YOURS FOR ONLY $950, A RARE COPY OF LOOK MAGAZINE FROM THE 1940S. BUT WHY WOULD YOU WANT IT? BECAUSE IN IT ADOLF HITLER’S NEPHEW WROTE A PIECE ENTITLED, ‘WHY I HATE MY UNCLE.’
William Patrick Hitler did not exactly disown his infamous uncle at first, so much as try to take advantage of him.
The U.K.-born relation persuaded dictator Adolf to find jobs for him in late-1930s Germany, dined out on his connection to the Fuhrer and reportedly even attempted tried to blackmail the instigator of the Holocaust.
But by the time the son of Hitler’s half-brother had arrived in the United States in 1939, he was taking a decidedly different tack.
He published an article in Look magazine called “Why I hate my uncle,” went on a similar-themed tour sponsored by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and later served in the U.S. navy.
Now the strange, little-known tale of Hitler’s nephew has come to the fore again, as a British Columbia bookseller offers for sale a rare copy of Look containing that piece — for $950.
The article offers a unique perspective on the Third Reich and its leader, including a description of William’s visit to Berchtesgaden and Hitler’s “feminine gestures.”
“I shall never forget the last time he sent for me,” the nephew wrote in the six-page spread of photographs and text. “He was in a brutal temper when I arrived. Walking back and forth, brandishing his horsehide whip … He shouted insults at my head as if he were delivering a political oration. His vengeful brutality on that day made me fear for my physical safety.”
William Hitler, who grew up in Liverpool, left Germany for the U.S. shortly after that encounter, went on the lecture tour, then found himself stranded in the States as war broke out. He joined the navy, was wounded and started a family, changing his surname and fading into obscurity.
Jim Stachow, owner of RareNonFiction.com in Ladysmith, B.C., says the magazine was among several items he bought at a used book store in Bellingham, Wash., without even noticing the Hitler article initially.
“You just never know what you might find,” said Stachow.
Hitler’s half-brother Alois met a woman in Dublin in 1910, married her and settled in Liverpool, having William a year later. The father later abandoned the family and remarried in Germany.
William first met his uncle in 1929, watching him at a Nazi rally. Later the National Socialist leader came by his brother’s house, according to the Look article.
“We had cakes and whipped cream, Hitler’s favourite dessert,” William wrote. “I was struck by his intensity, his feminine gestures. There was dandruff on his coat.”
He later relocated to Germany and convinced his uncle to find him jobs. The nephew allegedly threatened to reveal publicly that Hitler’s grandfather was Jewish — a popular story disproven by historians — if he wasn’t treated better.
“He was a bit of an opportunist as a young man,” said David Gardner, author of the book The Last of the Hitlers.