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TIL that there was a man named William Patrick Hitler, a man who could have been a Nazi prince yet instead became an American veteran who helped defeat his uncle's empire.
"His uncle was Adolf Hitler. The US Navy rejected him twice. Then he wrote directly to FDR—and ended up earning a Purple Heart fighting Nazis. This is the wildest family betrayal in history."
March 6, 1944. Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York.
An induction officer sits at his desk, processing new recruits. He looks up at the next young man in line. "Name?" "Hitler." The officer smirks. "Very funny. What's your real name?" "Hitler. William Patrick Hitler." The officer's smile vanishes. He stares at the recruit. "Well then, glad to meet you, Hitler," he finally says. "My name's Hess." The coincidence was almost too perfect—Rudolf Hess was Adolf Hitler's Deputy Führer. But unlike Officer Hess, this Hitler was the real deal.
William Patrick Hitler was about to join the US Navy to fight his own uncle.
William Patrick Hitler was born March 12, 1911, in Liverpool, England—in a house that would later be destroyed by German bombs ordered, indirectly, by his uncle.
His father was Alois Hitler Jr., Adolf's half-brother. His mother was Bridget Dowling, an Irish girl who'd met Alois in Dublin when he was working as a waiter. They eloped to London, married, and moved to Liverpool.
Then Alois abandoned them. When William was 3, his father left on what he called a "gambling tour of Europe." He never came back. He moved to Germany, remarried bigamously, and started a new family.
William grew up in England with his mother, carrying the Hitler surname but disconnected from his German family. Until 1929.
At 18, William traveled to Germany to reconnect with his father. Alois took him to a Nazi rally—where William saw his uncle Adolf for the first time. Adolf Hitler was rising in German politics, and the rally was electric with nationalist fervor. William was both fascinated and disturbed.
He returned to England and wrote articles about his flamboyant uncle for British newspapers. Adolf wasn't pleased. He summoned William back to Berlin and ordered him to stop writing.
William complied. For a while. By 1932, Adolf's political star had risen dramatically. William, unemployed in Britain and struggling with his surname, saw an opportunity. He returned to Germany in 1933—right after Adolf became Chancellor—and asked his uncle for a job.
Adolf reluctantly agreed. He got William a position at the Reichsbank in Berlin.
But William wanted more. He tried working at the Opel automobile factory. Then as a car salesman. Nothing satisfied him. He kept pestering his uncle for a better position, a higher title, more money. Adolf was furious. "I didn't become Chancellor for the benefit of my family," he reportedly said. "No one is going to climb on my back." William, desperate and resentful, made a catastrophic decision: he tried to blackmail Adolf Hitler. He threatened to tell newspapers that Adolf's paternal grandfather was allegedly a Jewish merchant named Leopold Frankenberger—a rumor that would destroy Hitler's credibility with his antisemitic base.
Adolf's response was swift: "My loathsome nephew." The relationship imploded. Adolf began having William watched. In 1938, Hitler made William an offer: renounce his British citizenship, become a German citizen, and he'd give him a high-ranking job.
William suspected a trap. If he gave up British citizenship, he'd be stuck in Germany with war approaching—and an uncle who now despised him.
He fled Germany in a hurry. Back in England in 1939, William did something extraordinary: he wrote an article for Look magazine titled "Why I Hate My Uncle." In it, he warned the world about Adolf Hitler's true nature. He described the paranoia, the violence, the "sexual perverts" surrounding his uncle. He predicted catastrophe.
"I believe he has created a Frankenstein which even he perhaps cannot stop," William told The Times. "I think he has it in his power to destroy European civilization and perhaps that of the entire world."
But having the Hitler surname in England as war broke out was impossible. Nobody would hire him. Nobody wanted anything to do with him.
In January 1939, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst brought William and his mother to America for a lecture tour. William traveled the country speaking about his uncle, warning Americans about the Nazi threat. Then World War II broke out. William and his mother were stranded in the United States. William tried to join the British military. Rejected—because of his surname.
He tried to join the US military. Rejected again—because of his surname.
In 1942, desperate to fight, William did the unthinkable: he wrote directly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
"I am the nephew of Adolf Hitler," he wrote. "I want to fight against everything my uncle represents. Please allow me to enlist." Roosevelt handed the letter to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover investigated William's background thoroughly. Interviewed him. Scrutinized his loyalties. Finally, Hoover cleared him. On March 6, 1944—two years after his initial request—William Patrick Hitler officially enlisted in the United States Navy.
He became a Pharmacist's Mate (now called Hospital Corpsman)—a medic who would treat wounded sailors and Marines. He was assigned to the Pacific Theater. For three years, William served. While his uncle commanded the Wehrmacht, William treated American casualties. While Adolf waged genocide, William saved lives.
At some point during the war, William was wounded by shrapnel. The injury earned him the Purple Heart.
When the war ended in 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker. His empire collapsed.
William Patrick Hitler—the "loathsome nephew"—had survived. And he'd fought on the winning side. In 1947, William was honorably discharged from the Navy. He immediately changed his name to William Patrick Stuart-Houston, severing himself from the Hitler legacy forever.
He married Phyllis Jean-Jacques (ironically, German-born) and settled in Patchogue, Long Island, New York. He opened a blood analysis laboratory called Brookhaven Laboratories and ran it from his modest two-story clapboard house.
William and Phyllis had four sons: Alexander Adolf (born 1949), Louis, Howard Ronald, and Brian William. None of them ever had children. Some speculate the brothers made a pact to end the Hitler bloodline. Alexander later denied this, but the result was the same.
William Stuart-Houston died on July 14, 1987, at age 76, and was buried next to his mother in Coram, New York.
His story remained largely unknown for decades. His neighbors in Patchogue knew him as a quiet medical lab owner—though some noted he bore a resemblance to someone famous they couldn't quite place.
William Patrick Hitler—the man who could have been a Nazi prince—instead became an American veteran who helped defeat his uncle's empire. He chose the right side of history. And paid for it with a lifetime of hiding.
William Patrick Stuart-Houston (née Hitler) March 12, 1911 – July 14, 1987 Nephew of Adolf Hitler. US Navy Pharmacist's Mate. Purple Heart recipient. The man who rejected his uncle's evil— And fought to destroy it.
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