25. 02. 10. - 15:00

Last Hitler relatives tracked down in Austria

A DNA test on a man in Austria has proved that he is a living relative of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

The 46-year-old farmer was horrified to learn the blood of the "greatest criminal" is in his veins.

But he is not alone. A Belgian journalist who tracked him down and persuaded him to donate mouth swabs says there are as many as 39 others living in Lower Austria’s remote Waldviertel region where he comes from.

The Waldviertel area was home to Hitler's grandparents, father and mother. Many families there still bear similar names - Hiedler, Huettler, Huettler - and it was going through these names in the phone book that Belgian journalist and researcher came upon the man related to the Führer.

Jean-Paul Mulders had previously garnered some Hitler DNA covertly taking a napkin dropped by one of three known Hitler descendants who live on Long Island, New York.

One of them, Alexander Stuart-Houston, 61, a grand-nephew of Hitler, was trailed for seven days before the dropped the piece of litter which Mulders said led him to the relation in Austria.

Austrian magazine News interviewed the man in its edition published today (Thurs). He does not say what his relationship to Adolf Hitler was but he is probably a cousin.

Norbert H., as he is identified by the weekly, is considering to run for the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) in next month’s town council election.

He said he had no reason to doubt the findings of chemist Ralf Vermeulen in his biotech laboratory in Zwjmaarde close to Gent, Belgium, where the DNA matches were made.

But he added: "I wish I had never done this. Hitler for me was the biggest criminal of all time - there is no argument about that. I did the test without really thinking and regret it now."

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• A curious American wrote on 26. 02. 2010 from

  I don't understand what is to be gained by discovering blood relatives of this man. They are generations removed and not guilty of any of his crimes. Why burden them with theis??? I sthere nothing else going on in the workld today that you could spend your efforts on?

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