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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Patrick Edrich

Empty land on south Liverpool street where Hitler family lived before WWI

Adolf Hitler's half brother lived with his family in a south Liverpool flat in the years before WWI.

Alois Jr reportedly had a troubled childhood and after time in prison moved to Ireland. He met Bridget Elizabeth Dowling in 1909 at the Dublin Horse Show and soon after the pair eloped to London where they married.

Alois' 1911 census showed the then 28-year-old was living with Bridget and his son at 102 Upper Stanhope Street, Toxteth, in a three-bed flat. Alois recorded a different name on the handwritten census return, Anton, while Bridget also went under a different name - Cissie Hitler.

READ MORE: Boy went missing on way to French lesson and was never seen again

The pair's son William is also referred to on the census as 'sohn' - the German word for son. The census also reveals Alois was working as a waiter at Jewish business Lyons cafe.

One of the most debated myths in Liverpool is whether or not Adolf, the future Nazi dictator who orchestrated the Holocaust, visited Alois at his south Liverpool home. Some believe Adolf, then 23, was in Liverpool from November 1912 to May 1913 in a bid to avoid conscription into the Austrian army.

It is claimed Adolf drank in local pubs including Peter Kavanagh's and even took a job at the Adelphi hotel. These rumours largely came from information in Bridget's manuscript 'My brother in law Adolf'.

Former ECHO editor Mike Unger, who published her memoirs, previously said: "There is no public record to say that Hitler lived here, but all the circumstantial evidence would indicate that it’s absolutely true he lived in Liverpool."

But Professor Frank McDonough, who has written several books on the Third Reich, remains sceptical. He said the story was invented by Hitler’s sister-in-law to make some money when Hitler was famous throughout the world as the German dictator who plunged Europe into World War II. He said: "The fiction is much more interesting."

Alois left his wife and son to embark on a gambling tour of Europe. Unable to re-join his family due to the outbreak of WWI, he abandoned them leaving William to be brought up by his mum., who relocated to London.

William and Bridget relocated to the United States where they lectured about Hitler. They eventually settled in Long Island, New York, under the assumed name Stuart-Houston. William was drafted into the US army and was awarded the Purple Heart for his service.

The building on Upper Stanhope Street where the Hitlers lived was destroyed by German bombs in 1942 during the Liverpool blitz. The land remains undeveloped to this day.

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