Long suspected, now confirmed by DNA: Hitler likely had Jewish ancestry. The possibility of relatively recent African ancestry, however, is an entirely new twist. Jesse Owens, ya gotta love it!
"Hitler DNA Tests Show He Likely Had Jewish, African Roots, Daily Mail Says"
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Now, for the bizarre and ironic twist here that affects me personally: I have not had my DNA tested, but, knowing something about the results of distant male relatives who have, I'm pretty sure that Adolf and I have the same Y-DNA haplotype.
Thank God biology is not destiny!
Of course, this also begs the question as to whether I have Jewish ancestry. Maybe, but there is no hint of that in my family's oral history. Also, it seems that this haplotype, while common among Jewish males, is alsofound inother populations (such as, for example, communities indigenous to North Africa). It is also found, apparently, rather more commonly in populations of SE Europe (that would include people, such as the Slavs, for whom Hitler also had a marked distain).
Anyway, if, in terms of the DNA findings, the possibility that Hitler had Jewish ancestry is based only upon his Y-chromosome, then the DNA alone is not saying very much. However, the broader context is found in the fact that there have been suspicions and allegations, going back to the time of Hitler's rise, that he indeed was the descendant of a Jewish man. This new evidence at least does not rule that out.
My male-line ancestors on my father's side are indigenous to Great Britain. Therefore, it seems likely that we got this haplotype courtesy of some Roman soldier, originally from SE Europe or N. Africa, who was stationed in England 2,0000 years ago.
In any event, here is the Wikipedia article on the Y haplotype in question:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E1b1b
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