The Jewish Daily Forward and JTA Publish a Discredited Anti-Jewish Conspiracy Theory
Rachel Tabachnick printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Tue Aug 24, 2010 at 06:05:54 PM EST
An article in today's Jewish Daily Forward ends with the statement, "Hitler's father, Alois, is believed to be the illegitimate child of a maid and a 19-year-old Jewish man."

This is a conspiracy theory that has been rejected by serious historians and should not be repeated as fact in any reputable journal, certainly not Jewish publications. This same conspiracy narrative is currently rampant in right wing America and is used to claim that Hitler was an heir of a demonic  bloodline of the same Jewish/Illuminati cabal which is now supposedly leading the nation into the clutches of a fascist and/or communist "New World Order."
The article in JTA was only slightly better, stating, "Some believe that Hitler's father, Alois, was the illegitimate child of a maid and a 19-year-old Jewish man." It appears this may have been simply a case of sloppy journalism picked up from the UK Telegraph or other publications running the same story, but this is a myth with serious ramifications in the world of grand conspiracy ideology.

This myth has been publish