German newspaper Bild did something that not a lot of media outlets have tried, and it took them a long time to get what little they did from the subjects they tracked down: The last living relatives of history’s greatest monster, Adolf Hitler.
Sure, the New York Times had tried more than a decade ago and been rebuffed, along with a few other publications with more than a morbid fascination. But the brothers who have been known as the “Hillers” — a strategically modified version that none of them might accidentally mispronounce in public — have been silent since author David Gardner announced the family lineage still existed twenty years ago.
Certainly, the author of the Bild piece didn’t have much more luck at first:
A gnarly sweetgum tree stands in front of the Hitlers’ dark wooden house. There is no name sign, just a bell. A simple melody can be heard. Silence. Next door, a dog is barking.
Second attempt. Silence. Steps. The door opens slightly. A man, approximately 50 years old, pushes the fly screen aside and puts out his head. Full, dark hair, a smoothly shaven, angular face. Hitler wears shorts.
It’s Brian, the youngest son, who lives here with his brother Louis. When I, a BILD reporter, reveal myself as being a journalist from Germany, he says ‘sorry’ and immediately closes the door. Soon afterward, the lawn sprinklers are turned on — all eight of them. The sign is clear — I’m expected to leave.”
But when the journalist makes his way to the home of the eldest brother, Alexander, he changes his tactic: He asks what the man thinks of current German politics. It turns out that Alex is a fan of Angela Merkel — “I like her. She’s good. She seems to be an intelligent and smart person.” — and he even weighs in on her treatment of the refugee crisis, which has hit Germany perhaps harder than any country in the Eurozone.
And whether it was the culmination of the reporter’s intent with the interview, or just what I know my own faithful readers are here after, the Bild author finally asks Alex Hitler — who does live in America, on Long Island, after all — what he thinks of our own tiny dictator, Donald Trump:
The last person I would say I admire is Donald Trump. He is definitely not one of my favorites. Some things that Trump says, are all right. Most of them are… It’s the way he does it that annoys me. And I just don’t like liars.”
We couldn’t agree more Mr. Hitler. We don’t like Trump either.
Featured image via screen capture
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