Few know much about Hitler’s half-brother, Alois, or even that he ever existed for that matter. Alois apparently resided in Liverpool since before World War I broke out. His abode was later destroyed when Nazi bombings in the area during WWII tore through the land. Prior to that, Alois and his spouse had lived in relative peace, with Hitler’s half-brother maintaining decent and steady employment. Where? At a Jewish diner.
As can be guessed from his employment, Alois was not suspected to have gotten along with Adolf all that well. This provides one possible expectation for the relative lack of public knowledge about Alois, who is referred to in a Liverpool census as “Anton.” Hitler’s half-brother also had a son, named William. Alois himself is named after his father, which is the only parent he shares with Adolf, the younger Adolf having come from a different mother. Alois, Jr., did not marry a German woman, but rather one of Irish descent named Bridget Dowling who went by Cissie.
While a Liverpool resident working at a Jewish diner sounds like a somewhat humble origin, all was not so in the Hitler household. Alois was also a bigamist, having married a second wife in Germany and eventually moving to Hamburg. His son, meanwhile, fled to the states and joined the United States naval forces. The son of Hitler’s half-brother would therefore end up opposing him in his own war, presumably not doing much to better the relationship between the two siblings.
There is at least one alleged instance of familiar support between the two, wherein Alois is suspected to have harbored Adolf so that he would not have to serve in WWI. Even this support, however, was entirely accidental. Hitler’s half-brother had intended to give money to their sister Angela, but Adolf took it and fled the German draft. Ironically, when Alois sent Adolf to join the fight, it was not long before Adolf began his inevitable transformation into the European superpower responsible for the Holocaust, the Mail Online reports.
Obviously, Hitler’s half-brother could not have known the man Adolf would become after being sent away. He did profit off of it, however, when he forged his half-sibling’s signature on photographs and sold them for a profit. Alois was one of many siblings that Adolf had growing up, but he appears to have been Adolf’s most despised family member. Whether or not the fact that Hitler’s half-brother worked for people of Jewish descent had anything to do with this is uncertain, but it seems clear that Alois and his family all shared some level of contempt for Adolf Hitler, a trait they would later share with a great portion of the world.