I was just wondering that if you had the last name Hitler, would you change it. Whether you are actually a descendant of Adolf Hitler or just possess the same name but no relationship, would you change it?

I have seen many examples of people today still blaming the new generation for past, such as Arnold Schwarzneggers father being in the SS (I know that was also about politics). But what if you were the great nephew or neice of Adolf Hitler, since after all Hitler had a nephew in the Wehrmacht, maybe he had a son or daughter.
Heinz Hitler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


We are still held acountable for our fathers mistakes, constantly trying to better ourselves, whether on a family level or country level. We see our fathers or fore fathers and say "I will do better, I will not do those mistakes" Well if you had the name Hitler, would you make the same statements, "I will be better then my past family" Atlhough I believe it would not be possible in todays 1st world countries to be as ruthless as the Nazi goverment of ww2, you still hold the name which goes down in history as one of the most infamous.

Along those lines what if your last name was Stalin, Himmer, or perhaps another name which in the name itself carries infamy;

It is one thing to be related to a man who was part of the SS, or even part of any death squads throughout modern history, but what if they were your fathers that were the heads of these units, who actually gave the orders to kill the Jewish populace, or to reprimand a town for assisting the enemy.


What would you do?

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Just found this:

Getting to know the Hitlers

Page 1 of 3
Last Updated: 12:15AM GMT 20/01/2002
FOR more than 50 years, the relatives of Adolf Hitler have hidden under false names in Long Island, New York. They have not spoken publicly since the Second World War. In a revelatory new book to be launched this week, they break their silence. David Gardner tells their story.

The faint lilt of German folk music floated through the open window of the dark-wood alpine bungalow as I walked down the short path to the front door. The property straddled two small roads on a forested private estate nestling into one of the bays tucked behind slivers of land protecting the New York coastline from the full impact of the Atlantic Ocean.
Neither close enough to New York city to be overrun by urban sprawl nor fashionable enough to compete with the wealthy weekend getaways in the Hamptons, it was a community left largely untouched by the passing of the years.
This was the place where Liverpool-born William Patrick Hitler had chosen to escape from the world.
For more than five decades, scores of historians and academics had been searching in vain for any clues that would solve one of the untold mysteries of the Second World War: whatever happened to the English Hitler?
William Patrick was the son of Adolf Hitler's half-brother, Alois, but there was little family affection: "Uncle Adolf" referred to William Patrick as "my loathsome nephew".
Article continues
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After a difficult childhood in England, a spell in Germany before the war, and a tour of duty as a US seaman fighting with the Allies during the war, the burden of his name simply became too much. William Patrick Hitler adopted a double-barrelled surname and dropped out of sight in 1946, creating a new life for himself a world away from the horror of the Holocaust.
Now I was about to ask his widow the question she had been dreading for 50 years: "Is your real name Mrs Hitler?"
I knew William Patrick would not be answering the door. I had just been to visit his grave, a 20-minute drive away, at the closest Roman Catholic cemetery, where I was given the name and address of his widow, Phyllis.
The music stopped and a tall, elegantly-dressed woman peered from behind the screen and spoke with a distinct German accent. Even from behind the grey mesh I could tell the reason for my visit was already dawning on her. She must have envisaged this very conversation countless times over the years.
"Perhaps we will talk about it when the boys are older," she said. "We were married a long time and my husband never wanted anyone to know who he was. Now my sons don't want anything to do with it. It was all too long ago. There has been enough trouble with this name."
Despite my polite attempts to persuade her to tell me more, she was adamant she did not want to talk about her extraordinary family secret. It was only when I drove slowly away from the house that I realised the implications of what Phyllis had told me; that the Hitler line did not die out with William Patrick Hitler when he died in 1987, aged 76. It lived on through her sons.
From that first, short conversation with William Patrick's widow through subsequent dealings with her family over a period of three years for my book, The Last of the Hitlers, and a Channel 5 documentary, set to be screened on February 4, I have kept a pledge not to reveal the name adopted by the Hitler family in New York, nor the town where they live.
I was to discover that the Hitler bloodline was carried on through William Patrick's four sons - one of whom died in a road accident in 1989 - and that the brothers had decided in a remarkable pact not to have children themselves in order that Adolf Hitler's genes would die with them.
The eldest of these sons holds an even more remarkable secret; he was named after his despotic uncle. So an Adolf Hitler lives on to this day in a forgotten corner of America. Alexander Adolf Hitler understands the enduring fascination with his great-uncle but, like his mother, he doesn't want his life overturned, and possibly endangered, by revealing his true identity.
He told me: "I know that in England there is still a lot of interest in Hitler and it is on the television and in books and newspapers more often than it is here. Just make sure you say good things about my father because he was a good guy. He came to the United States, he served in the US Navy, he had four kids and he had a pretty good life."



Getting to know the Hitlers - Telegraph

__________________
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Hi Tomcat


Wel difficult to say, I remember finding a Mrs Hitler in the phone directory some time ago. It must be difficult to bear,especially if not related. If related I understand the person would change his/her name, if not related, I think I would still change the name. This would avoid a lot of hassle, pranks, jokes, insults etc.. Being innocent and having to bear the faults of your ancestors must be terrible.

ps: Arnold's name is Schwarzenegger (with an "e" not an "i")

Edit-Spelling corrected in Tomcat's post

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more here

Hitler's lost relatives found on Long Island - 'in terror of identification' - Telegraph

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How many people can actually spell his name properly, the first time? I was actually surprised I got that close.

__________________
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Yes I suppose the spelling of his name must be a nightmere for most people .

I read the articles . Did you read that one of the descendents name is Adolf and that all three have sworn not to have children in order to kill the Hilter genes after their generation?

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It sounds like a very extreme measure, perhaps, but I can see why those three sons are doing it. It can't be easy living with the surname 'Hitler', let alone having a direct family connection.

I read a chapter in a book of random facts which stated that there exists a man named Adolf Hittler (two Ts). In an interview he said that his name did cause a lot of confusion and raised several questions, but asked if he would change it, he said 'no'.

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WWII-era pen-advertisement
P-51 Mustang fighter-plane.
Parker '51' fountain pen.

No, I missed that one, do you really think that it was the Genes that made him the way he was?

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Change it back to Schicklgruber and nobody asks questions...or wants to say your name,really...

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Can I have a Tiger for Christmas please dad?



I'm still surprised at recently hearing that Hitler's sister Paula lived until the 60's.

Interesting little book on the subject:
'My Father's Keeper: Children of Nazi Leaders, An Intimate History of Damage and Denial. - Stephan Lebert'.
Slim but readable study of postwar life for leading Nazi's children, from Gudrun Himmler attempting to clear her father's name () and having a frankly miserable sounding life to Edda Goering living in relatively high style, Wolf-Rudiger Hess's struggle against being conscripted to the Bundeswehr, & Martin Boormann junior's work as a priest. Some interesting interviews in there, perhaps the strongest material from Nicklaus Frank, who utterly despises his father's memory & wrote a vitriolic book that apparently was something of a cause célèbre at the time of it's German publication.

For many of them Philip Larkin was right...
"They f**k you up, your mum & dad."

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

I grew up with a kid whose first name was Adolf, when he turned 18 he changed it right away! I remember some kids in the grade school made fun of him .

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This is a pair of Dutch resistance crystal radios, built into a small metal can, and a matchbox. The image is from a postcard bought at a Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. The matchbox is marked in Swedish, but Swedish matches were sold in Holland for many years..
Scott

I once, had a P.E. Teacher, with the last name of Goring. I don't remember anyone ever joking about his name. Perhaps we were too young to know any different?

PS, that's the days before I got interested in, "this stuff."

As a Militaria collector, i'd like to own his 1914 EK1, his WWI Black Wound Badge, and his Golden Party Badge. Do you realize how much those w/ provenance, would be worth? I'd think in the neighborhood of about $2 1/2 to 3 Million dollars.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

I caught just a small peice of a HC episode called Hitlers Family last night. It mentioned that the youngest child is over 40, so the pact they made seems to have been carried out well so far.

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"When war does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." -General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
"The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed."-Karl von Clausewitz

"My father is Hitler? Mazel Tov!"

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If my name was Hitler I'd change it to something less troublesome like Pol Pot or Osama bin Laden...