Monday, August 23, 2010

Did Hitler have Jewish and African ancestry?

Samples taken from relatives of the Nazi leader show that he is biologically linked to the non-European races he sought to exterminate. Journalist Jean-Paul Mulders and historian Marc Vermeeren used DNA to track down 39 of the Fuhrer's relatives. They included an Austrian farmer revealed only as a cousin called Norbert H. A chromosome called Haplopgroup E1b1b (Y-DNA) in their samples is rare in Germany and indeed Western Europe. It is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18% - 20% of Ashkenazi and 8.6% - 30% of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population. Ronny Decorte, a genetic specialist, says that Hitler probably did have some roots in North Africa. It is not the first time that historians have suggested Hitler had Jewish ancestry. His father, Alois, is thought to have been the illegitimate offspring of a maid called Maria Schickelgruber and a 19-year-old Jewish man called Frankenberger. This would have made the man who inspired the Holocaust one-quarter Jewish. DNA was also taken from American Alexander Stuart-Houston, 61, a grand-nephew of Hitler. He was trailed for seven days before he dropped a used serviette which Mulders said led him to the cousin in Austria - and the link with Hitler's sworn enemies. If this research is accurate then people should stop blaming white gentiles for the Holocaust since Hitler was apparently neither white nor gentile.

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