Leo Raubal Jr.


Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr. was an Austrian engineer and teacher. He was the half-nephew of Adolf Hitler, and served in the German Luftwaffe during World War II.

Life

Leo Raubal Jr. was born in Linz, Austria-Hungary on 2 October 1906. He was the son of Leo Raubal Sr. and his wife Angela, Adolf's half-sister. In August 1910, when he was only 3 years old, he lost his father to tuberculosis. Raubal Jr. worked as an engineer and became a manager of the Linz Steelworks. He visited his mother sporadically while she was living in Berchtesgaden. Like his younger cousin Heinz Hitler but unlike his other younger cousin William Patrick Hitler, Leo Raubal was a "favorite nephew of the leader", and Hitler liked to spend his time with him. However, according to William, Leo did not like his uncle Adolf and blamed him for the death of his sister Geli. This cannot be confirmed, with Leo saying in 1967 that Hitler was "absolutely innocent" of Geli's death, according to historian Werner Maser.

World War II and detention in Moscow

In October 1939, he was drafted into the Luftwaffe and was a lieutenant in the engineering corps. He looked similar to Adolf Hitler and sometimes served as Hitler's double during the war.
He was injured in January 1943 during the Battle of Stalingrad, and Friedrich Paulus asked Hitler for a plane to evacuate Raubal to Germany. Hitler refused and Raubal was captured by the Soviets on 31 January 1943. Hitler gave orders to examine the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Soviets for Stalin's son Yakov Dzhugashvili, who had been captured by the Germans on 16 July 1941. Stalin refused to exchange him either for Raubal or for Friedrich Paulus, and said "war is war". Raubal was detained in Moscow's jails and was released by the Soviets on 28 September 1955, and returned to Austria.

Post-detention career

He lived and worked in Salzburg as a teacher of chemistry. He died of tuberculosis during a vacation in Spain. He was buried on 7 September 1977 in Linz. Leo Raubal Jr. had a son Peter who along with Elfriede Raubal's son, Heiner Hochegger, and William Patrick Hitler's had four sons and only three of them surviving, Alexander Adolf, Louis, Howard Ronald, and Brian William are the closest living relatives to Adolf Hitler. However, unlike Raubal, William Patrick, who fought with the United States during World War II and even changed his last name to Stuart-Houston, was not on good terms with Adolf Hitler, even publicly denouncing him by 1938. William Patrick's sons had no children and Howard Ronald was the only one to get married however he died in a car accident and the marriage did not produce any children. William Patrick's sons would also bear the last name Stuart-Houston like he did. Peter Raubal, who never married or had children, is a retired engineer who lives in Linz, Austria.