William Patrick Hitler

William Patrick Hitler (March 12, 1911–November 1987), nicknamed Willie, was the nephew of Adolf Hitler. He was the son of Alois Hitler, Jr., Adolf's half-brother. Alois had moved to Dublin, met an Irish woman, Bridget Dowling, and eloped to Liverpool where William Patrick was born in 1911. Hitler's nephew is recalled by elderly former neighbours, and in Liverpool folklore variously as 'Billy' Hitler or 'Paddy' Hitler. The family lived in a flat at 102 Upper Stanhope Street. Ironically, the house was destroyed in the last German air-raid on Liverpool on January 10, 1942, and has remained a bomb site ever since.

Alois soon abandoned the family to return to Germany leaving William Patrick to be raised by his mother.

Alois remarried, bigamously, but re-established contact in the mid-1920s writing to Bridget asking her to send William Patrick to Weimar Republic Germany to visit. She finally agreed in 1929 and William Patrick went to Germany at the age of 18 to visit his estranged father.

In 1933, William Patrick Hitler returned to Nazi Germany in an attempt to benefit from his uncle's rise to power. His uncle found him a job in a bank. Later, he worked at the Opel car factory and then as a car salesman. Unsatisfied, William Patrick persisted in asking his uncle for a better job and there were rumours that he might sell embarrassing stories about the family to the press if he wasn't satisfied.

In 1938, William Patrick was asked by his uncle Adolf to relinquish his British citizenship in exchange for a high ranking job. Fearing a trap, William Patrick panicked and fled Germany. Returning to London he wrote an article for Look magazine titled "Why I hate my uncle".

In 1939, William Patrick and his mother went to the United States on a lecture tour on the invitation of William Randolph Hearst. The Hitlers were stranded in the United States when World War II broke out. William Patrick Hitler joined the United States Navy in 1944. A coincidence resulted in a comical scene when he went to the draft office; William Patrick introduced himself to a recruiting officer who replied, "Glad to see you Hitler, my name's Hess."

William Patrick Hitler served in the US Navy and the Naval Medical Corps before being discharged in 1947. After leaving the service he changed his last name, married, moved to Long Island and had four sons. He used his medical training to establish a business analysing blood samples for hospitals.

He died in 1987 and was buried alongside his mother Bridget Dowling in a cemetery in Long Island

However, despite his public disapproval of his uncle's ideology, there are some puzzles in what is known of William Patrick Hitler's life. Not only did William Patrick give his eldest son the middle name of Adolf, but the last name William Patrick adopted was Stewart Chamberlain, similar to that of famous British anti-Semitic ideologist Houston Stewart Chamberlain.

One of his four sons, Howard, died in an automobile accident in 1989 without having had any children. The three remaining great-nephews of Adolf Hitler (Alexander Adolf, Louis and Brian) were alleged to have vowed not to have children; The youngest of the siblings stated that no such pact ever took place. He said if it had been made, it was made by the other 2 brothers without his involvement.

In October 2005, The History Channel aired a one hour documentary entitled Hitler's Family, in which William Patrick Hitler is profiled along with other relatives of Adolf Hitler.