Alois' father, then Adolph was the product of inbreeding, something that was not uncommon in the rural district of Austria where the family lived.

If, as some have speculated, Johanne, and not Georg, was the father of Alois, then the inbreeding becomes a double knot in Hitler's pedigree.

But the plain fact, Dan, is nobody knows for certain who Alois' father really was. And will never know for certain at this late date.

[Dan]

This is good info, thanks. But still

Nothing beyond the written record. Born illegitimate in 1837, Alois would be difficult to track through DNA because everybody who is a canidate for his father is also dead and died in the middle of the 19th Century

while what you say is true on an individual basis, science is far enough along that you could probably find some racial markers, and that is what I was refering to.

A sneaky study could make someone rich by writing a book.

Best
Dan

[Scott Smith]

I thought Adolf's favorite movie was Gone With the Wind, but I could be wrong, as I don't even know what my own favorite movie is.

[varjag]

I seem to remember that one of Hitler absolute favourites on the screen was 'Life of a Bengal Lancier' with Gary Cooper which appearently was screened repeatedly at the Berghof.Plus some others ( forgotten which) but on the theme of 'the British showing the natives,the ways of this world'

[Steve]

On the 6th of June 1876 the legalization protocol of a notary in Weitra recorded Alois as the son of Georg and his name was changed in the baptismal registry from Schicklgruber to Hitler. Three witnesses and Alois at the ceremony claimed Georg had acknowledged his paternity and requested a change of name in the registry. The reason for this seems to be that Nepomuk had made a legacy dependant on Alois changing his name to Hitler. The fly in the ointment is that Georg had been dead 19 years and it seems odd his wishes took so long to be realised, also the witnesses were all family connected. Nepomuks wife had died three years earlyer which may have significance and on Nepomuks death his heirs (he had daughters) were told he had left nothing but six months later Alois bought a new house.

[Kaisertreue]

Hitler's favourite film was 'Lives of the Bengal Lancers'. He especially liked this 1935 production because it showed how a superior Aryan race (the British) could subjugate a numerically hugely superior coloured nation (the Indians) and rule over them with apparent success.

[Eva]

I thought Adolf's favorite movie was Gone With the Wind, but I could be wrong, as I don't even know what my own favorite movie is.

Actually, Gone With The Wind was Eva's favorite movie. She actually talked Hitler into allowing it to be shown in Germany on the grounds that it portrayed triumph of the spirit over hardship during wartime. Eva was so fond of the movie and its star, Clark Gable, that she kept a picture of Gable in her room. When Hitler found out about this, he immediately had it banned from German theatres and shipped the film back to MGM under the pretext of a "foreign currency shortage". (Nerin Gun)

EB

[Gwynn Compton]

Ian Kershaw's two volume work on Hitler deals with many of the myths surrounding Hitler and the Nazi party, I strongly suggest that you read it.

Gwynn

[David E M]

Thanks Gwynn, I will do that, and thanks everyone for the feed back.
cheers.