Most people – even the most horrible of people – have relatives who stress them out. Adolf Hitler had one such in his nephew, William Patrick Hitler, whom Hitler probably saw as the black sheep of the family. At some point, William Patrick tried to blackmail the Fuhrer by threatening to spill family secrets unless his uncle helped him out financially. Below are some interesting facts about Hitler’s nephew.
Hitler’s Half-Irish Nephew Tried to Blackmail Him, and Eventually Fought Him
Adolf Hitler’s half-brother, Alois Hitler, married an Irishwoman in London in 1910. A year later, the couple moved to Liverpool, where they had a son, William Patrick Hitler. Alois abandoned the family in 1914, and returned to Germany. William Patrick joined him in 1933, after Hitler became Chancellor and de facto dictator, hoping to profit from his uncle’s rise to power. He had plenty of nerve – if not prudence. When Hitler did not help him out, William Patrick threatened to release embarrassing family stories unless his “personal circumstances” improved. In other words, he tried to blackmail the Fuhrer, in Germany, at a time when the Nazis were disappearing people left and right.
Fortunately for the oblivious William Patrick, he had the luck of his Irish half. The Fuhrer did not have him killed or thrown into one of the newly opened concentration camps. Frustrated, he returned to Britain, where he wrote scathing magazine articles such as Why I Hate My Uncle. He was visiting the US when World War II broke out, and was stranded. William Patrick successfully petitioned President Roosevelt for permission to fight for the US. He enlisted in the US Navy in 1944 as a Pharmacist’s Mate, was wounded in action, and was awarded a Purple Heart as a result. He settled in New York City after his discharge in 1946.
A Quiet Life After the War
After the war, William Patrick Hitler changed his last name to Stuart-Houston, married, and moved to Patchogue, Long Island. There, he opened a medical laboratory, which analyzed blood samples for area hospitals. Settled in Long Island, William Patrick Stuart-Houston, nee Hitler, strove for anonymity. He led a quiet life in which avoided drawing attention to his family history, and passed away in 1987, survived by four sons. Three of his sons never married, and the one who did died in a car accident. They left behind no children, which gave rise to rumors of a pact to end the Hitler bloodline. However, as one of William Patrick’s sons put it, things had just turned out that way, without any deliberate design.
William Patrick’s surviving sons continued to defend their father’s reputation, both as a war hero, and as a hard working family man. In 2018, one of his surviving sons, Alexander Stuart-Houston, revealed in an interview with the German magazine Bild that one of his brothers had once been engaged to a Jewish woman. Alexander did not disclose which of his siblings he was talking about, nor did he identify the Jewish woman whom he had planned to marry. The marital plans came to naught, however, when the woman discovered the family’s dark history. Understandably, she decided against marrying into Hitler’s family.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Democrat and Chronicle, February 8th, 1946 – Hitler Kin Out of Navy
Kershaw, Ian – Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris (1999)
