Was Eva Braun Jewish?

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler might have married a woman of Jewish descent, according to a DNA analysis conducted for a British documentary. The program will claim that Eva Braun, the lover that the fuhrer married shortly before they both took their own lives in 1945, was possibly of Jewish ancestry. Dead Famous DNA tested hair samples which are said to have come from a brush used by Braun and found at Hitler’s mountain retreat. The German leader was 23 years older than his lover — who fell in love with him when she was a teenager — and worried that the relationship would affect his image, he kept her largely hidden away at his Alpine residence, the Berghof. A team of scientists examined the hair — which was sourced by the program’s presenter, Mark Evans — and found a particular sequence within the DNA, which had been passed down the maternal line — the haplogroup N1b1 — which the channel said was “strongly associated” with Ashkenazi Jews, who make up around 80% of the global Jewish population. Apparently, many Ashkenazi Jews in Germany converted to Catholicism in the 19th century. Evans said: “This is a thought-provoking outcome — I never dreamt that I would find such a potentially extraordinary and profound result.” Although program makers said that the provenance of the hair was strong, the only way to prove beyond doubt that it was from Braun would have been to take a DNA swab from one of her two surviving female descendants. Both refused when approached, so there is still an element of mystery.