Hitler, Paula “Frau Wolf”.

Hitler, Paula, born 21-01-1896 in the house Rauschergut in Hafeld, region of Fischlham, was six years old when her father Alois (see parents), a retired customs official, died, and was eleven when she lost her mother Klara Pölzl

   after which the Austrian government provided a small pension to Paula and Adolf Hitler (did you know). However, the amount was relatively meager and Adolf, who was by then old enough to support himself, agreed to sign his share over to her. Paula, daughter of Johann Pölzl and Johanna Hiedler, later moved to Vienna where she worked as a secretary. Klara’s sister Theresia (1868-1935) was married to Anton Schmidt. She had the following children, who were therefore full cousins of Adolf Hitler: Johann Schmidt (1894 – Vienna, 1945), married to Aloisia.Eduard Schmidt (1901 – 05-09-1951, Verkhneuralsk)Anton Schmidt (1925 – ?) Maria Schmidt (1899 – Verkhneuralsk (Soviet Union), 06-08-1953), married to Ignaz Koppensteiner (1901 – Lefortovo Prison, Moscow, 05-07-1949). The Schmidt family was arrested by the Soviets at the end of World War II and transferred to prisons. Among others, Adolf Koppensteiner, the son of Ignaz and Maria and 6 years old at the time of the arrest, survived the war. Theresa’s descendants were rehabilitated by the Russian government in 1998.

Paula had no contact with her brother during the period comprising his difficult years as a painter in Vienna and later Munich, military service during World War I and early political activities back in Munich. She was delighted to meet him again in Vienna during the early 1920s, though she later claimed to have been privately distraught by his subsequent rising fame. By her own account, after losing a job with a Vienna insurance company in 1930 when her employers found out who she was, Paula received financial support from her brother, which continued until his suicide in 1945, lived under the assumed family name Wolf at Hitler’s (see Alois Hitler) (see William Hitler)  request, this was a childhood nickname of his which he had also used during the 1920s for security purposes and worked sporadically. She 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 hospital for much of World War II. 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. During the closing days of the war, at the age of 49, she was driven to Berchtesgaden, Germany, apparently on the orders of Martin Bormann,

  Bormann committed suicide near the Tiergarten in Berlin, age 44, on 02-05-1945, when the escape from the Reichskanzlei didn’t succeed and his remains were first found in 1972 . Paula was arrested by US intelligence officers in May 1945 and debriefed beginning later that year. A transcript shows one of the agents remarking she bore a physical resemblance to her sibling. She told them the Russians had confiscated her house in Austria, the Americans had expropriated her Vienna apartment and she was taking English lessons. She characterized her childhood relationship with Adolf as one of both constant bickering and strong affection. Paula said she could not bring herself to believe her brother had been responsible for the Holocaust. She also told them she had met Eva Braun  (Braun parents)

only once. Former partner and engaged to Paula Hitler/Wolf, but never married. Dr. Erwin Jekelius was head of the Am Steinhof Psychiatric Institution in Vienna, Psychiayrisches Krankenraus Der Stadt Wien, where Aloisia Veit,

    Hitler’s second cousin, was confined for nine years. Paula’s fiance was a willing executioner in the program of mass murder they called “euthanasia.” He sent over 4.000 patients to the gas chambers. Hitler’s sister knew about it. Yet she still wanted to marry the doctor. She asked her brother’s permission. But only Hitler would decide who was part of the family. He had Paula’s fiance arrested, and sent to the Eastern front. Erwin Jekelius was taken prisoner by the Soviets. He died in captivity on 08-05-1952, age 47. 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 1952, she moved to Berchtesgaden, reportedly living “in seclusion” in a two-room flat as Paula Wolff. During this time, she was looked after by former members of the SS and survivors of her brother’s inner circle. In February 1959, she agreed to be interviewed by Peter Morley , a documentary producer for British television station Associated-Rediffusion. The resulting 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. “His rapid rise in the world worried me. I must honestly confess that I would have preferred it if he had followed his original ambition and become an architect. It would have saved the world a lot of worries. Although he had captured the public, who believed him their protector and friend, I knew what he wanted and I was worried not only for his physical safety but also about his sanity.” “The personal fate of my brother affected me very much. He was still my brother, no matter what happened. His end brought unspeakable sorrow to me, as his sister.”

Paula died age 64, looking like an eighty years old, of heart problems, on 01-06-1960 in Berchtesgaden and she was buried in the Bergfriedhof in Berchtesgaden, Schönau under the name Paula Hitler. The grave rights were paid by a former SS member. 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, smaller, marker had been added, indicating another more recent burial in the same plot, new owners Cornelia and Hermann Reif, died 2005 and 2006

Close by the graves of Magda Schneider, Generalleutnant der Artillerie, instructed by Generalfeldmarschall, Chef Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Wilhelm Keitel

to offer Rommel a choice – take poison, receive a state funeral, and obtain immunity for his family – or face a treason trial Generalleutnant der Artillerie Ernst Maisel and Vice Admiral,  one of the final occupants of the Führerbunker during the battle of Berlin, in 1945, Hans -Erich Voss.  Voss indentified the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun, after their suicide they were carried upstairs to the garden by Martin Bormann and SS Sturmbannführer, Otto Günsche. 

On 08-08-2023 Colin Troman sent me a photo of her grave and the Reif name is still on the grave and if you can see on the name board a small padlock, apparently if this were opened Paula Hitler’s name is behind.

 

     

Paula’s name now behind a lock.

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