Heinz Hitler
Hitler in uniform during the war
Birth name	Heinrich Hitler
Nickname(s)	Heinz
Born	(1920-03-14)14 March 1920 Magdeburg, Weimar Republic
Died	21 February 1942(1942-02-21) (aged 21) Butyrka Prison, Moscow, Soviet Union
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1939–1942
Rank	Unteroffizier
Battles/wars	World War II Operation Barbarossa Battle of Moscow ( POW)
Awards	Iron Cross 2nd Class
Relations	William Patrick Hitler (half-brother) Adolf Hitler (half-uncle)

Heinrich Hitler (14 March 1920 – 21 February 1942) was the son of Alois Hitler Jr. and his second wife Hedwig Heidemann whom he had married bigamously. He was the younger half-brother of William Stuart-Houston. He was also a half-nephew of Nazi Germany's leader Adolf Hitler, who reportedly called Heinz his favorite nephew.

Heinz was a strong supporter of the Nazis. He attended an elite boarding school, the National Political Institutes of Education (Napola) at Ballenstedt in Saxony-Anhalt. ^[1] When World War II began, he joined the Wehrmacht.

Aspiring to become an officer, Heinz became a signals subofficer with the 23rd Potsdamer Artillery Regiment in 1941. He was sent to serve on the Eastern Front, participating in the invasion of the Soviet Union, known as Operation Barbarossa. On 10 January 1942, he was ordered to collect radio equipment from an army post. He was captured by Soviet forces and died at the Butyrka military prison in Moscow in February 1942, at the age of 21. Adolf Hitler approved of an offer for Heinz and Yakov Dzhugashvili, the son of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, to return to their respective home countries under the supervision of the Swedish Red Cross, but Stalin, still enraged that Yakov surrendered, rejected it. ^[2]

See also

• Hitler family

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Maser, Werner (1971). Adolf Hitler: Legende, Mythos, Wirklichkeit (in German). München & Esslingen: Welsermühl, Wels. ISBN  9783762804840.
• Vermeeren, Marc (2007). De jeugd van Adolf Hitler 1889-1985 en zijn familie en voorouders (in Dutch). Soesterberg: Uitgeverij Aspekt. ISBN  978-90-5911-606-1.
• Oliver Halmburger (director), Thomas Staehler (director), Timothy Ryback (consultant), and Florian Beierl (consultant) (2005). Familie Hitler. Im Schatten des Diktators (documentary film) (in German). München: Loopfilm GmBH and Mainz: ZDF-History.