Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Hitler Likely Had Jewish and African Roots

Adolf Hitler may have had both Jewish and African roots, DNA testing shows.

Samples taken from some of the German Fuhrer’s relatives show that he was likely descended from some of the ‘sub-human’ races that he tried to destroy, according to research by Belgian journalist Jean-Paul Mulders and historian Marc Vermeeren, cited in the Flemish-language magazine Knack.

Saliva samples taken from 39 Hitler relatives have genetic fingerprints pointing to his possible African and Jewish ancestry.

“This is a surprising result,” said Ronny Decorte, a genetic specialist at the Catholic University of Leuven, interviewed by Knack. “Hitler would not have been happy.”

Hitler’s father, Alois, is believed to be the illegitimate child of a maid and a 19-year-old Jewish man.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.