Death of Paula Hitler, German-Austrian sister of Adolf Hitler

Death of Paula Hitler, German-Austrian sister of Adolf Hitler.

Paula Hitler, also known as Paula Wolff and Paula Hitler-Wolff, (21 January 1896 – 1 June 1960) was the younger sister of Adolf Hitler and the last child of Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl.

She was Adolf Hitler's only full sister and only full sibling who would survive to adulthood.

Paula later moved to Vienna. In the early 1920s, she was hired as a housekeeper at a dormitory for Jewish university students. 

In 1921, while she worked at the dormitory, she was visited by her brother who she said appeared as if he had "fallen from heaven".  

For the most part, she had no other contact with her brother during his struggling years as a painter in Vienna and later Munich, his military service during World War I and his early political activities. She was delighted to meet him again in Vienna during the early 1930s.

Paula used the surname "Hiedler", the original spelling of "Hitler".  By her own account, after losing a job with the Austrian State Insurance Company on 2 August 1930 when her employers found out who she was, Paula received financial support of 250 schillings a month from her brother, and lived under the assumed surname of "Wolff" at Hitler's request. "Wolf" was a childhood nickname of his which he had also used during the 1920s for security purposes.

Paula later claimed to have seen her brother about once a year during the 1930s and early 1940s. She worked as a secretary in a military field hospital for much of World War II.

On 14 April 1945, during the closing days of the war, at the age of 49, she was driven by two SS men to Berchtesgaden, Germany – the location of Hitler's summer home, the Berghof – apparently on the orders of Martin Bormann. She and her half-sister, Angela were each given 100,000 marks on Hitler's orders.

There is some evidence Paula shared her brother's strong German nationalist beliefs, but she was not politically active and never joined the Nazi Party.

Paula was arrested by US counter-intelligence officers on 26 May 1945 and interviewed on 12 July.

She characterized her childhood relationship with her brother as one of both constant bickering and strong affection. 

Paula said that she could not bring herself to believe that her brother had been responsible for the Holocaust. She had also told them that she had met Eva Braun only once. 

After her debriefing, Paula was released from American custody and returned to Vienna, where she lived on her savings for a time, then worked in an arts and crafts shop.

In February 1959, she agreed to be interviewed by Peter Morley, a British documentary producer for Associated-Rediffusion, an ITV channel. 

The conversation was the only filmed interview she ever gave and was broadcast as part of a programme called Tyranny: The Years of Adolf Hitler. She talked mostly about Hitler's childhood and refused to be drawn on political questions. 

Footage from this and a contemporary interview with Peter Morley was included in the 2005 television documentary The Hitler Family (original German title Familie Hitler. Im Schatten des Diktators), directed by Oliver Halmburger and Thomas Staehler.

Paula died on 1 June 1960 in Schönau near Berchtesgaden, at the age of 64, the last surviving member of Hitler's immediate family. 

She was buried in the Bergfriedhof in Berchtesgaden/Schönau under the name Paula Hitler. In June 2005, the wooden grave marker and remains were reportedly removed and replaced with another burial, a common practice in German cemeteries after two or more decades have elapsed. 

In May 2006, however, it was reported the grave marker had been returned to Paula's grave and a second marker had been added, indicating another more recent burial in the same spot.

Five months after her death, the Federal Court in Berchtesgaden issued a certificate of inheritance in which Paula Hitler was awarded two-thirds of Hitler's estate.

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