An extraordinary letter from the nephew of Adolf Hitler has been discovered in which he begs to be allowed to enlist in the U.S. Army to fight against his uncle’s facist regime. William Patrick Hitler fled Nazi Germany when war broke out in 1939 to come and live with relatives in New York. After being rejected from the U.S. Army because of his family connection, he wrote an emotional plea to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 on why he so strongly wanted to fight for Allied Forces.
In the letter, he wrote: ‘I am the nephew and only descendant of the ill-famed Chancellor and Leader of Germany who today so despotically seeks to enslave the free and Christian peoples of the globe. ‘More than anything else I would like to see active combat as soon as possible and thereby be accepted by my friends and comrades as one of them in this great struggle for liberty.’
The letter made its way into the hands of then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who approved Hitler for service against the Nazis. William Hitler joined the Navy in 1944 but was removed from service three years later after being wounded. William Patrick, who later changed his last name to Stuart-Houston, was the son of Adolf’s half-brother Alois and first wife Bridget Dowling. He was born in Liverpool, England on March 12, 1911.
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