A rchive Date
[ 22-07-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[Hitler's kin want his cash
By JOHN OAKLEY
Toronto Sun
July 22, 2000
What is it they say about the sins of the fathers being visited upon the sons? Does it necessarily follow that the atrocities of a great-uncle disqualify his heirs from making a claim to his estate? The question may soon be answered in a German court.
In a fascinating story bordering on the fantastic, Timothy Ryback, a reporter with New Yorker magazine, has tracked down the extended family and heirs of Adolf Hitler, who live in the region of Austria bordering the Czech Republic and, more incredibly, Long Island, N.Y.
These dozens of great-nieces and great-nephews from Hitler's half-brother, Alois, and half-sister, Angela, range in age from their 30s into their 50s. Without exception, each leads a guarded, secretive life which, given historical circumstances, is understandable.
What makes Ryback's revelation so dramatic is not just the shattering of the widely held view there are no living Hitler "kin," but that most of the Austrian faction anyway is fixed on the notion they are entitled to a sizeable chunk of der Fuehrer's purported estate.
After all, their argument goes, his eleventh-hour marriage to Eva Braun was recognized under German civil law and, besides, any of Hitler's publishing royalties for Mein Kampf would be restricted to that period from 1925-36, i.e., before he went really nuts!
It's a seductive argument in the sense that many families and their progeny profit from ill-gotten gains. Arguably, Edgar Bronfman would never have ascended to a position where he could press the case for compensation for millions of Nazi victims had the family patriarch, Sam Bronfman, not made his bones running illicit booze to Joe Kennedy in America during Prohibition. And old Joe, for that matter, would never have developed the wherewithal to buy the votes necessary to shlep JFK into the White House were it not for his dubious dealings.
That being said, even a staunch Nazi apologist might concede Hitler was a different cat. It's difficult to compartmentalize his case in the broader context of history.
However, in 1962, three of Hitler's then-living German relatives did in fact receive a royalty settlement for a typewritten manuscript intended by Hitler to be the sequel to Mein Kampf, called Zweites Buch, or, loosely translated, Autumn for Poland and France.
The current clan is planning to press the issue in the courts.
According to Werner Maser, administrator of the purported Hitler estate, royalties from Mein Kampf, the Nazi party schematic and anti-Semitic screed, still available in some jurisdictions today, total nearly US$20 million.
At the same time, some 30 albums of photographs taken by Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress and bunker bride, currently held in the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C., would fetch at least 200 grand on the open collectibles market.
No remorse or shame
In stating their claim - "The Jews have gotten their compensation, and now the slave labourers have gotten theirs. It is time for us to get ours" - Hitler's great-nephew, ostensibly representing the Austrian heirs, shows none of the remorse or shame felt by the American family. The upside is the great-nephew's diatribe makes DNA sampling to verify lineage wholly unnecessary.
The Austrian relatives' claim to Hitler's estate seems as dubious as it is unrepentant. For starters, the copyright to Mein Kampf has been in the possession of the Bavarian Finance Ministry since 1948, after the victorious Allies directed all assets of high-ranking Nazis to the state. The 1962 settlement of royalties for Zweites Buch was apparently predicated on a technicality made necessary by the legal fine point that Hitler's follow-up tome had never been copyrighted.
However, as far as legal technicalities go there may be a new wrinkle in the mix. With the recent US$7.1 billion compensation settlement reached between representatives of those forced to work as Nazi slave labour and the German government, representing some 300 German companies who exploited them, the deal establishes de facto closure on any further claims for indemnification against the German state.
Letting bygones be bygones possibly opens the door to the heirs of Adolf Hitler to reassert their claim to property confiscated from their great-uncle's "estate" now that those monies are no longer earmarked for wartime reparations.
At least, that promises to be the opening salvo in what seems to be a fishing expedition through the German legal system.
Of course, the monumental irony in Hitler's relatives having their day in court is found in the fact that had their great-uncle prevailed, there would in all likelihood be no such niceties or legal accommodation through which to seek redress.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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