Hitler Was Jewish, DNA Test Reveals

DNA tests on relatives of Adolf Hitler suggest the head of Nazi Germany may have had relatives who were Jewish or from Africa, a magazine in Belgium found.

The magazine Knack said it located 39 of Hitler’s relatives living in Europe and America and obtained a saliva sample from each to test for DNA ancestry, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.

The magazine, working with historian Marc Vermeeren, said the DNA samples found a chromosome — Haplopgroup E1b1b (Y-DNA) — which is rarely found in Western Europeans.

“It is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews,” Vermeeren told Knack.

Hitler’s paternity has been the subject of rumors. His father, Alois Hitler, was an illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber and his paternity was not listed on his birth certificate, but this is the first time there has been a scientific finding concerning Hitler’s ancestry, the magazine said.